New Posting Schedule

Greetings all--

I am writing to inform you that the posting schedule will temporarily change from daily to every other day.  The pressures of the interviewing season, school, and student organizations have cut significantly into my free time.  Daily posting will resume as soon as I have the time to produce the high-quality content you have come to enjoy. 

Have a wonderful week!

Joe

How To Support Joe's Musings By Purchasing Items Off Amazon.com

Here at Joe’s Musings, I do my best to offer you a variety of fresh, unique content.  One reader recently told me, “I don’t need the newspaper anymore.  I have Joe’s Musings to keep me informed.”  Believe me, it was the best compliment I have ever received in over a year of blogging.  With over 220 articles on business, philosophy, college advice, leadership, religion, and international affairs, my goal is to ensure you are informed and inspired. 

The vision I have for Joe’s Musings transcends just a casual, personal blog.  I want Joe’s Musings to be as common as your morning cup of coffee.  In addition to asking your loved ones, “How was your day?”, I’d be honored if families discussed the latest content on Joe’s Musings at their dinner table.  The only way to nurture and develop this vision is through you and your fellow readers.             

Because every article here is free, the funds needed to make Joe’s Musings profitable and sustainable must come from other sources.  Let me say, I have no intention of asking you for flat donations.  However, there are ways you can financially support Joe’s Musings that will not cost you a dime.  Sounds improbable, right?  With the advent of e-commerce (buying and selling products or services over the Internet), companies actively search for customers.  Through marketing practices, a business rewards affiliates for each customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.

Enter Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer.  If you have made purchases through Amazon, you can testify to its reliability and trustworthiness.  Every shipped item will find its way to your doorstop one way or another.  Here is where you can help!  I am an Amazon.com affiliate, and every Amazon purchase you make through a link on Joe’s Musings generates earnings that can be reinvested.   

If you prefer step by step directions as I do, this might make more sense:

• Go to Joe’s Musings (you are already here if you are reading this)


• Click on any www.amazon.com link (there are two on the right side of this page)


• Purchase products you would have bought anyways  


• Feel good about supporting an up and coming blog    

On behalf of everyone who makes Joe’s Musings possible, I want to extend a thank you for your continued support.  Your generosity helps make our vision a reality.

Joe's Musings Frequently Asked Questions

How do I become a guest blogger on Joe’s Musings?

You can send me an e-mail with your writings to joesmusings@gmail.com.  I promise to review every guest blog that is submitted, and chances are your post will be published.

How can I receive new posts through my e-mail?

If you would like to receive your daily fix of thought-provoking, humorous articles from Joe’s Musings via e-mail, then subscribe here.  

Will you write something for me?

I would be happy to write and/or edit blog posts, newsletter articles, or anything else you might have in mind.  All I ask is that you e-mail me at least two weeks in advance so I can work your request into my schedule.  

How can I contact you?

You can send me an email at joesmusings@gmail.com.  I promise to respond within a reasonable length of time.  

Can you explain why you have links to Amazon in your blog posts and on the right side of your page?

Certainly.  In addition to publishing content on Joe's Musings, I also generate revenue from Amazon.com for marketing their products.  If you click through any link to Amazon.com on this site, and then make a purchase within 24 hours, I receive a sales commission.  If you make all your Amazon purchases through my blog, you will play your notable part in minimizing expenses for a college student, and it won't cost you a dime.  You will be purchasing your favorite items anyway, correct?  So why not generously support Joe's Musings in the process?  

Do you do speaking engagements?

Although I would cherish the opportunity to speak at your events, my geographic location does not permit me to travel long distances to deliver presentations.  However, if you are located near the Kansas City Metro area, then you should feel free to submit a speaker request to me via e-mail.  I am currently working on a podcast experiment--more details will come when I make some progress.  

What Is A Renaissance Man?

As some of you astute readers have probably noticed, I included the term “Renaissance Man” in the URL of this blog.  I did this for a reason, but I am not sure I have ever clearly explained my thoughts behind this decision.  I believe we live in an era of uber-specialization, a time when a individual can be an expert in one part of the digestive system, but have no idea what happens in international affairs.  

I strongly disagree with hyper-specialization, but I also recognize our competitive world in one in which you must know alot about a little to be successful.  University degrees effectively narrow a student’s area of expertise.  Even more disheartening, promising young athletes are encouraged to “go Pro” instead of going to college.  Sadly, the notion of a well-rounded Renaissance Man (or Woman) is becoming a thing of the past.

A Renaissance man or woman is a person skilled in many disciplines.  They may speak several languages and have a passion for philosophy, science, and religious teachings.  Typically, a Renaissance individual dedicates time and effort to physical activity in addition to intellectual pursuits.  Aristotle defines it much more eloquently than myself:

“Every systematic science, the humblest and the noblest alike, seems to admit of two distinct kinds of proficiency; one of which may be properly called scientific knowledge of the subject, while the other is a kind of educational acquaintance with it. For an educated man should be able to form a fair off-hand judgment as to the goodness or badness of the method used by a professor in his exposition. To be educated is in fact to be able to do this; and even the man of universal education we deem to be such in virtue of his having this ability. It will, however, of course, be understood that we only ascribe universal education to one who in his own individual person is thus critical in all or nearly all branches of knowledge, and not to one who has a like ability merely in some special subject. For it is possible for a man to have this competence in some one branch of knowledge without having it in all.”

Scientific knowledge is the knowledge possessed by a specialist in a particular field.  This type of knowledge is more detailed than “educational acquaintance”, which is what an individual has if s/he has been educated in the subject.  

On Joe’s Musings, I have made a sincere effort to write in detail about a wide variety of topics.  If you divert your attention to the right side of this page, you can see the labels I have applied to individual posts.  I work hard to deliver fact and opinion on a range of issues that interest me.  That brings me to my main point- why being a Renaissance individual is important.  Because knowledge in every field has proliferated extensively since the Renaissance era, it is impossible to be an expert in everything.  Nevertheless, you can still master one field, and be competent in many other areas.    

There have been several ideal Renaissance men in the annals of history, but the one that really distinguished himself from the pack was Leonardo da Vinci.  Born in Italy, da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, writer, botanist, and cartographer.  Today, the best example of a modern day Renaissance Man is none other than Henry Rollins.  Originally hailing from Washington D.C., Rollins was the lead singer of the seminal hardcore punk bank Black Flag in the 1980s.  Since then, he has never stopped expanding his horizons.  Henry is a writer, publisher, radio DJ, actor, TV show host, activist, narrator, and speaker.  

I never liked the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none” because it ignores the possibility of getting really good at a discipline or skill without being an expert.  Renaissance men and women are not generally not the world’s foremost experts on topics, but they are more proficient and competent than 99% of the general population in a given subject.  At some point, a person who seeking a broad knowledge base will take their studies up to the point of diminishing returns.

Learning about a wide spectrum of things not only improves your understanding of the world, it also makes you a more confident, assertive individual.  The specialist is generally constrained to one subject while the generalist can build empathy and appreciate more endeavors.  In addition, the Renaissance man receives more of what life has to offer. 

The true human being should be too complex to categorize.  Don’t limit your human experience by specializing in one field at the expense of other pursuits.  Be a Renaissance individual.    

Thoughts on the Future of Joe's Musings

I'm glad to announce that Joe's Musings has been up and running for almost two months.  Changing my publisher from Facebook to Blogger has been a learning experience to say the least.  I've learned about HTML code, traffic statistics, design, monetization, and templates.  These might all be jargon terms to you, and I would agree that most of these buzzwords are just that- terminology unique to the blogosphere.

However, when I think about the future of this site, the visitors have positioned themselves as a priority.  Ideally, I want to create a place where internet users can come for advice, insight, and knowledge on a consistent basis.  I have a vision of Joe's Musings as being a a website that can positively influence lives.  I want to inform other people, spark lively discussions, provoke thought, and provide my own thoughts on a variety of subjects.

In addition to this broad mission statement, I want to measure my performance with specifics.  Here's a list of my goals for the next year.

1. Accrue 15,000 pageviews
2. Average a comment per post
3. Publish an e-book containing my best posts
4. Publish a post every single day
5. Increase revenue by 50% from AdSense, Amazon, and Indeed Job Publishers

As always, I am open to the idea of feedback given it is respectful and insightful.  My hope is to create a blog that you will follow and enjoy, and the best way to accomplish that objective is to hear from you.

Explanation of Advertisements

It has recently come to my attention that some people believe the advertisements on this blog are a scam.  Quite honestly, I might think the same thing had I not hand selected the advertisements myself.  I wanted to dispel any myths surrounding the advertisements.  I made the choice to opt-in to an online marketing company called AdSense, which is an affiliate of Google that displays ads on websites.  I have no control over the content of the ads, but every company must go through a rigorous screening process to be selected by Google.  In essence, every time you click on an ad, I earn some revenue to keep Joe’s Musings up and running.

I would never knowingly put any link on my blog that could potentially be harmful to you which is why I carefully selected my ad programs.  If you’d like to help me out in this endeavor, please click on a few ads.  After you click, the webpage of the advertiser will come up on your screen, and at this point, you can exit out of the page or explore a bit more.  If you’d just like to enjoy the content of my site without clicking on the ads, then feel free to do so.  I will not be angry, upset, or disappointed.       

About The Author

Welcome!  I'm glad you are curious about who writes all of the posts on Joe's Musings.  As you might expect, my name is Joe.  I'm the author and administrator of Joe's Musings, and all the posts here were written by me, unless noted otherwise.

I'm a 19 year old college student double majoring in accounting and finance with a minor in philosophy at the University of Kansas.  I have an affinity for learning new things, and I hope my blog posts will be thought-provoking and inspiring.

I promise that everything here is my own view, but I don't want to restrict myself to one subject, so you can expect thoughts on a wide range of topics covering philosophy, politics, current events, business, technology, lifestyle, and more.

In many ways, I am just like you.  I too am trying to make sense out of life.  In fact, if you saw me on the street, you probably wouldn't think twice about it.  I'm not famous nor do I claim any expertise or high degree in the subject matter which I write about.  I confess, I am just a curious young man searching for answers to life's big questions as well as ways to make life a more manageable and enjoyable experience.

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The First Post

Hello everyone.

After about half a year of posting Facebook notes everyday, I've decided to pair an actual blog with said notes.  I've done a little bit of research and learned that I can actually get paid for blogging, so I figured it was a decent idea.

I will be writing on a variety of topics- philosophy, business, personal finance, science, politics, and more.  I will attempt to post every day, but this might not be possible when my course load and extra activities are taken into consideration.

I'm glad to be here and please comment!

:)