The Uncomfortable Truth About Opinions
Most of my opinions, before I started writing them down, were softer than I thought they were.
I'd have a view on something. A QA approach, a travel philosophy, why some food is overrated. It would feel clear in my head. Then I'd start writing it out and discover it had holes.
Writing forces specificity. Specificity reveals gaps. Gaps are where the actual thinking happens.
Writing is Not Publishing
I've kept a private notes system for years before I started writing publicly. The private writing is where most of the work happens.
But there's something different about writing with the intent to publish. The imagined reader, even a hypothetical one, changes how you reason through an argument.
You anticipate objections. You have to define your terms. You can't hide behind vague language.
What I Write About
People sometimes ask why my writing covers QA, food, and road trips in the same place.
The honest answer: I'm one person. These things aren't compartmentalised in my life, so why would they be on the site?
The QA writing is for working through professional thinking. The travel and food writing is for capturing things I'd forget. Specific meals, specific stretches of road, the feeling of a place before the memory softens it.
Both are useful. Neither is a "brand."
The Actual Reason
I write because it's the best way I know to figure out what I actually think.
If that turns out to be useful for someone else reading it, that's a bonus. But it's not the point.
The point is the thinking. The publishing is just a commitment device to make the thinking happen.