I’m six weeks into making this website, and I’ve been thinking about why I’m doing it. Here are the reasons. I numbered them so it's easier to read 🥹.
1. “Writing is a technology for thinking.”
This is the main reason, I’d say. When I was deciding which projects to prioritize this year, I initially thought of making a blog as just another project alongside the others.
I came to see it differently, though. Writing isn’t just another project. It’s thinking, basically. Writing clarifies my ideas, forces me to articulate them, and ultimately improves the other things I work on.
2. To See What Patterns Emerge
More than refining individual ideas or projects, writing over time can help reveal the patterns holding them together. Those connections are harder to see when ideas aren’t all laid out next to each other.
I’ve been doing this for six weeks now, and I’ve already spotted two major patterns I hadn’t noticed before. They’re so obvious to me now that I’m surprised I didn’t see them before. One of them is the closest thing to an Artist’s Statement I’ve ever been able to put together. I’ll try to write that out here sometime soon.
3. To Connect with the Right People
I don’t know if there’s a colored flag for people like me yet, but I’m an Unconventional Person. I don’t meet a ton of people I really click with, and when I do, it’s usually over some niche interest—gadgets, crafts, fragrances. My website can be a line I keep in the water, for opportunities to meet likeminded people with shared quirks.
If you think that might be you, by the way, you’re welcome to write me.
4. Dating?
A subcategory of “the right people” are potential romantic interests. I think two things can be true at the same time about online dating today:
The internet has a lot of potential for connecting people.
Current dating apps, in my experience, are a bad execution of that potential.
I’ve gone on enough surface-level online dates to know that a handful of pictures and blurbs are not the right format for showcasing the parts of myself I’d actually want to connect with someone over. It’s possible a website could be. I can share a more three-dimensional view of who I am, how I think, and what I like to get up to here.
Maybe I stay on the apps, and the website is a useful “pre-read”—letting people know in advance that I’m an Unconventional Person.
5. To Break From Perfectionism
A medium-to-large-scale problem I have is that I’ve held back from sharing a lot of projects because they didn’t feel “ready” or “good.” It’s especially pronounced because I have no trouble with—and am even really enthusiastic about—both making things and documenting them—with photography, writing, etc. But when I go to hit “publish,” I start spiraling. Out of nowhere, the whole thing feels wrong.
This website is where I can practice breaking through that feeling.
It’s already getting way easier, by the way. I think this post is mediocre and I don’t even care somehow.
6. To Feel Better
I almost always feel better after I’ve written something.
I think it has to do with order and control. It’s the same type of relief I get from solving a mechanical problem—taking something vague or amorphous and making it defined. Writing forces me to name my thoughts, put them in order, and make sense of them.
Considering how portable my laptop is, writing has been a handy tool for improving my mood by at least 10% whenever I might need or want to. That’s cool.
7. To Improve Real-Time Conversation
Lately I’ve noticed that my inner voice is sharper than my outer voice. There’s an impedance mismatch between my brain and my mouth. I seem to have clear enough opinions, wit, and something to say—but when I go to express them in conversation, they don’t always come out the way I intend. There’s a whole blog in itself about how I believe that came to be. In the meantime, I think writing can help close that gap.
8. To Put Things Out On My Own Terms
Social media is too fast and impersonal these days. A website can be my own island on the internet. It’s better for controlling the timing, presentation, and depth of what I want to share about myself. I can always use social media to point to it.
9. A Place For Documentation
I love documentation. I think it’s a craft in itself—photography, circuit diagrams, mechanical drawings, writing. I’m already enthusiastic about memorializing projects and ideas. Some posts on this site might be as simple as a place to put those things.
10. To See Where It Might Go
I don’t know where this is going, really. I don’t have a specific goal in my mind. But putting things out in the world tends to create unexpected opportunities. I’m curious to see what happens. And even with a small audience, a lot of these reasons for doing it still stand.