Stating the obvious (or maybe not). A bit of internet history, the word blog comes from web log, and shorten to take just the last 4 letters.
I like actually taking the full form weblog and nudging the space we get also 'we blog'.
Blogging can just be stating the obvious
41–50 of 138 posts
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#42I read a lot of beginner/tute FP stuff. A mistake they make is doing 2 sentences of "here's how to conceptualise this new notation and what Int -> Int -> Boolean means" And then they get bored and just go full bore ¿ conjunctivitis applique to unbound ¤ variable 》》-> is a Mongolian {....} ... forgetting they were in tutorial mode. Or, showing examples which embed syntax which is apparently the same as before but "oh…
Hahaha, this is so accurate. I do this so often because I start off with a certain mindset and then when I get maybe 10% of the way through I find that I won't finish the post in any time if I write at this pace. So I have this idea! "Imperfect is Okay! I'll publish it and refine it over time by expounding on each section". Then I publish it and never look at it again. Hilarious! In the end, this entire genre of writing is no longer useful so I suppose not much harm is done.
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#43> So it must be that a key ingredient to blogging is simple: have a willingness to state something that seems obvious to you but nobody else is saying it. Or if someone else is saying it, just link to them and say, “Yes!!! This!!!” As a young mathematician in grade school, I had boundless enthusiasm to prove and present basic theorems in number theory and geometry. Now, as a PhD mathematician who has since pivoted in…
Maybe society just rewards the first penguin to jump into the sea.
The first penguin certainly rewards the orcas.
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#44> So it must be that a key ingredient to blogging is simple: have a willingness to state something that seems obvious to you but nobody else is saying it. Or if someone else is saying it, just link to them and say, “Yes!!! This!!!” As a young mathematician in grade school, I had boundless enthusiasm to prove and present basic theorems in number theory and geometry. Now, as a PhD mathematician who has since pivoted in…
"I know this" is different from "I know you know this", which is different from "You know I know this", which is still different from "you know I know you know this"
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#45A couple other versions of this that have always stood out to me: 1) There's always a new cohort of people that don't know the things you know. You assume since you know it, everyone does. But kids coming up, or whoever, aren't you. They don't know this stuff yet. You can easily be the first time they've heard "make something people want" and where that comes from. The Curse of Knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#46I also see this when people present studies online which say something like "Eating fast food causes obesity" and you get people replying "well obviously".
On the face of it things might sound obvious, but the study or in the case of blogging the discussion actually attempts to get the to the bottom of why that might be the case.
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it is fair to say no one ever has any original thoughts, and the ones most capable of elucidating existing ideas can be the ones least motivated to do so. This statement, combined with the previous one, is interesting, to say the least. It could easily be taken as self-aggrandizing, and maybe your feeling of "only the stymying influence of a million invisible eyes" is partly because of your style? > Among these res…
> This statement, combined with the previous one, is interesting, to say the least. It could easily be taken as self-aggrandizing. Not self-aggrandizing. There are very few things that I consider myself "(among the) most capable" of explaining, and most of them are not interesting to people. There are many more things that I'm somewhat competent in explaining, but those suffer the intimidation of the eyes. > Maybe yo…
> Not sure how you mean "style,"
You essentially coupled "I used to do this thing, and now I'm really credentialed but I don't do this thing any more" with "the ones most capable of elucidating existing ideas can be the ones least motivated to do so."
> Religion is a primeval failure mode of language, in my opinion, or at least an example of language being used not to communicate information, but to engage in social, emotional, and political ritual.
The core of the Serenity Prayer is not really religious. Sure, it starts off "God grant me the..." but really, that's not really different than saying "Today I hope I have the strength to..."
In any case, many of the books saying the same thing are not religious at all.
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#48> So it must be that a key ingredient to blogging is simple: have a willingness to state something that seems obvious to you but nobody else is saying it. Or if someone else is saying it, just link to them and say, “Yes!!! This!!!” As a young mathematician in grade school, I had boundless enthusiasm to prove and present basic theorems in number theory and geometry. Now, as a PhD mathematician who has since pivoted in…
How the information is shared can be as important as the act of sharing it in the first place. You might have a particular voice and style for communicating these ideas, but your audience may have otherwise passed it over without your unique approach.
I’ve never thought about it quite like that, but it’s a great point. So, thanks for sharing the thought in this unique way.
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This statement, combined with the previous one, is interesting, to say the least. It could easily be taken as self-aggrandizing. Not self-aggrandizing. There are very few things that I consider myself "(among the) most capable" of explaining, and most of them are not interesting to people. There are many more things that I'm somewhat competent in explaining, but those suffer the intimidation of the eyes. > Maybe yo…
> Not sure how you mean "style," You essentially coupled "I used to do this thing, and now I'm really credentialed but I don't do this thing any more" with "the ones most capable of elucidating existing ideas can be the ones least motivated to do so." > Religion is a primeval failure mode of language, in my opinion, or at least an example of language being used not to communicate information, but to engage in social,…
> You essentially coupled "I used to do this thing, and now I'm really credentialed but I don't do this thing any more" with "the ones most capable of elucidating existing ideas can be the ones least motivated to do so."
I read that as a reference to Dunning-Kruger.
Re: Blogging can just be stating the obvious
#50If I wanted to write something completely new, I'd write a paper, not a blog post. After all, blogging is ultimately about organizing my thoughts on topics that are already known.
In that sense, my personal problem is that no one visits my homepage (www.makonea.com). Ultimately, I think conveying thoughts on such topics also depends to some extent on reputation.