Transcript: Blogging (Part 6): Looking back

Posted on October 6th, 2011 by Sacha Chua

Hat-tip to Holly Tse for organizing this interview! At the end of the blog series, I’ll put them all together in a text file and a PDF that you can read easily, and I’ll add insights you and other people might share along the way. =) (Find previous entries) Here’s the sixth chunk!

Holly Tse: So, I have to ask you then… When you started blogging, or even today, do you ever sometimes read your posts and go, “Man, I’m boring, and oops, I think my grammar’s funny”?

Sacha Chua: Occasionally, I let embarrassing typos slip through. A lot of the times, I’m looking back at my posts from two years or six months ago and I’m thinking, “I wrote that?” Most of the time, it’s a good “I wrote that?” though. Sometimes it’s a “Wow, I’ve come a long way since then” kind of “I wrote that?” But it’s fascinating because when you give yourself enough time to be unfamiliar with the things that you’ve written down – which means that you’ve been writing for a while and you’ve made a habit of it – and you have it in a way that you can refer back to, not like… So, in my pre-blogging days, I kept a journal sporadically. Most of the time, I’d get a fourth of the way through a notebook and then I’d misplace it, or I’d lose interest in all that stuff, and it would be hard to go back to those notes again.

But with a blog, especially with a blog that’s backed up, I can go back to old stuff. And that’s how I can see, oh yeah, here’s where my thinking is different now. Back then, I used to think that having a relationship would get in the way of the cool things I want to do with my life. Now I can see that having a good relationship can support the things I want to do with my life. You get to do that kind of spot-the-difference thing, and that helps you learn even more about who you are and who you want to be.

So yeah, I’ve had those moments. I’ve had bugs in my published code. I’ve embarrassing typos. I’ve had places where I was just plain wrong, and places where I’ve changed my opinion, but that’s part of being human. All in all, I’m really glad I’ve got that record.

Tune in next Thursday for the next part in this series! I’ll add new entries to the Discovering Yourself through Blogging page to make it easier for you to find them.

More posts about: blogging, tips, writing // 2 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/22464

http://franklinchen.com/ Franklin Chen

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been following your blog for some months now (I think), accidentally finding it when looking for information about org-mode for Emacs, and I’ve rather enjoyed the many topics you discuss here, and I’m especially appreciative for the reflections on blogging, since it’s been exactly two weeks since I started my blog! The experience you share is very helpful in keeping me going.
- http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua
  
  Yay! Glad you’re writing. =)

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