Over the years, I've often contemplated starting a blog, but kept putting it off for both technical and personal reasons. The main technical reasons being that I couldn't agree on a blogging platform that would best meet my needs and when I did find a platform that was close to what I felt that I need, the geek in me with get so involved in experimenting with the features of the platform that I’d never get around to creating the content. I ultimately decided that the best solution is to just create my content in documents on my Google Drive which should make it relatively easy to transfer between platforms if needed.
On a personal level, one of the main reasons that have kept me from publishing a blog is the fact that it could be very much be a one way relationship where somebody could incorrectly form an opinion regarding my thoughts, opinions or views without me having the opportunity to know that they have formed this opinion. Specifically, that this opinionated person could be could be a past, present or future client or employer that used some type of litmus test to form their opinion of people. After thinking about it though, I've come to the same conclusion that Steve Jones has regarding litmus tests and that is if there is a single thing that makes you decide on an issue, then I think that you are being closed-minded. I’m a very open-minded individual on many topics, but particularly when it come it comes to technical topics.
With that in mind, I’ve ultimately decided that the benefits of a technical blog far outweigh any disadvantages. I’m also trusting that anybody taking the time to read this blog will give me the opportunity to discuss with them any opinion good or bad that may form regarding my musings and thus enabling both of us to grow intellectually. My main intention is for this blog to be my personal reference for the knowledge that I've gained over the years and if it possibly helps somebody else out along the way then even better. I subscribe to one of the philosophies promoted by David Allen in his Getting Things Done book and that is my mind is for processing and not storage.
When I look back on what has made me successful in my career, it is being able to strike a balance between the optimal technical solution and what is going to make or save my employer or customer money. Every line of code that I've written might not be perfect, but the finished product will be efficient, reliable, maintainable and fulfill the needs of the end user. I might not be able to recite the nuances of C++ from the top of my head like Bjarne Stroustrup or to know every nuance of socket programming like Douglas Comer, but I don’t feel that this should be taken as lacking “depth of experience” in a one of these areas as I’ve definitely proficient in both of these areas and have enough intuition to consult the relevant reference material when needed. It is my hope that this blog will help make this reference material more easily accessible to myself and any other random person exploring a topic.
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