After many years of thinking that I should keep a blog, I’ve finally bitten the bullet and done it. And any time you make a big change that you’ve avoided for a while, it’s a good practice to reflect on why you’re making the change now, and what you hope to get out of it. So, hello to anyone from the future who came across the blog and wanted to know how and why it all started!
More likely though, chances are that if you’re reading this, you’ve already met me in one way or another — so thank you for being a part of my life (something that I’m always thinking about but don’t say out loud often enough), and also thinking that I’m interesting enough to warrant your attention. (Either that or you were clicking on random Facebook links idly out of habit — that works too.)
The proximate reason why I’m starting this blog (and the answer to why now) is because I am planning on going on a multi-month bikepacking trip around the world starting in late September. (I’ll write about why I’m doing that in a later post.) And given that it’ll probably be a unique experience, I wanted other people to be able to vicariously experience my own lived experiences and learn with me, whether for enrichment or entertainment. For myself, I’ve always regretted not having kept a journal of how I felt travelling in different countries and the weird, strange thoughts prompted by context switches, so I’m hoping to fix that with this blog. (And honestly, what else am I going to be doing each night after the sun sets?)
The distal reason is threefold:
- (Admittedly low but still nonzero) Intellectual value of highlighting odd connections and my perspectives: One of the biggest joys in life for me has always been finding out all the ways in how seemingly disparate concepts are related, and recognising a weak connection and strengthening it. If you’ve ever spoken to me in person, you know how I like to jump from topic to topic seemingly at random; in my head, though, there’s usually a coherent path leading from one topic to the next. I thought there might be value in highlighting some of these, as well as some perspectives that I think might be original to me.
- Forcing myself to process: A big weakness of mine is that I never sit down and actually process — I get distracted way too easily by new information and never end up really digesting anything I learn. Even though I have been making up by talking to other people, there’s only so much lateral processing you can do through infodumping on an unsuspecting conversation partner who had no idea that they were going to learn about Holy Roman Empire’s electorates (Hanover is an important one, by the way). Plus, talking to other people is enough to get the buds (especially the ones that you might not have gotten by yourself) to form, but actually nourishing them to maturity is something you have to do on your own. Having to write interesting long form posts will force me to actually process, and more importantly, synthesise.
- Signalling and recording: I have some doubts about how effective this will be (mostly because of readership), but one of the people that I value and admire the most in the universe, Alex K. Chen, recommended that I do this to find interesting people. I suppose it stands to reason that whomever finds what I write interesting will probably find me interesting and have some common ground, though, and a blog has the added value of being a coherent narrative of who you are that I can point to when I meet new people, especially online. There are so many times when I meet someone new and just want to cry because I wish I’d met the person sooner — so, I’m writing the present so that the people in my future can see into the past and meet the me from before they knew me. Also, this should be an excellent way for the people I run into while travelling who might want to keep in touch or keep track of me to do so. (On a darker note of realism, there is a significant risk that I might either die or suffer some sort of damage while bikepacking — this should be helpful for when people want to remember me but can’t talk to me.)
So yeah — I have no doubt that some of what I end up writing will inevitably end up being short incoherent posts that are closer to glorified tweets or Wikipedia summaries, but I hope to at least have the occasional insightful post with my brand of stream-of-consciousness mixed in. Some of the posts will be me just being open in ways I wish I could be in person but can’t, some will be journals of the strange things that happened that day, and some will be cool thoughts I’m excited to share. At least once I start being on the road and my creative side kicks in, the journal part should write itself; it’s amazing what context change and spontaneity can do for thinking.
One last thing: my biggest insecurity (at least in the last few years) has been feeling like I was fundamentally unlikable and uninteresting to other people (my own self-perception and huge ego aside). I’m not sure if this blog will make me less or more likable / interesting, but either way it should help me confront that insecurity.
Oh, and finally, if by chance you’re reading this because you’re from the future, please feel free to reach out to future me — I’m far from being everyone’s cup of tea, but I’d love to learn you, from you, and with you! (For as long as you’ll suffer me, anyway.)
Dodam
Beyond Categorization 