Howdy,

Today marks 1 week of doing this! Let’s go!

I wanted to spend today reflecting. A little on what worked and didn’t work and most on observations.

Many of the posts I put out started as trying to be a tell-all on a topic and ended up focusing on a single part of that topic (e.g., Metaphors turning into a piece of why you should care about privacy). This isn’t necessarily bad or good. It tells me that for these topics, there is a lot I can go into (which, for privacy and security, make me feel good). I’ve also discovered many ideas while writing (I want to make that its own section below).

Moving forwards, I’m curious to try out two ideas: 1. Force me to not go into too much detail so I can cover more ground 2. Starting with a more limited scope. This will help me gauge how long it will take to cover a particular topic at a certain depth. Right now, even when I try to limit the scope (minimal research, minimal time, etc.) I’m still overestimating. It’d be pretty jazzy to be able to pick an idea and better know what will need to go into it. -- I think this is what bothers me about being so off with other topics. It shows that I really don’t know what needs to go into explaining these topics.

I’ve also noticed how I’ve noticed so many things I want to discuss as I’ve been writing. Sometimes I don’t know what I want to write, and I find it along the way. Another time I explained cryptographic keys and realized I needed to discuss what security and privacy are to REALLY show their power. Sometimes it’s in between. I’ll have a good sense of what I want to write and like the flow but realize some more questions or topics I want to cover.

Historically, I’ve been a better writer when I’ve outlined. In writing and speaking, I tend to go on tangents (especially when excited), and outlining helps make sure I can flow. It also helped me get started and be less afraid of the blank screen. If that’s the ”architects” way of writing, it’s been fun to put me in a format where I’ve allowed myself to be more of a “gardener.” I’m letting the topics grow on what has been written rather than on what has been planned. It’s nice to see that sometimes I will go on tangents, and other times I’ll still maintain a consistent throughline.

Time and motivation play an interesting role here. There definitely have been days when I HAVE NOT wanted to start. Once I’ve started, it’s been good, but man, sometimes I haven’t. Part of this is the time it takes. I want to spend more time with Jules. I want to spend time playing games. But I need to find a way to squeeze in an hour. I’ve been doing it before bed, which works so far. I feel like I should also start finding a way to do it earlier on weekends or specific days of the week. Like with exercising, it’s really nice to get it out of the way, but I love procrastinating.

After one week, I’ve got more ideas about what I could write about. Getting extra technical will require topics I already know about because I won’t have time to research. Finding simple explanations, metaphors, and reasons to care can get a lot of mileage out of privacy and security. I want to spend at least one night per week breaking down a movie or show. I like this time to reflect.

There are also some topics that I think would be fun to cover sometime: starting to build a story/world, hash functions + blockchain + ML are excellent technical concepts to explain. I’d also like to have some more purely fun times (poetry or puns). Maybe also try forcing a tiny word limit.

That’s all for this week,

Lucas

Howdy,

Today marks 1 week of doing this! Let’s go!

I wanted to spend today reflecting. A little on what worked and didn’t work and most on observations.

Many of the posts I put out started as trying to be a tell-all on a topic and ended up focusing on a single part of that topic (e.g., Metaphors turning into a piece of why you should care about privacy). This isn’t necessarily bad or good. It tells me that for these topics, there is a lot I can go into (which, for privacy and security, make me feel good). I’ve also discovered many ideas while writing (I want to make that its own section below).

Moving forwards, I’m curious to try out two ideas: 1. Force me to not go into too much detail so I can cover more ground 2. Starting with a more limited scope. This will help me gauge how long it will take to cover a particular topic at a certain depth. Right now, even when I try to limit the scope (minimal research, minimal time, etc.) I’m still overestimating. It’d be pretty jazzy to be able to pick an idea and better know what will need to go into it. -- I think this is what bothers me about being so off with other topics. It shows that I really don’t know what needs to go into explaining these topics.

I’ve also noticed how I’ve noticed so many things I want to discuss as I’ve been writing. Sometimes I don’t know what I want to write, and I find it along the way. Another time I explained cryptographic keys and realized I needed to discuss what security and privacy are to REALLY show their power. Sometimes it’s in between. I’ll have a good sense of what I want to write and like the flow but realize some more questions or topics I want to cover.

Historically, I’ve been a better writer when I’ve outlined. In writing and speaking, I tend to go on tangents (especially when excited), and outlining helps make sure I can flow. It also helped me get started and be less afraid of the blank screen. If that’s the ”architects” way of writing, it’s been fun to put me in a format where I’ve allowed myself to be more of a “gardener.” I’m letting the topics grow on what has been written rather than on what has been planned. It’s nice to see that sometimes I will go on tangents, and other times I’ll still maintain a consistent throughline.

Time and motivation play an interesting role here. There definitely have been days when I HAVE NOT wanted to start. Once I’ve started, it’s been good, but man, sometimes I haven’t. Part of this is the time it takes. I want to spend more time with Jules. I want to spend time playing games. But I need to find a way to squeeze in an hour. I’ve been doing it before bed, which works so far. I feel like I should also start finding a way to do it earlier on weekends or specific days of the week. Like with exercising, it’s really nice to get it out of the way, but I love procrastinating.

After one week, I’ve got more ideas about what I could write about. Getting extra technical will require topics I already know about because I won’t have time to research. Finding simple explanations, metaphors, and reasons to care can get a lot of mileage out of privacy and security. I want to spend at least one night per week breaking down a movie or show. I like this time to reflect.

There are also some topics that I think would be fun to cover sometime: starting to build a story/world, hash functions + blockchain + ML are excellent technical concepts to explain. I’d also like to have some more purely fun times (poetry or puns). Maybe also try forcing a tiny word limit.

That’s all for this week,

Lucas