Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

When I was a child, by far the worst verdict my parents could lower upon my head was the dreaded, “We’re very disappointed in you.” Crushing, positively crushing.

So, you’ll understand when I say: I hate disappointing people.

I bring this up because, somewhere in the past week or so, this blog passed 400 subscribers and, frankly, I expect some of you are disappointed. Like the sports guy who decided to follow this blog after my recent Superbowl-related post. Or the “community of web developers” who signed up after my latest rant against the Agile methodology. While I appreciate the vote of confidence these readers bestowed, I know that not too many of my posts are going to be in their bailiwick.

I know for a fact that 400 subscribers are not reading every post, but that’s to be expected. We are absolutely inundated with material these days–television, movies, books, magazines, articles, web-posts, blogs–much more than we can possibly ingest, and thus, choices must be made. Still, I enjoy knowing that my writing has affected 400 people strongly enough that they took the time to stop, read, evaluate, and click “Follow.”

Four hundred may not sound like a lot–a friend of mine has over 14,000 followers on Twitter. Fourteen thousand. That’s about half the population of the town where I grew up.–but 400 is a sizable number for me. I don’t market myself well (or at all). I don’t try to be controversial, and I usually eschew topics that may be overly political. As a result, 400 is a good number, as it has outpaced every other venue (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

For those of you who have read this far, I really do appreciate it. For those of you who read regularly, my humble gratitude. Every Like, Follow, and Comment you all leave here represents a positive interaction with a reader, and for them all, I thank you most sincerely. They mean a lot.

So, once again, here’s a poll for you to tell me what it is you want to read here. I’ve opened it up for you to add your own choices, should there be a specific topic you want to see me address.

Thanks again,

k