Writing #
Everything on this website is written, edited, and proofread by yours truly. Hence, the lack of perfection. Occasionally, I have someone close to me take a look, but for the most part the whole process is a bit of a solo affair. And it will remain so even with the possibilities of generative A.I.. In other words, my own writing will not be A.I.-assisted (e.g. conceptual work, draft writing, etc). However, I want to be clear that I am in no way against working with (generative) A.I. to help us enhance our abilities and to push our own limits beyond what we can achieve alone. For example, I don’t mind working with A.I. on song lyrics as I appreciate music from the listener’s perspective and not as a medium to express my own thoughts and feelings. So whenever you see the potential for a collaborative approach to help you grow, seize the opportunity. That said, I have multiple reasons to keep the writing task for myself:
Purpose #
My writing projects can take between a few days and, at this point, up to a couple of years. Essentially, it is an excellent solution for answering the question: What path am I supposed to choose for my life? Picking a writing project and sticking with it gives me an incredible sense of direction. Outsourcing the challenges that come with the (digital) pen and paper is therefore not an option. But more importantly, I love to write. In combination with my headphones and some good music, I shall remain perfectly pleased.
Authenticity #
The first reason for me to ensure the authenticity behind what you read goes back to purpose. Not being authentic would rob me of my own purpose and, therefore, I have no choice but the genuine approach. The second reason is actually motivated by A.I.: by being my most authentic when it comes to expressing myself, I’ll be able to properly fine-tune my local A.I. so that it can express itself in my language. In time, this will allow me to ask it to explain complex topics in my own metaphors as well as linguistically structured in ways that I’m most receptive to. Put simply, I want to do my part to help it become my perfect teacher. Authenticity shall be the foundation.
Non-Commercial #
In this day and age, financial value could be extracted from my efforts behind creating what you see on this website — not from the creations themselves. Once published on a website, they are digitally accessible and, thus, abundant by default. No paywall nor copyright is going to change that. Basically, since I work on my own and explore things that interest me, I am not the one in charge of expressing the monetary value of my published work. That would be you. So if you happen to get something of value out of my published work and would like to express that financially, I’ll let you figure out what that value means for you. Besides, being aware of that unburdens me of the need to compete and to find ever more insidious ways to monetize my own publications. In a nutshell: I shall not sell out as it would rob me of my authenticity and, thus, my purpose.
Illustrations #
As opposed to the writing, illustrations are primarily a means to an end for me: to complement the writing. Unfortunately, words alone can only go so far when it comes to expressing ourselves. By branching out to other modalities we can thus make complexity more accessible at the fraction of the effort required by a purely linguistic approach. As such, I do work with (generative) A.I. to help me illustrate my ideas. The reason is simple: as I lack the dexterity to do it myself and as I want to prioritize the research and writing over practicing how to illustrate by hand, I use my linguistic skills to enhance my rudimentary drawing abilities instead.
To get a bit of an understanding behind my approach, I suggest you take a look at the following piece:
The difference in effort behind the illustrations you’ll discover on this website can be rather extreme: once (linguistically) conceptualized, some images take mere seconds to come into existence. Others, however, can take days of manual work even in conjunction with A.I.. That being said, where I draw a line is at the conceptual level: I do not work with A.I. as a substitute for the thinking. Again, that would remove the authenticity and rob me of my purpose.
With that in mind, unless stated otherwise and except for the thumbnails in the Spotlight section (which is supposed to give you a glimpse into other people’s creations), all visual materials on this website have been fully conceived by myself. Also, the thumbnails are usually somewhat (metaphorically) connected to the publication they accompany. So while some of them are fairly quickly created, I still put some thought into them.
Technical #
Technically, this website relies on the following main components:
- Hugo: a static website generator
- Blowfish: a Hugo theme
- Kate: a text editor for everything related to my writings and configs
- Git / Gitea: a (self-hosted) version control system
- Gitlab Pages: my current choice for publishing the website
- My own (minor) CSS / HTML customizations
Privacy #
As I value my own privacy, I definitely want to make sure that yours remains intact as well. In short, this website:
- is completely ad-free
- has no analytics whatsoever
There’s no reason for me to know who and how many people visit my humble digital abode — unless you want to let me know by getting in touch. Also, I do not wish to know which ones of my writings are more or less popular. Besides, those aspects come second to my desire to write about what interests me and how I would like to express that. Remember: authenticity, purpose and so on. That being said, I’m always open to discussion, feedback and suggestions. If they align with my writings, I will find a way to integrate them into my work.
Lastly, I try to make it a rule not to link to websites that don’t respect their visitors’ privacy or come with ads. However, if I happen to link to a website that does not completely satisfy that rule (e.g. a source I want to use in one of my writings), I do recommend the open source browser add-on uBlock Origin. In its simplest form, it is a very effective ad blocker — and it comes with plenty of advanced features.
Being Notified #
When it comes to publishing, I just go with the flow. So to stay updated automatically, look for this icon at the top of the website (or inside the menu on mobile when you tap on ).
By clicking on inside your web browser, you’d be directed to an unusual-looking web page. In other words, wait before you click because something is still missing.
Welcome to RSS! Here’s the concept in a nutshell:
Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator, which constantly monitor sites for new content, removing the need for the user to manually check them.
RSS feeds are meant to be opened using an RSS reader or aggregator — which is why they look weird when you open them like a normal link in your web browser. So here’s a link to different readers to get you started. Once you’ve installed an RSS reader, simply add this website’s RSS link to stay notified whenever I publish something new.
Why use RSS? On my website, it is part of my responsibility to help you maintain and protect your privacy by providing you with the necessary tools. As such, RSS allows you to follow updates from this site without sharing your email address or any personal information. Of note: as mentioned earlier, I don’t track visitors and won’t know if you subscribe to my RSS feed. However, other website owners may have different approaches.
In case you need help, you can drop me a note via email. Of course, if you care more about secrecy than privacy, avoid using anything with your real name.
Author #
In a nutshell, I have a background in curiosity and my experience comes from:
- work on things I enjoy
- stuff that I find tedious
- people who are kind enough to share some of their wisdom with me
- not so kind people who put obstacles in my way
If you like to know more, feel free to get in touch.