2024-11-07
(This is entry 31 of #100DaysToOffload)
I have know of course of the concept of a blog as a garden: where, instead of a stream of entries ordered by date, there is a garden like structure: entries have reference others, to allow for following a path, almost. I am currently operating more of a tradition stream-like blog. I developed the tools with that in mind; only after I've done the work do I realise the mistake.
And then, I think of other sites which have this more desirable structure: I can then go back and feel less guilt at modifying entries I have already written, and have the blog as more of a zone where I can put out ideas I have, in the form of short, unstructured snippets, which coalesce to something greater: @@[a blog as a series of collected thoughts][/blog/collected-thoughts]. They coalesce to form the notion and ideas I entertain, and have entertained (inherently mixed into the present is the past).
Rather separately, I notice that I have implicit restrictions in my mind. I did not think, the whole time I was building the scripts for the website in this way, that I should consider a different structure to the traditional stream.
When writing Zig recently too, I was struggling with a programming problem. I cannot not get std.mem.replace() to perform multiple replaces all at once using the same allocated space. Probably on me, but also, I have realised that I tend to program strictly on my own. I rarely communicate it with anyone. In fact, I used to avoid even getting too involved with SQL at work, despite my love for it (though temptation, and the needs of the job, have now gotten the best of me, which makes me enjoy the job more in turn). This is an implicit restriction: I lived by it without knowing it had been (self)imposed. It took only a moment of clarity to realise this: I could far more easy have solved many of the issues I have had if I had just asked. I had the same moment when a colleague told me I could just leave my work shoes under my desk, instead of carrying them in my bag every day to and from work. I had performed this for many months without thought. I recently began to wear short sleeves at work, which I have perceived as verboten for the whole of my working life (five years): naturally, nobody noticed. The restriction here is mental; it is routine.