Perhaps a counterpoint to this post [1] yesterday? I sympathize, but I'm not sure I buy it.
> There are no dates
Perhaps not here, but the author's Current Projects page [2] certainly has one.
Anyone who's worked at a large enough company will know that documentation goes out of date constantly, and I figure something similar applies for personal websites. If anything, blogging does a much better job of showing its situation in time.
> a quantity over quality issue that I refuse to fall for
This seems to be the crux of the argument, but I think this is a false dichotomy. Regular deliberate practice (i.e. quantity) produces quality over time. The difference is that blogging makes this process public.
I think this is a good thing overall. Any field has perfectionists like Vergil or Gauss who hid the process that produced their extraordinary work. And while that certainly creates an extraordinary effect (and I certainly don't think every project needs to show how the sausage is made), it sets a perfectionist culture where good work emerges as if ex nihilo.
I would rather set the tone for an experimental and iterative culture, where most of the daily work is so-so but we see the process build to something great over time. And if that encourages others to show their not-so-perfect process and start publishing, I think that's a wonderful thing.
> There are no dates
Perhaps not here, but the author's Current Projects page [2] certainly has one.
Anyone who's worked at a large enough company will know that documentation goes out of date constantly, and I figure something similar applies for personal websites. If anything, blogging does a much better job of showing its situation in time.
> a quantity over quality issue that I refuse to fall for
This seems to be the crux of the argument, but I think this is a false dichotomy. Regular deliberate practice (i.e. quantity) produces quality over time. The difference is that blogging makes this process public.
I think this is a good thing overall. Any field has perfectionists like Vergil or Gauss who hid the process that produced their extraordinary work. And while that certainly creates an extraordinary effect (and I certainly don't think every project needs to show how the sausage is made), it sets a perfectionist culture where good work emerges as if ex nihilo.
I would rather set the tone for an experimental and iterative culture, where most of the daily work is so-so but we see the process build to something great over time. And if that encourages others to show their not-so-perfect process and start publishing, I think that's a wonderful thing.
Or maybe I'm just biased because I blog. [3]
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29908077
[2]: https://kolemcrae.com/current-projects/
[3]: https://arunkprasad.com/log/why-i-blog/