Writing yesterday's post showed me one of the powerful side-benefits of Blog Riffing: it creates an archive of ideas to help you remember what you've learned.

As you read blogs and other sources of ideas, do you write down the thoughts they inspire? If so, maybe you don't need Blog Riffing -- at least not for this purpose.

But if you regularly get ideas, think about them for a few minutes or a day or whatever, maybe apply them a little here and there, and then forget about them, the Blog Riffing is a great way to kill two birds with one stone:

First, obviously, you're creating content for your blog.

But also, as you Riff on other blogs, you create a lasting record of the ideas you're discovering.

For yesterday's post, I didn't actually refer back to a Blog Riff. Instead, I was looking back to my book review of Made to Stick.

But it's basically the same thing -- a concise record of what I learned from, or ideas that became more concrete in response to something I'd read.

Actually, it's three birds with one stone: learn, create, record.

If you haven't tried Blog Riffing yet, I hope this helps you catch a clearer vision of just how powerful a method it is.