Why I'm comfortable publishing foolishness

...duly flagged as such, of course.

January 23rd, 2022

When I started, I was very insecure.

Well, still am.

You'll find disclaimers, apologies, explanations, and the like all over my writing.

As much as I'd prefer not to, I, like most, care about others think.

And so it goes, I publish an article, it gains some traction, and I find myself making edit after edit to please the angry internet mob.

But ultimately, I publish that thang.

I write about a lot of shit. Anything that interests me at at given moment, really.

Often times the topic is something I have no proper knowledge in.

I've written about tech, business, linguistics, self-development, football, and a bunch else.

And sometimes I dabble where I "shouldn't", like trying to determine the world's most efficient language - over a weekend and without any formal knowledge of linguistics.

My ventures into uncharted territory sometimes go well, and other times poorly. But the thing I always take away from it is a lot of fresh knowledge.

You see, I cannot just read a book to learn something. I must get my hands dirty, play around, formulate hypotheses, and challenge my own assumptions.

Thus, when I write about an unfamiliar topic, I'm putting my assumptions to the test - both during the writing process, when I'm forced to learn more, and after publishing, when others inevitably teach me more about it.

So when the comments pour in, I attain a lot of knowledge that's more likely to stick. My claims are debated and assumptions checked, and I come out of the endeavor with a greater understanding of a topic that I was interested in.

Can't be afraid to be wrong.

Yes, the posts of mine that get the most traction are those where I know very well what I'm talking about. But it's not fun to just stick to those. Plus traction on this blog here is just an ego metric - it's not like I make money out of it.

And, finally, I also hold the belief that everyone has something to add to any discussion. So there you go, you'll certainly be hearing my bit.