How might I characterize my posts on this site, compared to the entries in my notebooks and journals, or the linked notes in my “Zettelkasten”? How are they different from each other, both in my reasons for creating them and in their contents?
I write often, usually for brief stretches that result in relatively short artifacts of one sort or another, but even a single instance of writing can have multiple functions. For example, I could be documenting plans, using writing as a thinking partner, or trying to find a way to express something I have only a vague sense of.
I don’t usually start writing first, leaving until later to decide where the artifact should go. A post on this site generally starts as a draft post, and a new slip in the Zettelkasten generally starts as a draft note there. Notes in a notebook and entries in a journal usually start and remain in those respective books.
The posts here are one way I practice sharing. With ideas, formulations, and even questions being generally provisional, evolving over time, it can feel right to share these honest ephemera.
In refreshing a website design, artificial intelligence tools can both save and cost many hours of effort. The savings come from the AI’s outstanding coding and troubleshooting abilities.
The costs come from always wanting to try one more thing. It’s easy to get drawn into a pair programming effort.
Photo: srboisvert
“Should” is a word I’m not too fond of. It’s not always a bad word, but in contexts such as “I should really keep trying to make this dead-end job work,” it’s a counterproductive guilt word.
Don’t weasel around with “should.” Make a decision. Act. (Or evaluate and decide not to act.)
Some people find it very easy to blog, and many do not. Personally, I find the questions of audience and purpose the most challenging.
“Why do I want to write about X in a public way?” is a question that outlasts any particular answer I give it. I ask myself that question frequently.
Sometimes, I come up with an answer that prods me forward into posting. Other times, I discover that my initial inclination to post really doesn’t have a compelling, true-ringing reason, and I do something else instead of posting. Still other times, my response to the question is simply, “why not?” and I go ahead and post.
In his blog, Michael Bloch has a post that might help you decide whether or not to start your own blog. His point? The act of starting a blog brings with it an implied promise to your blog’s readers: if someone takes the time to come read your blog, if they open themselves to a dependence on my blog (however mild), then you owe it to them not to leave them in the lurch.
Starting a blog is great. Not starting a blog is fine, too. Starting a blog and then petering out with your posting after people have become readers of your blog is something to try to avoid.