Donna Wentworth, speaking at last night's Weblogs, Information & Society (very eloquently IMHO, contrary to her self-criticism>), said that one of the things she loves about blogging is that it allows her to apprentice at the hands of many greats. I couldn't agree more. Linking and commenting is apprenticeship. You read, learn and, most importantly, integrate the thoughts of others with your own to figure out whether you understand them. Feedback is also important and that is where trackbacks and Technorati's link cosmos come in handy. There are few enough of us bloggers that when we link to the masters, they check out our writing and let us know when we are wrong.
Knowing too that, as Dan Gilmor said at the same conference, our readers always know more than us, a master on a point or of the moment will be an apprentice on the next. Humble blogging is best.