Why I Keep a Research Blog • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#21

Post by raju » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

kingsara wrote: post #6

Great article and very concise. I've found myself and my writing "addiction" represented. There are many concepts I couldn't grasps until I tried to put them to paper. On a different note: does anyone happen to know if that's a standard Wordpress theme? I've been looking to find a simple theme and this (or something similarly minimalist and text-focused) would be perfect for my needs.

> On a different note: does anyone happen to know if that's a standard Wordpress theme?

Not sure if it was this comment that prompted it, but I was looking for the same and noticed he pushed an empty repo about an hour ago on Github — https://github.com/gwgundersen/blog-theme

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#22

Post by raamdev » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

kingsara wrote: post #6

Great article and very concise. I've found myself and my writing "addiction" represented. There are many concepts I couldn't grasps until I tried to put them to paper. On a different note: does anyone happen to know if that's a standard Wordpress theme? I've been looking to find a simple theme and this (or something similarly minimalist and text-focused) would be perfect for my needs.

I built a WordPress theme called Independent Publisher that’s intended to focus on the writing and get out of the way of the reader. I was reminded of it while reading this blog, so it may be of interest to you. It’s open-source and maintained by the community on GitHub—suggestions and feedback are always welcome: https://independentpublisher.me/

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#23

Post by mbeex » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

I have been looking for a blogging environment for this kind of topics for some time. So, my question to the author:

What kind of software / tools /styles are behind this blog in the technical sense? I see mathjax, probably some static site generator(?), what else are you using?

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#24

Post by eb3c90 » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 4:54 PM UTC

I've not found it super useful myself.

Maybe I was trying to use it for the wrong things?

It seems like a good way of creating better understanding for yourself, a less good way of building a community. That seems to be best done off-line.

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#25

Post by tombert » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 5:00 PM UTC

Due to some frustrating policies of the company I work for, I was told that I can't blog about anything technical, without the risk of being fired and possibly even sued due to some ridiculous non-compete that I really shouldn't have signed.

I still write the posts, they just live on a hard drive in my basement, because there's still value in writing. I just wish I could give back to the community and/or benefit from people auditing what I'm doing wrong.

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#26

Post by awinter-py » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

getting feedback from people smarter than me is another reason to publish

hearing 'you're wrong' publicly from a world-class expert on my topic is the fastest way to advance my knowledge on a topic -- it's basically free college

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#27

Post by loceng » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 5:40 PM UTC

agentultra wrote: post #13

"Writing is Nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is" [0] Writing is my primary tool. I keep a blog... and journals. I keep a journal for my reading: what I've read, what I thought about it, choice things I'd like to recall. I keep a journal of my mathematical reading, thoughts, and work. Programming too! Keeping your writing in a blog and sharing it with others puts a bit of pressure on you to keep a…

Re: "Writing is Nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is"

This is why I dislike the down voting capability on sites. There's an impulse the person dislikes what they read or from how they interpreted it, and then they are able to quell that feeling with a single action vs. having to put the effort into thinking and articulating into words what they're feeling, why they are feeling it, and allow it to be publicly scrutinized - hopefully with respectful responses. This allows not only scrutiny and discourse to occur, however it also offers an opportunity for OP to potentially learn something - whether that their language wasn't articulated clearly enough and so interpreted how they didn't expect or other.

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#28

Post by djhworld » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

Really enjoyed reading this, thanks.

While I'm no way near mathematically capable (yet) of understanding the jargon the author uses later on in the post (e.g. "randomized singular value decomposition"), I'm glad he puts links to at least show he's not bluffing.

One quote that stood out to me was this one

> I appreciate that most of my writing is me, like an ant, simply following someone else’s trail.

I think you could apply that to most things in programming/computer science too

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#29

Post by aliceryhl » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 6:39 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #25

Due to some frustrating policies of the company I work for, I was told that I can't blog about anything technical, without the risk of being fired and possibly even sued due to some ridiculous non-compete that I really shouldn't have signed. I still write the posts, they just live on a hard drive in my basement, because there's still value in writing. I just wish I could give back to the community and/or benefit from…

You should probably quit.

Re: Why I Keep a Research Blog

#30

Post by rytill » Mon, Jan 13, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #27

agentultra wrote: post #13

"Writing is Nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is" [0] Writing is my primary tool. I keep a blog... and journals. I keep a journal for my reading: what I've read, what I thought about it, choice things I'd like to recall. I keep a journal of my mathematical reading, thoughts, and work. Programming too! Keeping your writing in a blog and sharing it with others puts a bit of pressure on you to keep a…

Re: "Writing is Nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is" This is why I dislike the down voting capability on sites. There's an impulse the person dislikes what they read or from how they interpreted it, and then they are able to quell that feeling with a single action vs. having to put the effort into thinking and articulating into words what they're feeling, why they are feeling it, and allow it to b…

What forum rules would you like to see experiments with?