Hi there!
I have decided to finally redesign my website and to start a blog.
In this first post I explain why I start writing, what I will write about, and for whom I intend to write. I will try to ease my posts a bit with pictures I took over the last couple of years.
Image taken at Suidhe Viewpoint, Scotland, UK.
Why do I write?
To communicate. Writing is a powerful form of communication. Being able to convey precise ideas or information in just as many words as necessary is a superpower.
To learn. Writing is difficult – at least for me. Even though I have written several theses, articles, and papers, I would like to improve my skills. Most importantly, I aim to improve the iterative process I typically follow to get from ideas and a first draft to a finished post that is good enough to be published. I would like to converge faster.
In addition, I’m a very curious person, and I like exploring and learning new things. Taking the time to distill and summarise key pieces of information in concise form is a good way to understand material and to memorise things long-term.
To think. The act of writing helps me to concentrate and forces me to formulate thoughts and ideas with high precision and clarity.
To grow. I discovered that writing is a form of investment in my future self. I have started to take notes during almost every meeting, and to document all my code and projects in great detail. In addition, I often write summaries of, for example, papers or books I have read. This not only helps me to persists information in a way that I (and potentially others) can access quickly in the future, but also allows me to identify gaps in my understanding and typically raises a lot of interesting questions to pursue.
Finally, I simply find pleasure in the act of writing.
What will I write about?
I intend to cover a broad range of topics, some of which will be technical, some non-technical. However, most posts will be related in some way to maths, data science, and machine learning.
For a list of potential topics see my idea storage. Feel free to get in touch and suggest topics you would be interested in.
Whom will I write for?
For the reasons outlined above, I mainly write for my current and my future self. Nevertheless, I hope that one or the other curious visitor, current or future co-worker will enjoy reading my posts, take away some useful ideas, and maybe even share them online.
How often will I publish?
I have not set any personal goals (yet) and I will have to see how much time I will be able to dedicate to writing.
What about feedback?
I generally try to have an open mind about feedback, so feel free to get in touch and let me know your thoughts. Having said this, I will only consider constructive feedback, and will only engage in well-intended and fact-based discussions.
How did I set up this website?
It is based on Jekyll, the Contrast theme, and is hosted on GitHub Pages. I wanted a rather simple setup that matches my daily workflow using git, and that I can easily adjust using my limited HTML/CSS knowledge. As you can see, I heavily modified the original theme to match my preferences.