Welcome to My Blog—er, Substack
Blahg.
I have never maintained a blog. Likely I will not maintain my Substack either. Blogs are the whimsy of an instant; a desire to finally prove that you could have been the person you had always proclaimed you would be, one who is witty and full of original opinions; that your thoughts are truly deep and meaningful, if only people had realized it sooner; and that your teachers were wrong, because your essays are actually really, really good.12
Despite my low expectations, I am starting a blog anyways, because writing is really useful! It is the best way to form mature, defendable positions, or at least it is for myself. And there is a big difference between writing in private and writing in public, though social media has changed the value of the latter.3
Writing—particularly an essay—is the distillation of thought itself. If I deliberate a problem entirely in my mind (“Should I really eat a ham sandwich for lunch?“), I may make some progress (“I should not eat the ham sandwich“), but the progress is quickly weighed down with a growing chain of reason (“But I am so hungry and I love mayonnaise“), causing the argument to collapse (“I think I will eat a ham sandwich anyways“). The fault may be my poor memory; I struggle to hold all steps to an argument in my head. Writing allows me to firm up my thinking, to continue the chain of reasoning past the limitations of my brain (small & weak), and to continue on to resolution (“I will not eat a ham sandwich, because ham comes from pigs, and pigs remind me of my brother“).
Writing is also communication, as evident to any reader, if not the diarist. Publication is a final step in the writing process itself, not an addendum. It is possible for some saintly figures to compose tremendous works that are kept almost entirely to themselves (E. Dickinson, F. Kafka, etc.), but for the rest of us sharing out our work forces us to tighten all the loose ends. It is what puts our writing in dialogue with the world, and allows us to advance beyond the opinions of the essay. I wish that I could organize my thinking just as well by perfecting my opinions into a single, rarified manuscript, which I kept tightly wrapped beneath my pillow, hidden until my death. But I cannot, I need the challenge of an audience to stimulate my thinking past my banal first impressions.4 Sharing our writing is how we speak out our inner thoughts, with all the same risks and rewards of shame and praise5 and growth.
So I am starting a blog to organize my thoughts, because my thinking has become disorganized, or indefensible. Too often, my opinions fall back on belief, rather than conviction. While there is an unavoidable element of faith in all knowledge, it should not be at the forefront of our arguments. I would like to lead a life consistent with my principles. I would like to win more arguments. I would like if I were more respected on the internet. All of this requires that I put in the work and inundate this blog with content.
I will publish about a post a week in 2026. I expect to cover a wide range of topics. In general, I will post a mix of my own reflections (“navel-gazers“) and targeted posts on software (“5 Gift Ideas for Your AI Boyfriend“) or literature (“My Favorite Book about Cats and/or Hats“). Occasionally, I may also publish translations, or my own poetry/fiction.
That’s enough to clear the air.6 For anyone who finds their way here, I hope you will subscribe!
It’s my blog and I’ll use as many semicolons as I damn well please
I’ll use as many footnotes as I damn well please too
This is a topic for another post, but even outside social media, I have seen a proliferation in “meme-writing” on the internet, particularly from tech and tech-adjacent writers, or the literary equivalent of Mountain Dew
You’ll have to judge whether my second impressions are equally banal
Please, please praise me
Is there a term for the rhetorical device of self-reflective “throat-clearing” at the start of a series? The best I could find was “exordium,” which sounds like a mythical sword