In the near future I would like to take all the good stats and stories from the Bryson book and put them up on here for future reference, each one could be the basis of an article, almost.
Also I'd like to think a little more about time-trials, banging out a column in a set timeframe. I'm semi-pleased with the piece I just wrote on cell-spam, but never sent it out because I wasn't happy with the tone, or on my expertise (didn't have time or inclination to study spam laws and FCC rulings). Still, it took too long to write, and the product isn't pretty to read.
It's an open question about careers, skills, trades -- how much can you do, and how fast? The rest of my medical education is essentially devoted to treating patients more effeciently, without missing stuff (I could SOAP a few patients a day at this point with close to 100% success, and the goal is to get up to 30 patients a day with the same rate).
I could write a column or two a month, and they would probably be very good but take several days a piece to prepare. But Lileks can churn out 3 a week, plus a very readable blog. As for DJing, no doubt I could do what they do on WXRV, or even the more polished, soulless WBMX. But it would probably take all kinds of crazy preparation just for one show, just like my best wedding gigs were the ones where I pre-searched for the music.
Jump over to David Brown, a polymath if there ever was one. He built a pro-quality bed, but it took him ages. He could fix a car, but it would probably take longer and cost as much or more.
What I'm getting at is that expertise is not so much doing something well, but doing it quickly and frequently. With medicine, the school and the state are throwing all kinds of resources at me to make me proficient. Will I get the same break with writing? Must talk to John Lock.