Writing to learn

Writing forces you to meticulously examine your own thoughts and beliefs. The swirling, incorporeal thoughts that bounce off the walls of your brain are wrangled, stretched, and pushed through your fingers onto the page. It’s a terribly stressful, frustrating, and comical process. Even in writing this simple post I’ve found myself googling certain phrases I use semi-regularly (e.g. “force multiplier”) to ensure that I understand the meaning exactly correct. (It turns out I was using it slightly wrong, which is why you don’t see that phrase here at all.)

But this stress is healthy. It’s an exercise in organization. You look inward. You grab onto a part of your mind, study it, and place it in a box. You find a similar thought and place it in the same box. You find that what you believed was a chunk of supporting reasoning for that thought is actually unrelated, so you either discard it or find a different box to put it in, a bit further away. It’s a lot of work just to write a few paragraphs. And for topics that you aren’t knowledgeable on, you first have to amass that room of wild thoughts by reading books.

That’s why I’m starting this site now. To engage with my own disorganized brain, and to learn more about topics that I have interest in but have lacking knowledge. Topics will be broad, but likely surround personal growth, cooking, books, writing itself, software engineering, and interesting stories found along the way.

Writing is famously an isolating venture. By crafting small posts and sharing them publicly, I hope to engage with you on these topics, and to make the learning a bit more enjoyable.

And secretly? I’m sharpening my web development skills. I’ve never spent time building even a simple WordPress site (which is what this is). I envision a future where I’m able to lend a hand to friends and family by supporting the online presences of their businesses. I want to work towards that.

I look forward to learning with y’all.