No, I’m not 100 years old. This blog marks my 100th personal repository on GitHub. An arbitrary milestone that bears no real significance other than as testament to my endless tinkering, insatiable curiosity and belief that making things is perhaps the best way to really understand something.
In all that time, why haven’t I blogged about it?
Those sleepless nights my brain won’t switch off, exploring the twisting avenues on some project. The occasions I’m frantically scribbling away, working through the minutiae of an esoteric problem. Or the intense lucidity and feelings of purpose that arise from programming for hours at a time.
It saddens me how much of this is lost to my own fleshy forgetfulness. A failure to document and share outwardly what’s going on between my ears. Sure, I’ve written some extraordinarily long READMEs, but I’m kidding myself if anyone will discover and engage with material of that formality.
Well change is happening. Our climate is dying and no longer will I allow apathy to deter me from writing. I will not convince myself I cannot write or that it’s unimportant to me. The resistance is strong but I will work through the drudgery to improve my writing ability so I can share what I’m doing.
Why? Because the opportunity costs are too high.
There are so many brilliant, clever and inspiring people in this world and here I am, working mostly in isolation on things I genuinely think would be captivating and interesting to a number of people. In return, I’d be grateful for their wisdom, insight and opportunities to collaborate in crafting something broader in scope than I can alone.
More than that, I believe in the Internet’s ability to bring people together with similar interests. Forging communities that transcend geography and time. Communities that simply couldn’t exist otherwise. I want to play a part in that. I think I’d benefit from crawling out from under my rock once in a while.
So here I am, muddy and regretful yet optimistic about the future.
I have a multitude of stories to tell, old and new about things I’ve built and the many curiosities electrifying my brain. Most projects serve no purpose other than as acts of creativity or to build a deeper understanding of some topic. Usually circling the theme of computer science. Here are some examples:
This is really just the tip of the iceberg. There’s plenty of substance beyond the shiny demos and visual delights. What’s more, I have a keen interest in the act of programming itself. Writing aesthetically pleasing code. Playing with various paradigms and architectures. Not that I claim to know what on earth I’m doing.
A world of uncertainty awaits. I have innumerable questions and nonsensical ideas to pursue. There are hard puzzles and enigmatic problems lurking out of sight, conspiring to shut me down and chuckle at my foolish endeavour. I cannot wait to meet you.