Why did I choose to start writing here?

I’ve spent so much of my life just thinking about things. Alongside whatever mundane task I’m doing, I’ll wind up pontificating about some philosophical edge case or reflecting on a life experience or whatever other nonsense. For years, this arrangement between myself and my always-running stream-of-consciousness was perfectly satisfactory, but lately a few things have changed.

For one, I don’t feel like I have sufficiently many creative pursuits in my life. Indeed, I’ve always considered “thinking” and “intellectualizing” as the closest I ever got to true creativity, seeing as they allowed me to engineer absurd hypotheticals and develop unique lines of argumentation. In my life, this concern with creative output has occupied increasingly more space in my head. Being able to take an activity I already love (thinking) and render it creatively into the written word is, I think, the opportunity I’ve been looking for. It’s a way to bolster my creativity in a way that feels organic to me—in a way that slots meaningfully into my life and the kind of things I already like to spend my time on.

Perhaps equally important is the consideration that I want to think harder, and I want to think better. I was recently convinced by a friend to try journaling for this very reason; in his words, “we can only think three or four good sentences at a time, which is why it’s important to offload some of that work onto the page”. I’m hoping I can use this blog as an outlet to explore different ideas I’ve been thinking about. Ideally, the things I write here help further clarify those ideas, and help flesh them out in a way that can’t be done solely by thinking about them.

What will this blog be?

Honestly, I’m just concerned with writing, and with putting myself out there. I want this space to achieve the goals I outlined above; having it be public is just an attempt to hold myself accountable, and to have a little fun. I don’t know that the posts will be particularly good, nor do I know that they will be particularly frequent; I simply know that, after years of stifled output due to fear and perfectionism, its better to write literally anything at all. I also don’t anticipate many people (or any people) will read these posts. If you’re a stranger, it’s nice to meet you. If you’re an old friend/acquaintance who just stalked me, I’d love to hear from you! Shoot me a text or an email please :)

I’m also not positive on what exactly I’ll be writing about. I have a lot of different ideas in my head, many of which I don’t expect will manifest as a post. If you know me personally, you can probably expect me to write about the kinds of things I never shut up about in real life. I’d love to talk a little philosophy and ethics, particularly subfields that I’m passionate about (e.g. animal ethics). I’m hoping to do a few deep dives into artwork I enjoy, most probably films. You can probably expect some sort of technical writing at some point, likely about a technical project I’ve just spent some time on. And, of course, I’ll be doing a little reflection on recent experiences I’ve had. Posts may vary drastically in length; that is something I’m perfectly content with.

I do have a post in the works, and I hope I can get it out soon enough, though I’m not going to pressure myself to do so. I’ll probably also be revamping other parts of this site soon enough, so you may see other changes here in the future.

If you read all of the above and are still with me, thank you! I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope you may similarly enjoy reading one of my other posts in the future!