Why a blog?

Writing as a way of learning

Starting university, I found myself overwhelmed with the amount of reading material. I never learnt how to learn in elementary school and still thought I could read the books cover to cover. Failing my first assignment, I was a bit confused — how was I supposed to read and absorb all that information, in such a short time? That’s when I started looking for better ways to learn and structure my thinking. I found Obsidian, and Zettlekasten. Firstly, it made note-taking and writing fun again. Secondly, it made it easier to make use of what I learned. The community surrounding Obsidian talks much about learning in public and how writing could be a process (of growing your own digital garden). I liked the idea of not having to write a 100% polished blog post. Instead, writing serves as a catalyst for thinking and sparking new ideas.

Writing and learning in public

For me, writing with the intent to publish is a way to take meaningful notes, and it makes sure that I write in a readable way. Also, who isn’t impressed by projects like Josh Branchauds TIL (Today I learned) on GitHub where he saves daily write-ups of things he learned that day?

Blogging to preserve the spirit of the old Web

In a conversation with a friend some time ago, we discussed how we first got into programming and simple web development. We both remembered that we used to tinker with HTML and Javascript on Lunarstorm and websites like that. Sometimes, I miss the old web, where everyone had their own space. We didn’t just browse a feed filled with ads and recommended content like we do now. Our spaces were quirky and broken, but they were our own. I miss that.

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