Why I Read Business Blogs – Some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, I’ve never met. A story of modern mentoring.

This morning, before I even got out of bed, a venture capitalist made me laugh.

My habit these days is to make a cup of Lapsang souchong before sunrise, then curl up with my laptop to read e-mail and peruse the collection of business-related weblogs I follow on a regular basis. Today the first I clicked on was VentureBlog, where David Hornik, a partner in August Capital, had posted an anecdote about an entrepreneur in search of funding who actually clipped his fingernails during the pitch meeting.

When I tell people that I read blogs, they usually say something vaguely condescending to the effect that "it must be nice to have so much free time." Most people think of blogs as public diaries kept by the kinds of egotists who make loud, inappropriate political comments at family barbecues or hog the discussion at book clubs, or wannabe journalists who post inflammatory stories with no fact-checking. And among the 20 million blogs that have been created to date, there certainly are plenty of those, and some are even good.

The truth is that I recently quit my day job to start a company of my own and have absolutely no free time. The business blogs I read aren’t written by, or for, fools. Reading them is something I consider part–granted, an entertaining part–of my "job."

By: Hillary Johnson

Full Story: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050801/blogs.html