What's this for?

To start, this blog is for me. I want a record of my projects and learnings over time. I write to think, put ideas into words, and to figure out what I really know and don’t know. I want to get better at explaining and discussing technical topics.

This blog might also be for you. My imagined audience is me from 6 months prior. As some background, I started programming a few years ago, and I’m going to write about things that have been interesting or confusing to me, like how a CRDT algorithm decides where to insert a character, or how WebSockets work. If that sounds interesting to you, check back soon.

I’m aiming for quantity and consistency. I’m not going to wait for visits from the muse. Criticizing my own work comes naturally to me; producing and sharing my work with others doesn’t. I’ve been thinking of starting this blog for more than a year now, but only managed to publish my first post last month. To improve at a skill, I think that rapid iteration is more helpful than aiming for some naive idea of perfection. If I focus on quality above all, I’ll never produce, and be slow to improve.

I’m not trying to be novel. Trying to explain my own view of an established concept will only help my understanding. I also find value in reading the same thing being explained or discussed from multiple points of view. I don’t mind rehashing old ideas. If me from 6 months ago would have found something I wrote interesting or helpful, I consider that a success. If I focus on originality above all, I’ll never produce.

I’m not going to be completely correct. I’m actually counting on being wrong sometimes, and hope to be corrected. If you have feedback or want to discuss something, please email me at benmuthalaly@gmail.com. If I focus on perfect accuracy, I’ll never produce.

I’m trying to consume less and create more.

This is a place to practice in public. Over time, I want my posts to be of higher quality, more interesting, and more accurate. Check back in a few years to see how I did!

See also: Julia Evans – Blogging myths