On Beginning

The hardest part of writing in public isn't writing. It's clicking publish on something that feels half-formed.

Why a personal site

I've been writing notes for roughly six months And I do have this mental block and in regards to the ideas that I develop and there's this restriction I have created and in regards to sharing them with others. Some are complex ideas, some are ideas that even I get confused when I look back at them. Some are factually false because of me not having enough knowledge in the subject matter, but I think it is necessary for me to put out these ideas on a public website so that I may iterate on them as time progresses. I will as a goal, not be using AI to write essays, as it will diminish what I want to express. But there will be moments I find AI to be a poweful tool for testing and developing ideas through conversations.

The three voices

I'm trying out three voices on this site:

• Essays — the slow, structured kind. Arguments I'd be willing to defend. A lot of the times I will be narrating them. Some will be conversational back and forth as ideas develop. I do often leverge semantic AI tools to refine ideas, as they serve as powerful thinking partners.
• Tools — small interactive things. Mental models of my own visualized through interactive tools rather than essays. In my notebooks, I often draw diagrams which I believe can be better understood not as static drawings but interactive tools.
• Notes — quick observations and reflections. Half-formed thoughts that might become essays later, or might not. Life as it develops.

The notebook is older than the book. It's worth keeping the relationship between them visible.

What I expect

Some of this won't age well. Some will. The point isn't to be right. The point is to think in public, slowly, and let the record stand.

— Aakash