What am I trying to do here

This blog, quite obviously, exists. It’s been around for a bit but I’ve actually posted here a lot more the past two weeks, partially as a result of meds changes and then re-writing the site one afternoon to be nice and simple and easy to post to from IAwriter.

Right now it’s an attempt to build something of a public daily writing practice, because I think that will help me think better: Twitter is my normal outlet for this stuff and it has all sorts of affordances which make it terrible for thinking with, and also terrible for communicating anything about complex events. The tight feedback loop of the likes and the retweets always calls though- Especially when something needs attention or funds.

I also want it to be a place for documenting failures and successes, doing debreifs in public so others can learn: I’m not sure I’m ready to do too much of that publicly, given I’m only just recovering from precarity, and similar attempts going bad.

My writing is still quire reactive. I’m talking about things on the news, and worse, things on twitter. I’d like to change that.

Soon, hopefully, I think it will be a place to begin doing longer term thinking. I’ve got a lot of experiences to process, and a lot of thoughts that people keep getting as intense rants, which are better suited for longer writing and being more easy to hold alongside each other than twitter threads.

I want to live up to the URL as well: Every medium I can communicate in right now has absolutely no space for nuance or complexity. I think thinking that engages seriously with the other side of an argument, and with context, is sorely needed.

I think it’s a little offputting when I write something like overpressure which is simply trying to help people understand something, and not argue for a specific policy. I think it’s also helpful when I write something like the ukraine solidarity guide which comes from a perspective which is little heard(refugee admissions were…not really on the table at that point).

So then a second generation outcome I want, beyond helping me think, is to help other people think. The culture of blogging was incredibly inspiring to me as a tiny person when I first encountered it, and I think it inspired a lot of thought. I don’t hope to inspire, tbqh, but I think if I can provide context and remind people that there are positions beyond theirs and the one they’re most used to arguing against, that’s good.

Part of that is showing people how I’m thinking, and not just the conclusions. It’s going to be messy. And probably badly spelt. And capitalised. like this post tbqh.

Mostly, right now, it’s a place to put text on the internet- it’s ok if it stays there.