> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://justinowings.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # But for - URL: https://justinowings.com/but-for/ - Published: 2008-07-01T20:25:18.000Z - Updated: 2008-07-01T20:25:18.000Z - Author: Justin Owings - Tags: articles Brad\* created a personal webpage sometime back in 1996\. That spurred my brother and me to create our own website on AOL — [The Owings Brothers Page](http://web.archive.org/web/20010818053137/http://members.aol.com/ntowings/) (*archived*). This site had grown stagnant some two years later so I created the first embodiment of [The Justin Owings Page](http://web.archive.org/web/20010517013409/http://members.aol.com/justinman/) (*archived*), which chronicled 4th period lunch, published bad pictures of friends, made fun of teachers, and archived ostensibly humorous IM conversations. A few short years later, a senior in college, I was tasked to create a website for an IT class. I went a little over the top for the assignment and created a new and improved (?) [Justin Owings Page](http://web.archive.org/web/20050206045204/www.arches.uga.edu/~jnowings/) (*archived*). Highlights of this endeavor mostly revolve around [Mr. Mister](http://web.archive.org/web/20050324000409/www.arches.uga.edu/~jnowings/mrmister.htm), the yam — not the band. One of the last and likely most enjoyable, educational classes I took in college was [Law and Economics](http://www.terry.uga.edu/~mustard/courses/e4450/?ref=justinowings.com) by Professor David Mustard. The only "textbook" for this class was [David D. Friedman's Law's Order](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FLaws-Order-What-Economics-Matters%2Fdp%2F0691090092&tag=autodogmatic-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325&ref=justinowings.com), a fascinating read about how law has been evolved through economics. In fall 2004, springing from discussions on the subject with [Shannon](http://farleft.blogspot.com/2004/10/about-us.html?ref=justinowings.com) mixed with the prodding of my older brother, I created [Contraddiction](http://contraddiction.blogspot.com/2004/10/my-brother-told-me-so.html?ref=justinowings.com). Contraddiction was doomed from the start as I had no steady internet access, relying on the sporadically available, unencrypted wifi clouds emanating from neighboring apartments. Regardless, I enjoyed blogging and it left me wanting more. In mid-2005 we secured steady internet access. In January 2006 I began reexamining (at a high level) going back to school, specifically to secure a Ph.D. in either Accountancy or Economics. I emailed Professor Mustard who graciously responded — but I quickly determined that a Ph.D. was not for me. Yet I was reminded of how much I enjoyed that college class on economics and law. Some googling resulted in the discovery that David Friedman had started a blog, [Ideas](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/?ref=justinowings.com). I became a regular reader. DDF wrote a post on [Gangs](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/01/why-do-gangs-specialize-in-crime.html?ref=justinowings.com) and I was spurred to [to comment](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/01/why-do-gangs-specialize-in-crime.html?ref=justinowings.com#c113699081926653339). Another commenter on the same post was a fellow named [Aaron](http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2006/01/why-do-gangs-specialize-in-crime.html?ref=justinowings.com#c113699677482043402) who, as I realized upon *randomly following the link associated with his name*, also lived in Atlanta, working at Emory. From Aaron's homepage, I also found Aaron's Furl, which I subscribed to via RSS in Gmail. The insights and discussion at Friedman's blog inspired me to take another stab at a website, one replete with a full-fledged blog. Around my 25th birthday (February), I created [autoDogmatic](https://web.archive.org/web/20061105115213/http://www.autodogmatic.com/index.php/a/2006/02/08/a%5Fnew%5Fstart). I invited three friends to co-blog on aD, but mostly, I was the only one blogging regularly. Six months in and all the while reading Aaron's Furl, I stumbled upon an article written by Aaron about [the Federal Reserve's reserve requirements](https://web.archive.org/web/20201024231434/https://www.itulip.com/forums/forum/features/guest-commentary/373-what-really-happened-in-1995-aaron-krowne?t=292). An interesting read (if you're into that kinda thing), there was one link in the article that was broken. I searched around for the correct link and emailed it to Aaron, mentioning to him that I had been subscribing to his Furl for the past few months. We got to pinging emails back and forth and realized we had a good bit in common. We decided to meet up for a beer and a discussion. We were both probably shocked at having met another anarcho-capitalist within Atlanta. And as Aaron wasn't blogging anywhere at the time, I invited him to join forces on autoDogmatic. He accepted. Aaron blogged mostly on economics and I stuck mostly to politics, but our overarching theme intersected significantly — we were both staunchly anti-government, anti-Federal Reserve and, most importantly, pro-freedom. A few months passed and around the end of December 2006, Aaron emailed me a link to a pretty basic webpage he had created titled, "[The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter](http://ml-implode.com/?ref=justinowings.com)", which he was going to use to track as mortgage lenders went bust (Old news these days, I know!). I created a logo for it and helped him out a bit on design. Within weeks, MLI had out-trafficked autoDogmatic. By March it was being featured on CNBC. The Implode-O-Meter's success meant that it required a lot of Aaron's attention, and he was still working full-time at his "day job". I was helping out when I could. Aaron knew I was tired of my day-job and asked me to join forces and take MLI to the next level. With a bit of prodding from Aaron and a nervous, but supportive spouse, I took up the offer in May 2007\. This ultimately led to the formation of our own company, [Implode-Explode Heavy Industries](http://implode-explode.com/?ref=justinowings.com), in July, which owns all the Implode-O-Meters as well as a few other sites. I rediscovered all sorts of new freedoms having left corporate America. Most notably, I suddenly felt free to blog using my real name. Within a few months, I picked up justinowings.com and established this site. That just about brings things to the present. Just a couple days back, my friend David, who just himself left the traditional j-o-b, started his own blog. And it was his first post that got me thinking on how I got here to the blogosphere owning my own web-media business utterly clueless as to what will come next . But for the aforementioned events — many of which were small things, entirely unworthy of note — I would not be here writing this post. De Vany's [stochasticity of life](http://www.justinowings.com/the-stochasticity-of-life?ref=justinowings.com) is in this pseudo-randomness. Life is fluid, complex, and frequently molded in big ways by things unnoticed at first, and poorly understood later, if ever. The only lesson I can glean from it all is to follow my whims, no matter how fanciful or silly they are because those whims apparently add up. Life is fantastic that way. \*To bring it full circle, it seems that some twelve years later, [Brad](http://bradallgood.com/?ref=justinowings.com) is blogging these days, too.