Some people ask me why I write and maintain this web site. They tell me that its content is barely original, that similar content can often be found from authoritative sources (other web sites, or books), and pretty much imply that I'm wasting my time. As a first approach, they might have a point.
It is true indeed that the content of my site is not revolutionary. There are already quite a few good sources of information about polyhedra, about games, about photography and about crafts and hobbies (I don't have any articles yet about those two categories, but I intend to add some in the My content might not be revolutionary indeed, but it is definitely original future). It is also true that in each of those categories there are some easily accessible authoritative sources. It is even true that I spend a significant amount of time writing articles.
However, that is not the whole picture. My content might not be revolutionary indeed, but it is definitely original: I think about it, I write it, and it represents my own thoughts. What I write might overlap indeed with what is covered by other sources, but it is an independent opinion, and it will either confirm what other sources affirm, or offer a counterpoint that will help people look at different aspects of a given problem.
It is true that I am not usually an authoritative source. On the other hand, very few people are truly authoritative in any given subject, which means that being authoritative is the exception, not the norm. I do have a few subjects in mind that don't seem to be extensively covered, at least not There are some domains of knowledge where the authority isn't held by a single person or even by a small group of experts in the Internet, and while that won't automatically make me authoritative I hope that they'll contribute in unique ways to the overall body of knowledge. Going further, there are some areas where there isn't necessarily a single authority. In the area of arts and crafts, different people have different techniques to achieve the same goals, and the fact that those techniques are different doesn't mean that some are right and some are wrong: they can all be right in their own way. That means in fact that there are some domains of knowledge where the authority isn't held by a single person or even by a small group of experts, but where in fact common wisdom is the best source of authority, and I hope to contribute by proverbial 2 cents to the common wisdom.
As for the time that I spend preparing articles, I hardly consider it a waste of time. From my point of view, writing articles for my web site is a hobby, a form of entertainment, a pastime - so I can argue that spending time working on it is actually a goal, not a waste. Personally, I feel that the time I spend working on my site has a visible result, unlike e.g. most of the time that I spend watching TV, and the Internet allows me to share that result with lots of people. There aren't many hobbies that I can share that easily with that many people, especially since sharing photographs online is actually part of maintaining a web site.
There's another aspect that most people don't see, but that is important to me: writing on this web site, to put it simply, makes me write. I'm neither If I can spend 20% less time to express my ideas at work, I can same myself approximately 1 hour in the office every day a good nor a fast writer, and putting my thoughts on virtual paper is a very good exercise for me. I hope that it'll make me a better and faster writer. That's the same reason why I have a public blog, why I also maintain an internal blog at work (at least when the system I host it on allows me to log in), why I try to keep a personal diary and why I take notes about the various crafts that I practice. Being a reasonably good and fast writer is an important part of my job as an engineering manager, as a significant portion of the time I spend at work is spent writing. If I can spend 20% less time to express my ideas at work, I can same myself approximately 1 hour in the office every day, which is quite a significant amount. Even better, if I can get to a point where I can write with less effort, I'll be less tired overall, and that's a very desirable result as well.
Finally, as far as hobbies go, maintaining such a web site might indeed take some time, but it costs very little money. I definitely want to keep my web site regardless of how many articles I write, and the amount of content that I have here does not cost me anything extra in terms of hosting since I'm already using the smallest package that my hosting company offers and I'm very far from using all of the storage and bandwidth that I have available as part of this package (I'm using approximately 0.1% of what I actually pay for, but the quality of the service that I get is high enough that I wouldn't want to try to save a few dollars here). So, the only real cost is that of having a computer turned on while I write an article - even with my big power-hungry machine that cost probably ends up being less than a dollar per month.
Summing it all, this site contributes to the overall knowledge out there in its own little way, it will hopefully offer some new insights in subjects that might not have been broadly covered yet, it's a cheap hobby that helps me improve myself. For those out there who have doubts, the combination of all those aspects is the point of this web site.
|