Why I Blog

It has been almost a decade since I started blogging. I have written a total of 106 blog posts during this time on a variety of topics. I guess I never really shared my motivation behind writing all these posts with anyone. So I will use this blog post as a chance to convey it.

Paying it forward

When I was in college, I was trying to learn node.js. None of my teachers or college friends had heard about it. It was so new. I was trying to build a chat app and came across a YouTube video where Ryan Dahl was giving an introduction to node (probably this video). I read a lot of random blog posts about node.js and built stuff with the help of it. The same thing happened with Angular.js or whatever new technology I was trying to learn in college.

The best way to learn was by watching conference videos and reading blog posts. I have used this formula to date. Trust me, You can learn anything this way!

I see sharing what I learn or know here as a way of paying it forward. That is the least that I can do in exchange for what I got.

Like a Journal

I used to write blog posts titled “log x = y” which used to be a weekly round-up of some things that I learned during the week. So in a way, I have used this blog as a journal of things that I learned.

I don’t always look back at my journal, but when I do I find some little things that make me smile. I moved away from this format because I want to get into writing in-depth posts on a particular topic.

Dopamine cycle

I recently heard of this advice from Andrej Karpathy while watching his keynote here: “keep the dopamine flowing”.

Be aware of your psychology, your brain, how it works, and what it needs to keep going and to keep inspired… Your brain is a reward machine and it wants rewards and you need to give it rewards.

I find it rewarding when I publish a blog post and people find it useful and talk to me about it. I have had people messaging me, emailing me, talking to me at work, and even in interviews (where I am an interviewer) about some blog post that I wrote. It is a great ice-breaker.

These blog posts are a way for me to keep the dopamine cycle going - I wish I had posted more on this blog to keep the cycle running!

Always read the comments

I heard this advice from Sam Altman a long time back: Don’t Read The Comments. It was targeted towards people building new projects and startups. I guess the opposite of that advice applies to people who are writing blog posts to share knowledge: “Always read the comments”

I have had a few instances where my posts ended up on the orange site or similar places on the internet. Often times I get to learn more from the comments than the blog post itself by reading through all the comments (an example here). Comments are a great way to get feedback and learn from others.

Free and open

I like to keep this blog free from ads. I have no intention of pay-walling anything that I write here. You are free to share and adapt anything on this website.

I had my calling after watching the Internet’s Own Boy documentary: Knowledge is so important for humanity. Access to information is what will truly empower humans in this information age.

In my case, the access to those blog posts which were free and open empowered me to learn and grow. It helped me achieve my dream of working in tech. Imagine if all those information were locked behind some paywall.

Timeless

I really really want to write blog posts that are timeless. I believe I have written a few such posts in this blog (I will leave it as a reader’s exercise to identify those posts 😅)

You can find many technical blog posts in this blog but the problem is that tech can become outdated (but I still want to write them because they serve a different purpose).

My main motivation for continuing to contribute to this blog is to capture and create timeless wisdom. I see it as a kind of wealth.

Head fake

If you haven’t watched the Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, you should stop reading this blog post and finish watching that first!

I will summarize what happens in that video: Professor Randy Pausch shared a lot of timeless wisdom in that video. He introduced me to the word “head fake” which he references in the talk.

He described as a “head fake”, for example, the phenomenon of parents encouraging their children to play football. Parents tell their children to play sports not because they really want them to become football stars, he said, but to help them develop collaboration and socializing skills

This is going to be a spoiler if you haven’t watched the video yet. Towards the end of the video, he reveals the second head fake of his talk.

Have you figured out the second head fake?

This talk is not for you. It is for my kids.

This blog is a head fake. It is for my daughter and sisters.

This is about the next-gen. What can they learn from my mistakes and experiences? That goes in this blog. As simple as that!