It’s been a few years since my last blog post, but I find myself wanting to write again. Despite my previous attempts at blogging, I never settled into a regular habit. So I’ve decided to reboot this blog, with a goal: to write more, and more often.

There are really two things I hope to get out of this effort. The first is to take seriously the idea of writing-as-learning. In my present stage of life, with my workdays sliced as thin as salami and my home life focused on keeping up with a small child, I simply don’t have as much time to think deeply about things as I used to. I miss that. My hope is that by developing a writing habit, I can better leverage the time I do have. Gone are the days of spending a weekend hacking on a personal project or digesting a complex mathematical argument. But I can find an hour here and there to write.

The second thing I hope to achieve is to change how I relate to the broader internet. When I first experienced the internet in the late 90s, it felt like such a strange and wonderful place. Part of this was the novelty of it, but the early internet was also fundamentally open and personal. Although the internet of today is a much larger and, in some ways, more connected than ever, I’ve nonetheless grown increasingly disenchanted. These days, I mostly engage with the internet passively – ‘consuming content’ through a handful of link aggregators or social media sites. While I don’t expect to rekindle the original magic of the internet, blogging feels like a meaningful way to re-engage as an active participant.

I don’t know exactly what this blog will turn into, but I’m making a personal commitment: over the next year, I aim to write roughly one ’long form’ post a month. I’ll also aim to share shorter, less polished, posts more frequently.

Finally, I’ve switched from Hakyll to Hugo for this site. Hugo isn’t perfect, but tinkering with my old setup feels like too much work right now. (Heck, I don’t even feel like installing Haskell on this machine!) Hugo lets me get started quickly, and I can always tinker later. For now, it’s time to write.