Thinking Alike

I started blogging in August of last year. I did it for a couple of reasons. I had been reading a few blogs and liked the idea of having a place to talk about what I thought of things that were in the news, things that I learned, things I needed to learn, and a place to vent when necessary. As I've mentioned before I quickly learned that there are other advantages: New Friends, Learning from others, interaction with vendors, opportunities to participate in the security community that extends beyond my company and life. Things such as getting an opportunity to review a pre-release copy of The Pragmatic CSO, participate in the Stillsecureafteralltheseyears year end podcast, the Symantec Advisory Council, becoming a member of the TCC and a few things that are in the works.

A few of days ago I was thinking about all of this and it hit me that one of the biggest advantages is that I'm being mentored in a round about way. I interact with people that come from other disciplines of security and learn from them. I get feed back on my blog posts that help me put my thoughts into perspective. I get to talk via IM to other security pros about lots of different things relating to security and technology. I've got a community of probably 50 people that I didn't know this time last year that I could call on for advice or help. Some of them I haven't even interacted with beyond a comment on their blog or them commenting on my blog. Yet I know that they would be willing to lend a helping hand if necessary.

That is also what Cutaway has come to realize with a little help from Richard Bejtlich and Mike Rothman. He feels the need for more mentoring in the security community and has come to realize that he has a built in mentoring community via his blog and the relationships that have come out of it. This is quiet possibly the best benefit derived from blogging. I hope that I gain much from this but I also hope that I give much. I want this to be a mutually benefiting relationship for myself and those I interact with.