A blog? In this economy?

For quite a while I've had some ideas for things I wanted to write about, but I didn't have a forum where I wanted to share them. Substack is popular, but I have some ethical concerns with them.¹ Also, the things I want to write about don't really fit into a particular category - some are about software engineering, some about service operations, some about organizations. So considering one of my primary motivations is getting a job, a lot of my thoughts aren't really relevant to put on LinkedIn (and besides, I don't want to feel locked into their platform).

A little while back I was hanging out with my friend Regina and she mentioned that she's been writing a blog since the early aughts (reginachicana.com). I started to read it and it's really good! She talks about all sorts of things, writes well, and has interesting thoughts. It reminded me that I used to read a number of blogs regularly and I wondered why I got out of the habit. It also made me think I should actually start putting my thoughts down and putting them out there, not because I think I can write as well as Regina or that my thoughts are as interesting (I can guarantee they're not). But because it made me realize I don't have to stick to a specific theme², that old-school blogs still exist, and that you don't have to have a massive following to enlighten or inspire others.

Remember when every other web page had an under construction banner? Pepperidge Farm Remembers. Anyway, I was listening to an interview with Maggie Appleton on The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast and she talked about a digital garden. "It's a blog where every piece you put up does not have to be finished as long as you clearly signal to the audience it's not . . . you can put a piece up that is half done and then update it later." ³ I'm going to try this approach and hope that I'll find it liberating. I don't think I'm a perfectionist, but it should make it easier to get started if I don't have to feel like things are finished in order to publish them. And perhaps having some half-baked ideas out there in public will be the prod I need to get them finished. ;-)

Status key:
💡 idea/stub (might just be a word or a few bullets)
📝 in-progress/draft (may change quite a bit)
📕 done (probably won't change)
📜 maybe outdated (might be wrong or not representative of my current thinking)