Starting Blogging
I’ve been telling people for a while now: I don’t develop interests, I develop obsessions.
I try to rise to the challenge and naturally fixate on something until I feel I have mastered it. That is one of the beauties of music or of coding; there is always more to learn to be a true master. This mentality is a benefit and a curse. Perfectionism comes with the territory, and with it, the fear of inadequacy. Regardless if I’m climbing trees, or learning to code, or maybe it’s the latest video game I’m binge playing (Spelunky 2 - NTDO Switch), or interest in the natural world (fungi in particular), I need incredible depth on a topic to be satisfied, and it seems like no content I create could have the effect of the research process it takes to write.
The first thing I learned about trying to make a blog and some related content is that it requires being really organized. Sometimes my workbench accumulate clutter, but when it’s time to knuckle down I like to clean everything up… but it’s another level when you know there is going to be a camera in that space now, the expectation rises, Every dust particle and dog hair stands out with the glare of the lamps designed to compensate for the camera’s poor eye. The situation is never good enough to get started, and I am getting in my own way.
Organization is key to efficiency in any task. How you do it is up to you, and you have to be creative and find systems which work for your brain. Some people have folders which they dedicate to certain types of material, cabinets for taxes, auto records etc. I have a computer for each sort of tasks to help me compartmentalize my work better. A brief summary is basically a list of presently active pc: Work computer, game dev computer, passive scripting and local media server, various rasbpi for scripting and automating some small routine tasks, Pi-Hole, octopi.
Several microcontrollers (micropython, Arduino, mbed, rasb pi)
All of these have served me in one way or another, and each of them deserve their own discussion (so these will have links in the future) Household Automation: Plant water, Household Automation: Security
2 years later and this is sitting as a draft. Strange how time passes at times. As I had written a post about organization being all important but I seem to have lacked the commitment to produce (any) content. I guess I’ll just get things rolling and let the readers decide if it is worthy. Starting out a podcast may even be in the future if I can keep the discipline and be persistently dedicated to the various skills involved.
I think today that passion is even more important than optimal content, or organization. These things will come with experience, but nothing can replace the benefit of just getting started.