Thejesh GN tagged me on the challenge of blog questions. Seemed fun, but I didn’t know where to write these answers. I was writing too specific subject oriented blogs on my website. More personal stuff went on letters. I’ve been thinking of having an Essays section for random reflections. So, I’ll start with this section with this challenge.
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I can recall multiple “whys”. It was during my 3rd year B.Tech. Firstly, I was always under-confident with my English/Communication. I wanted to get better and felt writing would help me. Then it was the time I started reading a lot. I used to read 3-4 newspapers daily at the NITK library. Read a lot of non-fiction. I had (still have) the urge to share things I learnt with my friends and family. But obviously, not everyone would share my interests. Blogging helped me in satisfying that urge. So, I read, learn something and write about it to satisfy my urge to share things I learnt. It kept me quite engaged for close to a decade now.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I blog subject related issues on my website. It is a simple HTML-CSS site hosted on GitHub. I chose that because I wanted to learn basic frontend programming (HTML-CSS-JS). I’d never get to work on front-end otherwise. There are many inefficiencies in the way it is built, many of them are yet to be discovered by me. I hope to learn frontend well in the process of rectifying those efficiencies.
I blog personal letters and short stories on Substack. Actually, I didn’t think much in choosing this. It was a fad to start a Substack. It is easier to manage subscriptions here, so I’ll continue to write letters, stories and personal essays here.
I used to write on the medium blogs of the companies I work for. These were completely work related. I am continuing Medium now for Statistics, Data Science, AI related blogs.
Previously, I blogged on a wordpress site. If I can consider Quora as a blogging platform, I wrote a lot long ago. I don’t relate to much of my writings on these platforms. I was naive. But I don’t intend to delete them as it documents my learnings.
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?
I mostly write on my laptop. On Substack, I directly start a draft. On my website, it’s an inefficient process currently - I write in a markdown file on VScode :| I also use Google Docs for noting sudden bursts of thought.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
When I learn something interesting. When I feel emotional.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
Mix of both. I take some writing projects very seriously and I will take the pain of revising them. These generally are essays, where I take the burden of being understood and factual. For personal expressions, I don’t take much burden. I just write and publish. I don’t even grammar check them at times.
What's your favorite post on your blog?
In essays, I like this essay on destiny I wrote a couple of years ago. Droplet and a thirsty man and Freedom framework.
In letters, may be the year end reflection.
This Stats blog - Are we going to be dogmatic about large sample sizes?
I also like my Gita - a collection of quotes from the books I read with my remarks.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
Now after writing this challenge, I realize that my writings are a bit scattered everywhere. I should at least link them on my website well. I’ll try that. I want to keep my website with a minimalist design but also interactive. I want to learn ways of achieving that.
Who's next?
Tagging Mahesh, Bhargavi, Dakshesh, Meghana, Sravanthi. I like Gautam Pradhan’s blog Under the blue sky. It has not been active, but I hope to read more of it.