(Almost) no one cares

2022 was the year I got over myself and pressed publish.

For maybe 10 years(?!) I have had some form of “start blogging” or “write more” included as part of my goals set at the start of the year.

Finally, in the latter half of this year, I think I’ve finally got the hang of writing and publishing regularly. I feel much more comfortable with it.

I was somewhat visible and reasonably active in web-dev Twitter’s heyday like 8-6 years ago. I think it warped my perception of how people behave on the internet. There was a time when I couldn’t post a Tweet without having some dude correct me and/or explain something to me (that I already knew). It was exhausting and maddening. So I stopped Tweeting. I stopped sharing. I withdrew.

In 2021 I started blogging again but it was hard to maintain a steady pace because publishing still felt pretty uncomfortable. I would spend too long editing, worrying about what people would think about my words. Every time I published I would feel anxious about being judged harshly.

This year I did some inner work around my issues with perfectionism, decided my site was a digital garden, not a blog, declared that It’s okay for me to be wrong and started sharing without overthinking about it first.

Here’s the funny thing: after all that internal drama and the effort it took to just publish some notes on this website… hardly anyone reads it. Sometimes, a note will get shared in a newsletter and receive a few hundred pageviews, but mostly the traffic is low. Low low.

And here’s the cool thing: from the few people who do happen to read these notes, there’s often someone who connects with what I’ve written, and they let me know. Every time I’ve thought “this is a niche subject or random thought, no one will be interested but I’ll publish anyway” someone will let me know that it was the EXACT train of thought they were thinking or thing they were looking for.

I’m looking forward to improving my writing and thinking process in 2023, with the added benefit of connecting with similar minds and souls along the way. Will you join me?