This is interesting. At the BloggerCon dinner last week I chose the Journalism group, partly because Steve, who I carpooled with was in that group. I think I was the only one who was not a journalist in any way - all had "broken" stories whether in the Christian Science Monitor or on their own blog.
Someone asked me (I will edit this and fill in his name when I find it) anger is what compelled a lot of them to write, what compelled me to write? Anger....no not anger. Ffffrusstration? Maybe? Or....desperation? Desperate to understand something? Get a basic background on some current event story (like Arafat), or working out a programming problem or wawa wawa wa wa. I drifted off in a trail of incohesive word soup.
So today I see: "I sometimes think that a poet is really a frustrated engineer. Or is it, an engineer is a frustrated poet?" Huh.
Update: this may explain the fascination with linguistics and the latest source of progressive hope, the Frank Luntz of the left, George Lakoff [via Rebecca Blood]. (I wonder if Phil's working with the Rockridge Institute yet). More about Lakoff below, which should really be a separate post.