I’ve been working on a handful of different posts for this blog since I deployed it a couple weeks back. I’ve found it nice to have a medium through which I can try to explain how I feel about events happening in my life. I’m hoping it will make me a better writer, and I hope it will eventually make me a better developer (although the amount of programming posts I’m working on is currently very small).
But as I’ve been typing out my feelings, I’ve been surprised at how opinionated (and perhaps, by extension, potentially abrasive) I sound about certain things. I’ve never personally identified as being a subject matter expert in anything or someone with overly strong feelings, so it has been interesting to see my opinions written out. I don’t think there’s anything bad about opinions, but I think it’s easy to become dogmatic about thinking there is a “right way” instead of recognizing “this is my way and I am open to hearing about why you do things your way”. When minimalism becomes fixated on having a limited list of possessions, you participate in heavy-metal-subgenre-pedantry, or you hurtfully gatekeep and exclude people from your group because they’re not adhering to your ultra-specific criteria, you’ve missed the mark. When I share my opinions here I’m not looking to create a definitive list of appropriate behaviors and to reject all alternatives.
If there’s one piece of advice or general opinion I am passionate about it’s that you should take all advice (especially mine!) with a grain of salt. I will never think social media is a good thing or that any perceived value it adds to your life is worth the tradeoffs. I will never think the pursuit and collection of physical possesions is a worthwhile life goal. I will always be sceptical of artifical sweeteners. I’ve put some thought in why I feel this way and am happy to share but recognize this is just me.
So please, if I sound like a jerk just roll your eyes. I am just a person on the internet and we probably won’t agree on everything and that is ok.