I’ve always wondered why airport bookstores always seem to have a larger-than-normal display section devoted to self help books and guides to becoming a better business-human. Do people flying on planes have a greater need for affirmation or for tips on impressing their boss and climbing the corporate ladder?

And then it occurred to me last night as I flew home to New Jersey from Texas — at 35,000 feet, anything seems possible. When your gravity-assisted tether to terra firma is temporarily snapped, it really does seem like you have the power to change your personal or professional life for the better, and all you have to do is put that simple five-step plan into action!

I’m sure there are countless thousands of us who’ve stepped off an airplane full of ideas and plans to finally make a change for the better, and to start right away. But then of course the mundane reality of daily life slaps us full in the face, and all those books and plans get discarded like so much overpriced garbage from the SkyMall catalog.

Well all this is to say that I did a little thinking and scheming myself, and there are some changes I’m going to make that will actually stick. No, nothing truly important like organizing my schedule more effectively or learning how to wow the boss during my next presentation. It’s about what you’re reading (or not reading) right now — this site.

Running this site isn’t really much fun for me, and hasn’t been for some time. I’ve approached it as something more akin to a part-time job or, worse yet, an obligation. I’ve strayed from my original vision from six or so years ago (back when this was just another Blogger destination under the nom de guerre of Attack of the 15.24 Meter Blog) to just write about whatever I wanted, no matter how arcane or trivial.

Worse yet, I became a slave to my statistics. At some point along the way I got a few tastes of minor “success” (in terms of visitors) and started to develop a craving for it. And so I stopped writing for myself first, and started writing in the hopes of attracting traffic. And when that traffic didn’t materialize, the ridiculous validation I guess I was seeking never happened. That ends now.

What does this mean for you, Loyal Reader? Well in the short-term, not a great deal. Except that for right now, perhaps fewer updates. If I don’t feel compelled to write about something, I simply won’t. So weekly features may not run weekly anymore, or I may kill them entirely.

Eventually this place will get a major facelift, and the blog will become but a section of a larger internet concern. I will devote more of my energy to larger, more static sections detailing my more ridiculous obsessions (if you have no clue what I’m talking about, picture something along the lines of lileks.com).

The blog will in turn be more devoted to crap I just want to talk about (I gotta lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it!), whether that be current events, old stuff, or my life in general. Don’t worry, I promise not to bore you with tales of my work commute or of suffering witless cashiers at Panera Bread. I said in the beginning of my blogging career that I wouldn’t do that, and I will hold that promise.

All this is going to take time, but I believe that in the end The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit will be a more fun and interesting place for everyone. So if you’ve slogged all the way through this post, I do want to thank you for supporting my efforts in the past and I hope you’ll keep coming back. But if not, that’s OK, I have this totally awesome Voice Activated R2-D2 on the way that will keep me company.