From philosohpy to freelance writing, plus rambling

Hi everyone,

I've been using this forum for awhile now simply because I think that for what areas it is concerned with--and that's about every known thing possibly relevant to the world of the Internet--it has the best information and the most sincere community (this, in spite of its size)

In any event, I wanted to introduce myself. I'm a 22 year old male currently attending graduate school in Boston, MA. Right now my areas of interest are cognitive psychology and (in particular) the linguistic relativity thesis--basically looking at to what extent thought (non-linguistic thought/unconscious mental activity) is influenced by linguistic effects (i.e. semantics, lexical effects, syntax)

Over the last summer I began to become really invested in the Internet. More notably, in freelance writing online and on web usability and internet marketing. I began my own blog--concerned mostly with the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who famously held the position that the meaning of an expression can be likened to how it is used in a particular language game. To my surprise, readership has increased markedly over the past couple of months--coming mostly from graduate students in philosophy programs that I had, ironically, been rejected to. So far my blog is off to a great start, with page visits increasing anywhere from 20-80% approx. over a given week or so.

Other relevant information about me: I'm at a bit of a crossroads now in terms of where I see myself headed. My masters programs is just a year long, and I really can't see myself as a cognitive scientist. I enjoy writing but am fairly stubborn about the manner in which content is expressed. I want to write online as a content producer/freelance writer, and philosophy has given me a great set of tools for that: wide area of expertise, analytic skills up the wazoo, and logical progression with proper argumentation.

That said, there's a terrible trend of web content needing to be so simple, so factual and "how-to"-like, that at some points I wonder if its the proper environment for someone who just can't seem to get out of academic mode. I've been told several times in a few of my freelance writing stints that I take the project very seriously and don't really have to: "the focus is on SEO, not that you sound like you really care about what you're saying". I poo-poo on that.

Anyway, I figured this was the best way to introduce myself. There is nothing more indicative of a person's character than the manner in which he or she rambles about loosely connected notions. ;-) That's not a quote!

Great site, and I'm going to try to post more here because I've got a lot of questions and you have a lot of answers. Thanks so much for this community effort.

 

Welcome dprice218!

Contribute and learn

 

Welcome and enjoy!

 

Wow...that's quite an intro. I must admit I have too little time to read it in its entirety, but welcome!!!

 

Hi and welcome. I think I can identify a little with where you're coming from. Being into EFT, and NLP as well as hypnotherapy, I'm focusing my attention on the gut-brain syndrome as the causal root of digestive disorders.

However, I can switch from academia to layman's terms rather easily. Good luck

 

omg....huge ass intro....anyways welcome but u aint new >_>

 

welcome to DP enjoy !

 

Hey sorry taking awhile to respond to my own thread, but thanks for the warm welcome and yeah---unnecessarily long intro but maybe it gave you all an authentic sense about me--at least compared to something like: "hai, 22 yr old male, here!"