2023: Layers upon layers – the latest “start here” page is now “ref“.
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Last updated: ~2021
Like many things in my life, my blog is a delightful mess. It’s a sprawling junkyard of notes, links, essays, reflections and it has a life of its own. There have been times when I have attempted to start something new from scratch, but it invariably ends up accumulating junk and mess like the rest of my stuff. I am done resisting this fact, and I choose to embrace it.
Frequently Shared Posts:
- The Library Ethos – this is a new post, but I wrote it to be the cornerstone post of my blog – something that I think captures my fundamental philosophy and approach to life, which informs all of my utterances and actions. If you want to get to know me, this is a good place to start.
- Bookmarks that I often share with friends – a collection of links to posts that I revisit often.
- Relationships are challenging + a lot of work – this is a “threadpost” – ie, a blogpost that’s made up of twitter threads that I’ve written. My wife and I married at 22, and so we’ve had the unusual privilege of being married a lot longer than our peers (who are starting to get hitched around now). So we have some experience that we’d like to share.
- How to build and maintain communities – I have always been passionate about good communities, and dismayed at how fleeting they tend to be. This is a collection of links, thoughts and ideas I’ve had about them.
- Being Smart vs Being Kind – One of the most important changes in my life was about learning to become less of a belligerent asshole.
- ‘Smart Writing’ is about cultivating taste, suspending judgement and chasing your curiosity – funnily, the trick to smart writing is to worry less about being smart, and pursuing whatever you think is interesting.
- Letter To A Young Songwriter – This applies to all creative work. Don’t worry too much about making great work, or about having fun – just be prolific, and both will happen as a consequence.
- An Analysis of Power And Social Dynamics In ‘Mean Girls’ – I wrote this in 2014 and it’s somehow still one of the best things I’ve ever written.
- One must imagine Sisyphus LOL-ing – existence can be bleak, but it’s also funny. This is a pretty decent representation of my personal approach to managing the widely-perceived crisis of existence.
- The instructions I wish I was given (As a newbie startup marketer) – this is a ‘reflecting on my career’ post that I often share with young people starting out in their own careers.
- When arguing, seek to understand the other person’s context. This is the long game.
- Taste is the beating heart of all creative value. I talk about this in (5), but it bears repeating because taste is truly one of the most precious resources on the planet. We need more of it, and we’re bad at cultivating it.
Why this blog exists
Love. I’ve loved the Internet since I was a little boy, the same way people love libraries and bookstores. It gives me a sense of possibility. I’ve always wanted to have a “Room Of My Own” on the web, and this is it. I’ve had websites and blogs ever since I was a kid.
Peopling. Derek Sivers has this great quote about how every breakthrough comes from someone you know, so you get out there and know people. Having a blog allows people to find me, via Google or other means.
Storage. I use this blog as a repository, as a thinking tool, as a working space. It’s a work in progress, it’s messy, it doesn’t make a lot of sense a lot of the time. I will try to tidy it up from time to time, but overall I think it’s going to always be messy because it’s a representation of my mind – which can be a messy place. (2023 update: I’m moving most “storage” type posts over to /archives/)
More later.
What else?
I am most active and prolific on Twitter at @visakanv. People often ask me about the header image in my Twitter bio, which you can check out here.
Check out my my ebooks FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD and INTROSPECT!
I have a Substack! visakanv.substack.com
I’d love it if you subscribed to my youtube channel: youtube.com/visakanv