The past while I’ve started to take a random quote and put it on this blog. Sometimes there’s commentary and sometimes it is just the quote. I’m not sure how useful this all is to the random person going by but the target market for this website is me, not anyone else. The purpose is to build up a habit and an ability to write and to communicate. So this is what this is about
It is inspired heavily by a few different sources, namely this post about creating a linkblog by Simon Wilson and Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen. In both of those, while being blogs, the main content is usually short pieces or links to other places on the web with short sentences or paragraphs exploring the link. I’m thinking to start at a relatively easy place that is what I can do.
The easiest source for content on this is using Readwise daily review. In that it gives me 5 random quotes I’ve saved over the years. The thing is I never really use those quotes for anything and reading them doesn’t give me much benefit. Read anything about how to improve your learning and the most beneficial ways is to do spaced repetition and to make use of the learning - put it in your own words. So that is what this blog is about. Taking those quotes and putting my own words below them. Much of the time there won’t be much said and what will be said won’t make much sense. But it will hopefully help me grow my own ability to write.
So far I’ve done about a week and it mostly has been grand. The weekends are always a bit different as I’m away or not in my usual routine but during the week I can usually find a few minutes in the morning, at lunch, or after work, where I can find a quote and write a few quick sentences. It does force me to think and remember where the quote came from and what it is about.
Of course sometimes there’s not much to say, either the quotes aren’t all that interesting or I’m just not in the mood, but even just the process of going through the 5 quotes and picking out one that stands out is something that is beneficial. Writing something about it just adds more value.