Hello reader š
I thought it rather unnecessary to write a welcome post, mostly because my goal is to write about things that maximize;
- Value to readers
- Value to myself
Just a word is a blog for me to keep track of happenings in my life. From IT administration to travel logs, from playlist organizers to learning resources, this is where Iāll keep track of them all. Ironically, this welcome to my blog does little to provide either benefit. In fact, if all goes as hoped, this will be the least mutually beneficial post I ever write.
So having made it this far, Iād like to dedicate this first post to you, the reader.
Who am I?
A self taught developer and amateur ML researcher. An avid piano player and gym-goer. Also a proud older brother. I like to travel and play frisbee and badminton health and climate permitting. I love music, memes, and movies. I try to be eclectic yet maintain a degree of esotericism, especially when it comes to music and food. I like sports; from MMA to marble racing. I think self-development, philosophy, psychology, are pretty neat. I love my friends, trying new things, and overthinking.
Why am I doing this?
- Because I figure if Iām going to keep writing stuff I might as well make it public
- Because it might help channel character traits and auxiliary functions I would like to develop
- Because maybe something I write will fix a problem or inspire action or introduce an ideaā¦
Most of all I want to be the person who helped me when I was learning and growing on my own. If thereās one thing I hope you do while reading my writing itās that you learned something new about yourself or about the world. Why Iām doing this becomes a bit more obvious when I explain what Iām going to write about:
What am I going to write about?
In order of most to least obvious:
- Things Iāve been thinking about lately
- Things that I want to remember
- Things that I think deserve more attention
- Things I think will be well received
- Things that are āsafeā
- Things that are valuable
So most often about my work in programming and machine learning, the learning resources and content I find, and the research ideas Iām pursuing. I also hope to throw music and travel into the mix, or perhaps the occasional off-topic idea Iāve been obsessed with.
In regards to prose I plan to write in much the same way as I think. So kind of all over the place.
- Sometimes Iāll speak colloquially, other times Iāll use jargon specific to the topic Iām writing about (a constant balancing act of succinctness and pretentiousness)
- I might commit the occasional grammatical or syntactical crime (changes in narrative/perspective, abuse of dashes or slashes, stupid puns)
- Often times Iāll deviate and elaborate on tangents before leaving the trail cold
- Other times Iāll belabor a topic rigorously, to the point where it might even seem trivial.
- I rely on semi-colons too frequently, often until my writing is more a patchwork of ideas than a well collected document.
- I often throw parenthetical statements into my sentences to cover edge cases.
- Iāll make analogies and references that often donāt make sense to a reader.
Due to these points, Iāll often use notation Iāve picked up over time. This is a list of what they mean:
- When writing and analogy, A : B :: C : D means A is to B as C is to D
- s.t, i.e, e.g, wrt, w/o, bc, wlog, etc. (literally and functionally) mean what they usually do
- Pseudocode, latex, UML diagram-style figures are all game
Hopefully in time, Iāll smooth out the creases and weed out inconsistencies. With the above in mind I hope you find my blog interesting at worst and inspiring at best.
FAQ
Why does this blog look like Medium? I used to write a lot on Medium. Iām not very proud of those articles, but they were a good learning opportunity. Those old relics still garner views. So when it came time to make my own blog, I decided Iād pay tribute to the website that turned me into an amateur writer āŗ
What does āJust a Wordā mean? Itās a moniker derived from one of my favorite producers; Just a Gent.