My first article was going to be about automating the publication of this site with Hugo, AWS, Cloudflare, and Github Actions. But as I started writing, I realized I had spent a fair amount of time prefacing that article with my motivations for starting to write. It seemed out of place with what I was writing about in that article, so here we are.

“Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of words.”

— Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

I had wanted to start writing for quite a while. It’s not that I didn’t have plenty to write about (e.g. technology, family, life, cooking, etc.). It’s not that I didn’t have the time – although that was quite often the excuse. It all boiled down to priorities. I wasn’t making the time for writing and other, even more important, activities.

But between staying at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic and quitting work to take a sabbatical, I now have the mental space to reprioritize, do some introspection, improve habits, and take up some new hobbies like writing.

I believe that writing has a way of making us better people. Any creative endeavor, not just writing, allows us to truly express ourselves, giving us the opportunity to take a break from the consumption that is so prevalent in daily life.

We may create as part of our jobs, whether it be writing, coding, painting, or any number of other creative endeavors. But when we do those things as part of a job, we are usually, but not always, executing on someone else’s vision. We take it to another level when we create because we want to. It gives us complete control over creation with the result being something that is truly ours, but that we can give selflessly to others.

“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Even more importantly, writing is a truly reflective endeavor. I believe that writing provides us with the opportunity to look at ourselves and our thoughts from different perspectives. Our soul is laid bare and we can see both the good and the bad, allowing us to effect real change in who we are.

I will primarily write about technology, but don’t be surprised if I veer off the beaten path like this post from time to time.