i'm daily blogging again

hello void Internet!

i'm going to be writing again! it's been too dang long. anyway, i'm going to be very verbose, do a lot of throat clearing, because i'm rusty... so if you want concision, go find your LLM :)

let's start with a meta post about writing, because that's how i always start.

the why is the same as last time (see):

1.to have fun
2. to make life feel more meaningful
3. to connect with friends (and sometimes Internet strangers)

i've gotten really good at making writing fun tbh. i'm choosing daily blogging (plus not emailing out the writing for now) because it makes the writing low stakes, like play. (there's a larger principle in life here where anything that is low stakes feels like play. anything that is high stakes is work. a lot of making life fun is just managing the stakes, whether through your own mindset or making external changes. wow i've missed digressions. does anyone know that bit in catcher in the rye where that boy in class makes a speech with a bunch of tangents and the teacher puts him down for it but holden caufield is like wait but i love tangents? anyway i am really not primarily writing this for you, the reader... unless you made it to the end of this digression, in that case i love you)

BUT THE THING I WANT TO CHANGE.

i need this dang habit to be sustainable 😢 i suck at that. more broadly, i get too into my hobbies and then i burn out.

i actually shared this question on reddit back in sept:

question (don't u dare look up my reddit acct)

"""

Question: How can I keep my hobbies simple such that they don't become overwhelming?

Situation:

I have this pattern:

1. I pick up a hobby (e.g. learning a language, blogging, coding).
2. It starts as a fun simple activity and it brings me a lot of joy.
3. But eventually it becomes a todo list item. It becomes a todo I have to do before bed on a weeknight, or a todo I have to keep in my mind to potentially do on the weekend. It can feel a bit like a chore. A contract to do XYZ regularly. And I have too many things to do already!
4. Then usually I dramatically quit the hobby.
5. Finally I proceed to feel guilty in the years to come for having abandoned it.

How can I approach hobbies in a more sustainable way? Currently my solution has been to stop doing more involved hobbies which is a little sad.

Appreciate any input!

"""

responses

there were some lovely responses that i won't focus on rn, basically the answer was IT'S OK MAN it's ok to leave hobbies and come back to them

however

however, i would like this next writing streak to last a while (maybe forever). honestly the main enemy of my writing streak is that i freaking suck at cutting scope wrt writing. like why am i writing this long ass post for this simple announcement.

more generally, seth godin and my boy james (when he was daily blogging) were comfortable writing short posts, often one-idea posts. but often i'd come up with a epic how-to guide idea at 1am and then stay up another 2 hours writing it.

there's probably a few levers i can pull here, but the main thing i want to do in the name of sustainability:

CUT SCOPE.

anyways goodbye, see you tomorrow!

p.s. i am really sad at some of things i didn't capture on the page in the period of not writing. namely, my korea trip, my time at recurse center, my decision to turn down working at palantir, being an engineer at valon again, growing out my hair, reflections on kdramas i watched particularly our beloved summer and our unwritten seoul, also many beautiful, beautiful moments with friends and family, reflections on middlemarch, LOTR, but hey the second best time to plant a tree is now! wow i really can't shut up. rishi leave the page)