My First Post

I have bought a domain and found somewhere to host a blog, and I am not yet sure why. Perhaps I will find out in the course of this experiment.

I've called the blog nescience, meaning "ignorance", which I think is fitting because everything that I may post to this blog will be written from a position of ignorance. I think it will therefore all be largely incorrect. Yet through writing and communicating understanding, however tenuous said understanding may be, it is my hope that I will eventually be able to move through ignorance and into some degree of knowing.

Having a blog has always seemed somewhat silly to me: why would anyone want to read what I have written? I am not that interesting, nor is my writing particularly illuminating. Any insight I have into some topic is primarily derivative of other, more insightful takes. It has never felt necessary to add my voice into the chorus of the internet. Previously, I would have assumed motivation to do so would have been simple, self-centred desire to be heard. Now, I realise there is more nuance (as there always is) to writing and publishing.

I do not have a writing habit despite my best efforts to form one. And I would like to be able to write due to the many benefits being able to effectively articulate a subject confers: greater clarity for the writer and understanding for the reader, structure to unstructured knowledge, the promotion of further questions and avenues of understanding that arise while reviewing and communicating on a subject. Ultimately, I think that writing as a means to learn and sharing what I am learning will help me in growing my knowledge, cultivating my skill set, and developing me as a person.

Accordingly, I have set up this blog and, if I can keep my promise to myself, I will begin writing and publishing that which I deem worthwhile to share. I think, initially at the very least, I will largely be writing opinion-based pieces on a range of topics. Vibe-essays seems to be a suitable term. There will be a distinct lack of rigour and depth of exploration for the most part. These are skills that I am looking to develop and perhaps, writing more will aid me in doing so. My interests lie broadly in technology, philosophy, and politics — primarily through a systems lens — so it seems like a safe assumption that my writing will primarily focus on these domains.

And scarily, this will all be completely visible to the wider internet. Motivation for being visible rather than hidden in my own personal files is two-fold. Firstly, being public means I have some degree of accountability with regard to the quality of my writing. As I currently am, I do not enjoy the idea of outputting substandard work to the wider world. There is impetus, therefore, to be focused on quality. Secondly, in being public, and thus having a potential audience, there is some pressure to continue writing; it would not be proper to leave an audience waiting.

I doubt I will get an audience beyond my future self, but perhaps someone may stumble on this site and find something worthwhile. Thus: hello and welcome.