21 Oct 2012

Shying away from success

I wonder if I have been shying away from success.  I know I fear the unknown.  What happens after completing a task or project is probably “new and unknown”, and I subconsciously avoid it just so that I don’t have to face unknowns.

15 Oct 2012

No parentheses

I think the next improvement I should make to my writing is to drastically reduce the number of times I include notes in parentheses.  They make reading unnecessarily hard without adding much value.

7 Oct 2012

Bad writing

I was chatting with a friend and remembered something I had blogged about.  Naturally, I shared the link to the post.  That post was written two years ago, and it wasn’t the best of my writing.  After reading, she said I had come a long way from that point and I write much better these days.

I didn’t start writing because I wanted to become better at writing; I have always been a person who likes to write... it’s a way of self-expression for me.  English isn’t my first language, but my primary blog (this blog) is in English.  God only knows why.  My posts from years ago are nothing to be bragged about.  They are childish thoughts expressed in an awkward way.  Not that I have become a great writer now, but I have improved over time.

The way to improve writing is to exercise bad writing.  You know your writing is horrible, and yet you keep on writing.  Some day you’ll find yourself writing like a good writer.  I don’t know about others, but my takeaway from this is that there isn’t anything inherently good or bad.  Everything is equally good and bad.

Going back to writing well.  As I said, I like writing.  I think good writing should feel like the writer wrote it effortlessly... like words dancing together to make the text, and not like odd components stacked together.  If I were to wish, I’d say I want to write like Rob Pike or Bruce Eckel.  Those are two authors I loved reading... people from whom I have learned many things.

If you have been trying to become better at something, I think you’d like watching this video.  (Source: Daring Fireball)

Winning and losing

If you’re not willing to lose, you have a rather slim chance of winning.