Why I Started This Blog
I want to dedicate the first post to the headline question. It will remind me to keep going when I have thoughts of stopping.
I do it to organize the notes I take every day. Before the blog, my process was part analog, part digital. When I come across an intriguing fact or a quote, I write it on a yellow A7 card with a unique number assigned by a small set of rules. To search quickly across hundreds of cards, I keep an inverted index on smaller white A6 cards. Together they form my analog system, the good old pen-and-paper process I call my "personal Google."I borrowed the idea from Sönke Ahrens' talk How to Take Smart Notes, which resonates with how I think about learning and creativity.
I once asked friends what they would want to learn from me. They all answered differently. The most memorable:
- The books, videos, and courses I found useful
- What my professional path was like
- Which technologies I find promising
- Tough situations, and how I deal with them
- Why I have not quit my career as a software engineer
- How I perceive the world, and why
- The trends I see in society, and what I make of them
- The roots of my beliefs
- My reading of the technology news
- The deep understanding I gain from the tools I work with
- Explanations of complex ideas for non-technical people
- Answers to "stupid" questions, which are never stupid, and always send me off to learn something new
I think it is a good list to start with.