Building this site is in some ways much simpler and in some ways much more complex than I expected. First of all, I’ve discovered the beauty of plug-ins and have a particular place in my heart for ones that allow more customizable page design. With those, I feel like they are really helping me to realize my particular vision for the site with much less compromise than I would otherwise have to make. I’ve drafted a few different layouts, but have also realized that it will help a lot to have the site populated with posts so I can see how to place different post sections and categories.
Researching for posts has both reaffirmed my reason for starting this site and has inspired new content categories. I realized how difficult a lot of journal articles can be to follow, but more than that there are so many buzzwords that we throw around that for most people are ill-defined. When trying to compile something on the repeal of the individual mandate, I realized how much I don’t know about the US health insurance systems. I also realized how hard it can be to follow an article talking about Medicare, Medicaid, and the different public versus private provision options therein. Trying to keep track of which policies and properties are related to or can be ascribed to which insurance form can be difficult. While there is plenty of time, and plenty of need, for analytical posts, I’m also creating a new category that focuses on simple, clear definitions and explanations of how our systems work.
In terms of site personality, I’m working to keep a lot of my humor in the pieces. The luxury of a blog of my own is that I get to set the tone and that I don’t feel it has to have the same gravitas as an academic or even journalistic publication. I want the pieces to be fun to read. I’ve been playing with the more static about and introductory pages to get that voice down before I start translating it into more content driven posts. The most polished of those pages is one titled “Bark versus Bite” that covers the reasons I’ve heard people don’t study or follow economics and tries to mitigate those concerns.
