First Step : Reasons

Why am I writing a blog?

"This is certainly the most important thing I'll ever say in my blogs: YOU should write blogs. Even if nobody reads them, you should write them. It's become pretty clear to me that blogging is a source of both innovation and clarity. I have many of my best ideas and insights while blogging. Struggling to express things that you're thinking or feeling helps you understand them better.

Blogging is also weird because, as it happens, the best things to write about are things you already know, or have just figured out for yourself. You'd be amazed at how many things you take for granted as "common knowledge" are actually brand new to other smart people. There's simply too much to know in this world, and we're all continually learning. (I hope)."

- Steve Yegge, You Should Write Blogs

That is about the learning and helping part of writing stuff.

Another side-effect, hopefully, would be that by making my (vainglorious and grandiose) goals public, I'd think twice about backing out of the venture and would stay on track longer than I otherwise would. Social pressure can be a force for good in this case, I think.


What is the Blog about?

Technically, it isn't a blog (weblog) in the first place. I've never had much patience with people writing about their cats or what happened on this day or that day (unless they're talking about some obviously momentous events). This whole concept of day-specific, cat-picture-filled journalling repels me.

I've always liked blogs that are actually Essay collections in disguise. Steve Yegge's blog (one of my favourite) is a prime example. His Blog Rants are more of thoughts on programming practices for higher productivity (and related topics) than day-to-day occurrences. Same goes for Tim Ferriss, who speaks about productivity in general. Paul Graham, who is a great inspiration, names his Essay collections as such, so there is no confusion there.

So, I'm gonna write about stuff like Rationality / Critical Thinking, various sociological topics (I've only recently come to discover the beauty of the Social Sciences), Economics, Philosophy (the practical type - abstract theory never did much good, IMHO) and this broad, vague thing called "Self-Improvement".

Oh yeah, and maybe a thing or two about Programming and Emacs!

This is as good a place as any for a disclaimer : I know next to nothing about the above topics. All posts are assumed to be exploratory learning attempts unless specified otherwise.

The desired outcome from the Blog?

Like the tagline of the Blog says, this (writing a blog) is another experiment in trying to live a better, more fulfilling and exciting life. I've always found that writing (about) stuff forces me to reconsider my position on various issues, makes me understand better what I already know, and teaches me newer things along the way.

I'll consider this experiment a success if I can publish a (meaningful and significant) blog post every week. That way, I'll be forced to regularly pull out various pertinent topics I come across in life and try to explain what is really worthwhile and important about them and, most importantly, how others can benefit from them.

Like Steve Yegge cautions, nobody will read my blog anyway, so that's a relief. No pressure. :)

Anyway, here's to many more blog posts in the future.