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Thursday, December 7, 2006 12:00 AM

I love journalism but I hate asking uncomfortable questions

Have I chosen the right field? Or am I too shy?

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  • Thursday, December 7, 2006 01:57 PM

    The value of being nosy

    what motivates you? Is it something like what I describe, playing out some personal psychodrama? Or more like the responder's sense of civic duty and service to readers?

    Neither one. I got into it because I like to learn things and tell stories about what I learn to people who are interested--even if what I'm learning about is how a 64-bit OS differs from a 32-bit one.

    Being incurably curious and liking to share what you learn seems to me to be one of the more lasting drivers for doing journalism. I still use that curiosity, even though I'm now only a journalist part-time. I don't think that playing out personal psychodrama would be as sustainable as curiousity, and civic duty would be only mildly better.

    Is there anything out there (dogs, cars, computers, fish, politics, whatever) that YOU would like to know more about? That, I think, is what will hook you.

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