A friend asked me why I am more active with blog posts recently and It’s only fitting to reply with blog post( found it funny too).
The thing is, since my undergrad years, I am used to take notes on everything. Lecture notes, project notes, problem sets notes. Probably all engineering students do.
I was introduced to the concept of a README(it has a wiki and everyhthing) back in 2011 and I was hooked. So, I have been writing 100’s of README on every technical projects i was involved in.
When it comes to blogging, I started doing that in 2019 as a way to organize my README folder. And i was interested in python so i started using (and reading) a static generator called (Pelican)[https://blog.getpelican.com/]. I liked using reStructuredText Then Markdown to write README.md and generate HTML organized documents. It definitely looked better than a dry README text files.
Anyway, This is my attempt to write reasons why i blog:
Exercise of free will Humor me for just a second. I am not paid for it and never will get paid for. nobody asks for it. nobody expects me to do it. I only do it because I want to. I choose when and what to write. In a world where we have to do a lot of things because we have to, IMHO it is a personal victory to find such a thing. Hope that made sense.
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop Well, I will just say it. I always kept myself busy with something. Although, I worked long hours over the years(60-70 hours a week), I did get some occasional free time, and this seemed like a good way to use up that time. I did try to learn few hobbies that i like (guitar, martial arts) but nothing really worked out.
Giving back Over the years, I have been reading blog posts written by people from all over the world and I learnt a lot from these blog posts. So, This is my way of giving back to the internet. Well, I can’t claim my blog is any good but I think maybe someone in 10 years googles something and my blog post shows up, and it’s actually useful for them. Not likely but who knows!
Good old fashioned curiosity I was lucky to have interesting career that I love. But whatever you do, there is a limit on what a job teaches you. If you want to learn something, you have to go the extra mile and learn it on your own. Basically, Reading what other people created and writing about it is my way to indulge my curiosity.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk..