Why the Internet Desperately Needed *Another* Blog — and I Finally Caved

So yeah, I'm starting a blog.

A blog about what?

Anything that goes on my mind! I'm an obsession-driven person and I tend to get carried away into long periods of research about all kinds of (sometimes inconsequential) topics. I've decided to start documenting my thoughts or "findings" during these periods. Software development, computers and "informatics" is my trade, so obviously there's going to be a lot of that, but I may as well go into a tirade about African swallows, if that piques my interest.

But why?

That's a good question. Why would anyone willingly expose their stupidity on the internet for all to see and laugh? Well, I've tried to gather a few reasons:

• Sorting my thoughts: In the last years I've discovered I'm too prone to right-brain thinking. I may have very strongly held beliefs about what I like or how I want stuff, but I find it hard to give them structure and reasoning. This is definitely a weakness¹ in a field that's as driven by logic and consistency as mine, so I think that forcing me to write everything down can help me exercise that skill.
• Finding closure: As I said, I go on long periods of obsession about topics, and I usually just leave them abruptly after I run out of time, necessity, or get distracted by sumething else. This can be upsetting since I'm not able to close my research in a sensible manner that would allow me to start new ventures with a clear mind. My initial plan is to post on topics as a closing act when I'm about to switch to a different one.
• Streamlining research: My obsessive, whimsical way of researching topics may even get childish at times, and prevent me from getting a deep understanding of many of the topics I dive in. I hope that forcing myself to structure my thoughts into words may help me to make more informed observations.
• Improving my writing: I realized that I'm unable to express myself without long lists of bullet points or "pros vs cons" juxtapositions. For this blog I'll try to expand my repertoire into more sophisticated forms. Also, I like to learn languages so maybe I'll have a go at writing my own translations to practice.
• Enforcing excellence by subjecting myself to public humiliation: I'm pretty sure I'll say a lot of dumb stuff here. My expectation is that the embarrassment I get out of the exposition as a fraud can force me to be more informed about the topics I talk about.

But can't you do this in private without disturbing others?

I wish! I swear I've tried. In the past, I've tried some note-taking methods such as Zettelkasten. I loved them, but they feel like they emphasize the opposite of what I want from a blog.

The zettelkasten approach allows you to easily take any kind of note on any kind of topic. Since anything can be connected to anything, you can focus on the substance and relationships of your notes. You have so much flexibility in organization, that it even loses importance².

On a blog, however, you have to follow the same rules as for any rigid, sequential document: you must choose what content belongs together, what order is the best, which style better follows through it... I'd say this exposes a classic difference between "left vs right" brain thinking and each one optimizes for a different kind of mind.

On updates and corrections

I don't intend to make posts in a "fire-and-forget" manner. I want to keep them cohesive and half-decent in the long term, so I'll come back to review and update as I find necessary. Since I want posts to be deep and informational on various topics, it would be awkward to keep old posts full of mistakes or typos.

I don't want to be seen as if retconning my stupidity either, so I may add a section on updates and corrections, unless errors are too embarassing.

Conclusion (what's next?)

I wish I could write some eloquent, deeply researched post on some complex, multifaceted topic that's currently in vogue... but at the end, I'm barely in control of my own whims and obsessions, so maybe the next topic is about African swallows, after all.

Updates to this post

• 2025-10-31: I fixed a few complex sentences, and added a section on corrections.