Why am I writing?

Since I began web programming in 2014, I’ve wanted to have an online space for myself and that is why I bought this website domain but at that time I could only think of hosting my introduction and to be honest, I’ve received no traffic, not even from recruiters who need a portfolio or website URL in their job applications. I was thinking that by putting myself on the web, I would garner a lot of attention for having a domain with my name but this only happens when you have something meaningful, and simply having an introduction about yourself does not help. Also, you need to be someone to have the world look out for you - Google worthy.

luck vs efforts — I have learned about it while reading Grace Lordan's Think Big!

There are various ways of presenting your thoughts online, For example, Instagram, and Facebook but I think these are not your private spaces and your presence is at the mercy of the platform providers. I don’t have anything critical to share, and have also been active on these platforms in the past but now I have moved away from social media(Link).

This is my creative space and it has various plus points -

I have the freedom of having a layout of my choice and I can theme it as I want.
I can have multiple formats for photos, videos and text.
It removes the noise of social media feeds and stands out for me.
I can commercialize it and have direct revenues.
I can promote it without any terms and conditions.

When I envision myself as a successful writer in the future, I imagine myself as a subject specialist, writing for tech companies, publications, and publishers, or having a coaching and guiding app. It will create an opportunity to help create jobs, an additional source of income, and a way for me to put myself out there on the internet.

But, I need to hone my writing skills first^** before I can offer my services to others. I’m taking on writing with the same cautious optimism I’ve brought to every other interesting endeavor in my life: I could succeed, I might fail, but either way, I’ll grow and learn.

In addition, My real purpose is to see, How far can I go on another self-taught journey 🌈.

I am not coherent when I speak

I can speak confidently, but I am not a good orator since I get lost in my thoughts while speaking. I’m making sense in my head, but it’s not reflected in the expressions of my listeners. In my mind, I sometimes confuse the matter by doing too much analysis. I assimilate ideas faster than I can remember them and skip words while speaking. Writing will streamline my thoughts.

Fear is my compass

I’ve dreaded writing for a long time, as evidenced by peer comments and annual reviews. I’ve been informed that I need to work on improving my documentation abilities, which I agree with because I’ve only authored readme.md files, my resume, or a self-review during my career’s annual reviews, and these works don’t count as writing.

I fear that I might give up on my software engineering career if I encounter another vague feedback like improving documentation.

I read a lot and I forget a lot

I’m not quite ready to call myself an enthusiastic book reader, but I do read a book or two in a month. I prefer to read books about productivity, self-improvement, and financial planning. I read tech articles and documentation daily.

The problem is that though I have sharp memory I forget what I read in just one month. I read Snowball, which was one of the better books I read this year, but I’ve forgotten most of the anecdotes and insights from the life of The Great Sage of Omaha.

There can be many reasons for not remembering -

My reading speed - As I read fast it overloads me with a lot of information but then I like reading a chapter full of pages in one sitting.
Some texts require a deep dive, just reading them once is not enough. Just like The Diabetes Code.
I do not take margin notes or do not summarise the chapter in my own words.
In my childhood, I did not make an effort to understand the underlying concepts as I could remember the answers after reading them once which were persistent for the short term and then I lost them just as I do now.

Writing is helping me to read better

I can persist information if I create a pattern or if I can understand the core of it. A book is 80% data and 20% important information and I am just focusing on the important parts of the book. I am building a mechanism, to deep dive into the reading material, So I’ve started with the book reading Basics 101 -

📒 To skim out important information, I am keeping a notebook to summarise the chapter at the end of it.
💫 I note down all the important anecdotes, quotes and suggestions in the notebook as I read them.
📝 I also use sticky notes to summarise a few pages on the go.
💣 I will write book reviews for the books I finish reading.
🐢 I am slowing down on my reading speed, and taking notes.

Writing is helping me to clear my mind. When I write my thoughts down on paper, it helps me analyze them before acting on them. I’m adding many types of writing to my everyday routine. For example, journaling serves as a mirror for my thoughts and words, reflecting my current enthusiasm, appreciation, and wrath.

Frontend Engineer

I am a self-taught frontend engineer

I have to regularly write design documents and guidelines. These documents have the same theme but differ based on their purpose. The length of the documents determines the purpose of their existence, as one-pager is useful for the idea whereas a six-pager is useful for triaging the idea and visualizing the end-to-end experience.

My daily routine involves writing words that the machines can understand. My words are then compiled by a machine to a human-readable form which is reflected on the webpages - just as you are reading one, This webpage was created in a machine language, compiled and then hosted here.

So, this shift might not take much time because I already have what it takes, and now I just have to focus on making sense of my words and run the compiler of thoughts .✌🏽