I'm starting a blog because I hate public speaking

I hate public speaking. My fingers go numb and my heart beats out of my chest. The words don’t come out right, and I don’t sound like I know what I’m talking about. I can’t convince myself, let alone a listener, that I am speaking with authority.

This weakness of mine conflicts with the opinion I hold: “You only really know a concept when you can teach it to others.” I explain things much better one-on-one in pairing situations, but one can only pair so many times in a day and I have so many thoughts I would love to share and record.

Besides disliking public speaking, I feel like the written word is the superior medium because:

1. It is quicker to skim or peruse¹

2. It is more searchable

3. You can save or bookmark these notes to make them your own

4. In the context of software development tutorials, a written tutorial is easier to copy-paste snippets of code from

So I’m starting a blog!

I’m pretty new at this, and my inner voice is naturally a skeptic so the ideas I post here still may not convince you that I know what I’m talking about much more than if I was behind a microphone on a stage and shaking like a leaf. More than anything I am here to share my learnings and taking the stance that learning in public is the best motivator. I’m viewing this blog as the tech equivalent of doing an open mic. I’m working out the rough patches and asking my peers, “How does this sound?”.

Follow my instructions at your own discretion, but I hope you all enjoy reading!

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¹ Did you know peruse means “read (something), typically in a thorough or careful way”? For example: "he has spent countless hours in libraries perusing art history books and catalogues". Until recently, I thought it meant “to skim”. Quite literally the opposite.