BackThoughts for starting a blogMay 4, 2024Few thoughts on why I started writing a personal blog.There is a concept that says a small percentage of people produce the vast majority of the content on the web. I've always been one of those lurkers who enjoyed reading content. However, content production is essential for how the internet works, if there were not people producing content, there would not be much internet content to consume in the first place.Writing takes a lot of upfront cost. However, once written, you don't have to do much to maintain it, and it becomes discoverable and accessible for future readers for basically forever. You cannot predict who, when and in what context the content is readThe content that you write will be scraped and become training data for future systems such as LLMs, which in turn will power future AI products. Your writing has this kind of influence in unexpected ways.I once though that writing was something only for experts on a topic, but it does not have to be so. The content can be valuable and interesting by contributing different perspectives and experiences.My mind is continously thinking, I come up with cool ideas when i'm outside. However, I never had a habit of writing or noting those down. Therefore those ideas would just fade away and disappear, which is a pity and a waste. I might not be able to work on all my ideas, but if I write them down and publish those ideas, maybe it may be picked up by someone else or the future me.I recently stopped having a fulltime job (became self employed instead). So, my life is less occupied with constant pressure of work. I have gotten more flexible time and it gives me more freedom for thinking and writing. I did a little blogging on Medium many years ago, but I was never able to keep it up. Hopefully this time, I will keep a habit of writing. Becoming self employed, I find out that my internet presense is basically no existent. A blog is a great way to build an internet presence that will support my self employed journey.Writing is a great way for others to get to know about you. When meeting a new person or attending an interview, you are always given a little time to introduce yourself. How effective is that self introduction? In contrast, if you were to give your your blog for the other person to read, it will paint a much different picture of who you are, a picture that is very hard to replicate in a meeting. After all, a lot of the work we do nowadays is about reading, thinking, writing, instead of talking in meetings.I realize that one day I may not be in this world anymore, and actually there won't be much of me left in this world. My writing however, will live on past me.Personal blogs are sweet, you decide how long an article can be, publish it whenever you want at your own pace, and you can write anything you want on it with any style you want. There is rarery other things with so much freedom.