About

April 29, 2025

One of my friends started a blog recently. He inspired me.

Is it a bit strange for two first-year undergrad students to start blogs? Maybe, especially considering we're at an engineering school and pursuing engineering related majors. So then the question is why. Why write? Why publish? Why make a custom, barebones static web page to host it? (I know no one's asking the last one 😕)

1. Writing well is difficult

   Conveying a contested point of view or emotion in a way that's accessible (and concise 😭) and has a lasting impact on its reader is non trivial. I say this because we now live in a world where ChatGPT can be used to write anything. So writing is on the path to becoming a lost skill. I also believe the process of writing forces one to engage in a type of critical thinking which is hard to replicate otherwise. I want to challenge myself to express my ideas clearly, and I don't want to lose the ability to think critically for myself.

2. Accountability sucks

   Journaling or writing in a diary or something similar would be too easy to waffle out of. Part of the challenge of writing is being able to stand by the words you put out. At some point, I will probably write something I disagree with later. I hold strong views (in philosophical topics) but I don't ever want to be immovable in them. If I hear a valid critique, I want to be mentally present enough to accept that I was wrong or ignorant or flawed in my thinking. Publishing helps keep me to that standard.

3. Obligation?

   If one has a strongly held moral belief, it would be immoral (by their own value system) to neglect it in any aspect of their life. A similar statement: a bystander to a crime is complicit if they had the ability to interfere but didn't. These statements are highly reductive and miss the nuance of making such decisions (and I don't endorse policing of complacency as criminality), but at their core exists an attempt to make the world a better place. If even one person reads something I write and it has an impact on them, publishing my thoughts will be worth it (at least if you agree with my values).

A whole lot of yap. I know. I like to look at the world based on motivations, intentionality, and by asking "Why?". It would feel bad scrutinizing others' intentions without laying out my own.

Should you read anything I say with any sense of authority? Of course not. I'm just a naive 18 year old. But when it comes to unanswerable philosophical questions, should you really take anyone's view as authoritative? I don't think so.

So, I hope you will consider my perspective of life and the world, and join me as I go through the process of forming it.