I may be getting more eyes on this blog as I continue writing articles and including my blog in my resumes, so I figured now would be a good time to clarify what this blog is, and what this blog isn’t.
Trophy case
This blog is not to show off my achievements. On my peers’ websites, I often see that their content consists of a collection of achievements, awards, etc. For example, they may show popular projects they started, stories of how they won a competition, etc. Displaying these accomplishments at the top of their site is very attractive to recruiters, who scan through candidates’ information and identify them as the sum of their achievements. This is undeniably an effective strategy and one I may eventually employ myself as a tactical matter.
Readers may be getting an impression of my disdain for this achievement culture. Such an impression is warranted for it is true, however I want to note that this disdain is not targeted to those who comply. Those who comply are simply playing the game and executing proven strategies. My condemnation is not directed particular individuals, whether it be the candidates wanting to prove their worth or recruiters who look for the most effective candidate. No, my disdain is directed to the culture itself.
Thus, if I employ this strategy, I shall do it out of spite. I commit to putting out accurate information, but I will do it in a tongue-and-cheek sort of way to mock this culture.
Guides
This blog is also not a collection of technical guides. When I search for technical information, I’ll often find detailed technical guides written in blogs ranked highly in the search engine. These sorts of articles are pretty clearly targeted for SEO (search engine optimization). They include and repeat certain keywords, they make the content digestable and idiot-proof, and they exclude all information irrelevant to the technical task. I hold these articles and their writers in high regard. They provide incredible information for free and their appeal to SEO and the lowest common denominator is what makes them accessible.
Nonetheless, my technical talk is (usually) not written with the intention of teaching or appealing to the masses. Although I respect those articles, they lack soul. My technical talk is littered with asides, anecdotes, stories, etc. and I wish to keep it that way, regardless of whether readers can follow or make use of the information I put out.
Again, as a matter of prudence, I may start writing the sorts of soul-less guides to appeal to the masses (and recruiters, because who doesn’t like candidates who know what they’re talking about?) but such a move will be spiteful and done in a way to mock the culture.
Me, me, me!
By the time you read this, this site may be sanitized (at least on the surface, hah!), so let me describe it as it is in the current state and what I want it to be.
Monkey City (the current name of the blog) is ultimately a blog unapologetically about myself: my ideals, my goals, my thoughts, my whims. At least in the context of this website, I’d like to reject and rebel against the norms. Articles are written however I like, with whatever clarity I like, and about whatever I want. If I had more time and patience, I would’ve written this website from scratch instead of using WordPress and imbued it with more of my soul, like my previous website: written as a mixture of a joke and a statement in raw HTML and CSS with vim while I was connected to the server it was hosted on, trying to emulate the anarchical nature of the early 2000s’ internet.
I don’t want this place to have spotless stone-tiled and heated floors, marbled tables, perfectly arranged furnishing, fancy new gadgets that get replaced next year or break once the manufacturer shuts off a server in the dreary confines of the house designed by the modern cubist architect. I want this place to have that leather chair with all of my jackets hanging off of it, peeling from wear over dozens of years, that one plank in the floor that creaks ever so slightly as I walk over it, the awkward walkways from a poor positioning of furnishing and how the furnishing styles completely clash with each other. I don’t want this place to be stripped of its character, sanitized to meet some arbitrary standards and homogenized with everything else. I want to let this place just be.
I thought that writing this post would be more satisfying than it ended up being. In the end, I know I will likely have to change the outward appearance of this website to meet certain goals and lose its identity in the process. Yes, I could have an outward, public-facing blog and another private blog for my own antics, but I find this even less desirable. I speak with melancholy because, as you may have picked up by now, I see the blog as a reflection of myself and myself as a reflection of the blog.
Bah, but I’m being melodramatic in entertaining such trivialities! Let nature take its course.
