http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~kazad/resources.htm

It has many posts I’ll be revising and importing over time.

This post is for betterexplained newcomers and old-timers: the how and why of the site. If you like my approach, it’s a guide to writing. Otherwise it’s your own list of advice to avoid.

Find your purpose

Blogging is introspective. I’ve realized my interests after much thought:

• I like math, writing, computers, business, personal development, communication, and learning.
• I cringe when ideas are explained poorly. Jargon and complicated explanations discourage the beginner. It shows you don’t really know the material. I get upset thinking that a poor explanation may turn someone away from a field forever, and want to fix that.
• I have many beliefs about education. Insight beats memorization. Any subject (anything!) can be explained simply if you understand it well enough. Curiosity and passion are enough to conquer a subject.

To explain topics clearly, intuitively, and share the “a-ha!” moments that make learning fun. Any subject can be better explained; today it’s just me writing, but I want to catalog insights from everyone.

This vision excites me — find the one that motivates you.

Be yourself (it’s harder than you think)

Writing naturally is hard. When you put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, or stand before an audience, you stiffen. You get self conscious. You don’t act like yourself.

Fortunately this feeling disappears with practice. You stop pontificating; you explain. You don’t “write an article”; you have a conversation. You use humor, stories, and personal examples instead of abstract generalities. You write even if people won’t agree with everything you say.

Use your talents in whatever combination you can.

But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

– Scott Adams

I feel my greatest talents are being curious, having enthusiasm and wanting things to be simple. I’m no expert. But I’m going to learn what I can and share it in the most intuitive way possible. Someone I admire feels similarly:

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
–Albert Einstein

Write what you know; link what you don’t

You may not be an expert (I’m not), but you’ve collected nuggets of information and personal insights that nobody else has. Share them in your own style.

Then link to wikipedia, delicious, and the detailed articles so readers can learn the nitty gritty. Eventually you’ll learn the nitty gritty too, have your own insights, and simplify them into a new article.

Write well

Writing well is hard. Really hard. My definition means:

• Timeless content that is still relevant in a year.
• Original thought and deep insights that aren’t immediately obvious. If sharing details, organize them in a clever way.
• Fun to read. Write for people. Use humor, quotes, stories. Remember: I’m Kalid, you’re you, and we’re having a conversation. This is no textbook.
• Succinct, clear, and organized. I want to pump ideas into your head as fast as possible (I hope you don’t mind). Fewer words = faster intake = happier user.

That’s the goal, not that I always reach it.

Why write quality, not quantity? In my experience, an outstanding post trumps a dozen average ones. Top posts create traffic, links, diggs, and get people talking. You receive emails and comments which make your day and motivate you to write more, and better. Sub-par posts dilute your site and waste time.

Astound visitors with the quality of your content. Define your own quality bar and run towards it. Be merciless when revising. Don’t be afraid to fix up old posts — streamlining previous articles is good practice.

Just write

Blogging has no holy book. This is a non-fiction site about math and programming topics; a poetry blog has different goals. I don’t know your goals, so just write and push your own bar. You can be top-quality in your field.

I think I have above-average interest in math, science, simplicity, education, curiosity, and passion. The combination lead to my style and the focus of this site. I’m thrilled that others seem to like it too. Find your style; someone will like it.

Pace yourself

Writing on a consistent schedule is hard — if you’ve mastered the secret, let me know. I have dozens of posts in various draft forms, and it seems I need a Herculean effort to go back and revise them. Some posts stream out of my head and I’m done in a few hours. Others weigh over me for days or weeks, requiring a flurry of energy to finish and clean up.

I suggest an “articles” folder to collect your thoughts, in whatever stage. Sometimes you just have a sentence or two, but it can grow into a whole post over time.

I’ve learned writing isn’t all fun, even on topics you enjoy. Editing can be painful — push yourself through.

Keep learning

My opinions were shaped by these authors:

• Steve Yegge
• Darren Rowse
• Paul Graham
• Steve Pavlina
• George Orwell’s Tips
• Elements of Style (read online) by Strunk and White
• On Writing Well by White’s mentee, William Zinsser.

Good luck in your writing. Now that you know my passions, I’m interested in what you care about. Drop me a note anytime.

Most articles on career happiness spout abstract quotes about following your passions. Sure, those thoughts are nice (and I’ll link to a few), but I want to share the specific details with you:

• Keep a Feel Good list
• Keep an Idea List
• Read the “experts”

And above all: Don’t trick yourself.

Starting off: So…what do you want to do?

Ah, the tough question which started your quest and the one you may dread: Why do you want to go off on your own, anyway? What are you going to do? Isn’t the regular life good enough?

There’s no easy answer. Even months after leaving Microsoft to try entrepreneurship, the decision isn’t crystal clear. Only now, after looking backwards for half a year, am I comfortable with my choice.

Thinking about it more, I don’t want there to be a solid answer to “What should I do?”. Imagine being told your life’s work at age 12: “You’ll be a Molecular Biologist”. Sure, that job may be great for you, but wouldn’t you at least wonder about the other options?

I want life to be more of a surprise, though I realize not everyone is like this. I think it’s ok to be lost, fight through some tough times which inspire you to search for what you enjoy.

You need rain to appreciate sunshine — and both are needed to make the beautiful, brilliant, one-in-a-million flower of your heart grow. Said another way, you need to touch a hot stove to know deep down inside that hot stoves aren’t for you. Take your pick of analogy, the “I’m a special snowflake” stuff isn’t really my style.

Don’t trick yourself

Beware the traps of justification and attribution when thinking about your life. Many people justify past decisions because they want them to make sense and feel better. “Yes, I like wandering around and then finding my passion because it makes me appreciate it more,” you might have heard someone say. For some, it seems that no matter what happens, it was the “right thing” or that it was “meant to be that way”. I’m on the fence about whether this is a coping mechanism, optimistic viewpoint (I’m an optimist), or whether it makes you appreciate life more.

Yes, most clouds have silver linings. But sometimes getting hit in the head with a shovel is just getting hit in the head with a shovel. It’s not fun, there’s not much educational value, and your life really is better without it.

Other people attribute every effect to a cause. They see an effect and start looking frantically for its cause. While I believe in cause and effect, I don’t always believe in mankind’s ability to interpret them. Do police officers cause crime because cities with more police have more murders? Surely not, but most arguments aren’t as easy to disentangle. Many people love to dispense advice and pretend they know why things happened the way they did. I tend to be more skeptical of this.

I’m aware of but not immune to these faults (neither are you, most likely), so take this with a grain of salt. Take each person’s experience as just that: their experience, with their mindset, their background, and their situation.

Also recognize that we aren’t always perfect snowflakes all the time. Have the courage to admit where you need to improve. Now let’s get onto the tips.

Step 1: Keep a “Feel Good” List

I don’t remember where I read this, but I love the idea. Keep a simple text file on your computer, mine’s called feelgood.txt. Whenever you have an experience that really makes you happy, put in an entry, even just a few words or a sentence. Here are some of mine:

2/4/07: Ron said I was good at thinking of big picture stuff! Remember when we went snowboarding, that was awesome.
1/27/07: I got capistrano + mongrel working! Wow, now I understand what it all means!! Amazing. Crazy. Awesome.
9/12: I got graphs in instacalc!!! Wow!!!
8/31/06: Great toastmasters speech! Enthusiastic! Had good feedback, think I did a good job. Feeling more and more that I can teach, etc. on my own.

Some days you’ll have five. Sometimes I’ll go a week or more without writing in it. The goal is to start keeping track of what makes you get excited about life.

Here’s the rub: if you try and sit down and name your favorite things, you might think of a few off the top of your head. But this is in the moment. You’ve forgotten about what made you happy last week, last month or last year.

The feelgood list lets you look back and see patterns in what you like. Here are a few patterns I noticed:

• Intuitively understanding technology
• Thinking of new “big-picture” ideas
• Improvements in teaching, communication, and education
• Creating content that people find useful

These trends seem “obvious” to me in hindsight… but how do you get hindsight without looking at your past? Our memories aren’t perfect and it’s hard to see trends in your own experience.

The feelgood list is also a great way to pick yourself up when feeling down: reading the old entries recreates the feeling I had at the time. Sometimes a “minor” word of encouragement (from the giver’s perspective) can have a huge effect on you. One small compliment may really stick with you and encourage you try something new or keep going (like Ron’s comment while snowboarding — he likely doesn’t remember).

This can work both ways — an offhand, snide remark can turn you off from a subject forever, so watch out for this. It’s hard to predict what has an impact on you — just write down what does.

Keep a feelgood list. Review it peridiocally. Repeat.

Step 2: Keep an “Ideas” List

More lists! Keep another file (ideas.txt, .doc, .xls, .etc) to write down your awesome ideas.

“Uh… what ideas?” you’re probably thinking. You have them, probably a dozen a day. The problem, again, is if I ask you for your ideas you’ll give me a list of 5, the things you thought about just now. That’s not good enough, chump. I want dozens, hundreds.

If you’re like me (all I know is my own experience), your head is constantly buzzing with thought. You’re in line at the grocery store — you’re thinking of stuff. You’re driving — you’re thinking of stuff. You’re “zoning out”, or so it appears — you’re actually thinking of stuff.

You’re doing all this thought, some about new ideas, and nothing is saved. No “Untitled Document (1)” is sitting around in your brain. And that’s a problem.

InstaCalc, BetterExplained, and a few unreleased projects are the result of these idea lists. Sure, not every idea is a winner — but you need to have some in order to pick and choose. Out of 50+ ideas in my list, perhaps 5 or 6 are “winners” that I feel really excited about doing.

And speaking of winners, remember that the idea isn’t judged when you write it down. You are capturing version 1 of the thought. If it’s interesting to you, you’ll come back a week later and make version 1.5. Then version 2, then version 10. InstaCalc is probably on version 500 in terms of the number of enhancements and features I’ve added since when I’ve started. And “a faster online calculator” doesn’t sound that sexy as a V1 idea, but it can still become something useful with some iteration.

You can’t get to version 500 if you don’t start with a version 1.

Your ideas are another insight into your mind — the things you think about, enjoy, and want to make better. Most of my ideas are around services that I’d find useful as a programmer or learner, and enhancements to existing tools. They are mostly software-related because that’s my background, though some are around education and communication.

The best part about keeping a list is that your ideas multiply like rabbits in your notebook. Each idea new idea can be combined with each of the old ones, leading to even more variations. Next week when you have yet another idea, it can enhance the older ones and the cycle keeps going.

I also keep a stack of index cards by my bed — I sometimes have brainstorms before going to sleep. I can remember nights where I’d be lying on my pillow and then bam, I’d get up a dozen times to write down a thought. It was a bit annoying at the time (”I just want to sleep!!!”) but my brain kept firing. I’m thankful now — most of those thoughts turned into features for InstaCalc.

So keep a text file and notebook (for offline use) to track those ideas streaming from your unique snowflake head. I prefer a plain text file because it’s simple, reliable, and fast. I need speed when pumping out thoughts.

The more ideas I write down, the more I seem to have. I’m sure you’ll be the same.

Step 3: Read the “experts”

I originally started by reading the experts, but found a lot of value from the feelgood and idea lists. I really value self-learning and I prefer these techniques.

But you’re reading this article, and I’m writing it, so I recognize the role of external tips and advice in getting started. Here’s what helped me:

Understand Your Personality

The point of personality tests isn’t to put you into a box. It’s to recognize the talents you have. The irony is that because we find something easy, we assume others do too, and therefore believe the skill is not valuable.

It’s not always the case — some things that come easily to you (talking to strangers, using computers, doing math, writing, humor, relating to others) may be really hard for many other people.

These tests can help you step back and realize what you do that others don’t.

• Now, Discover Your Strengths – Understand what you do well and work from there. (My top 5: Strategic, Ideation, Learner, Achiever, Intellection).
• Myers-Briggs test – puts people into one of 16 boxes. I fit best (not “am”, I “fit best”) with INTP. This has led to additional insights: “… not likely to place much value on traditional goals such as popularity and security…”.

Get Inspired

Sometimes it helps to remember why you are on this quest in the first place — to be happier and live a better life.

• Steve Pavlina has excellent articles on personal development. Lately it’s been a bit new-agey, but I like it overall.
• Collected Notes on Success — I’ve collected a few inspirational speeches on pursuing your passions.
• What should I do with my life? helped inspire me to follow my own path when reading it in college.

Parting Thoughts

The wonderful and frustrating thing about understanding yourself is that nobody can do it for you. After a year of thinking about this seriously, I know what I like (learning and technology), what comes naturally to me (thinking about ideas and intuitive understanding) and what my ideas are about (improvements to software and education).

I had hunches about these things (obvious in hindsight, remember), but thinking about them solidly is very useful.

These insights aren’t set in stone – I don’t want them to be! Some of my greatest joys have been from seemingly random decisions and paths, like deciding to join karate or do toastmasters. These clues have given me a fulfilling direction to follow, and I’ll correct the course over time. Software happened to be the first field on the list of what I enjoy, and I’ll continue pursuing it as long as it keeps me excited.

There’ll be more articles on the mechanics of going on your own — a better understanding of what you want is a good staring point. Happy soul-searching.

Richard St. John (Success Video from TED Conference)

This was a 3-minute video outlining 8 factors leading to success. I organized them into buckets:

• Do what you love: Passion
• Determination: Hard work, focus, push yourself, get good
• Make something useful: Ideas, serve others
• Keep your chin up: Persist

I really want to highlight the last point: persist in the face of failure and other CRAP:

• Criticism
• Rejection
• Jerks (or another word for a non-nice person)
• Pressure

This video was also a great example of the 80/20 rule. In 3 minutes you got the gist of the presentation. Would it have been 10-times better if it was 30 minutes long? No.

Can you get more from ten 3-minute videos instead of one 1/2 hour video? Probably.

An unmentioned part of success may be realizing when you’ve hit the point of diminishing returns and knowing when to move on.

Steve Jobs (Stanford graduation speech and video)

Selected quotes from the Full Transcript:

• You’ve got to find what you love.
• Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
• Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
• Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
  • Note: Very true. It’s human nature, myself included, to not appreciate things until they are gone (or have a credible threat of being taken).

“Music and Life” from Alan Watts

http://www.neticons.net/music_life/ Check out the flash video.

• “In music, one doesn’t make the end of the composition the point of the composition.”
• We are motivated by the carrots of grades and success. Elementary > Grade School > High School > College > Grad School > Job
• When you “get” success at 40, it’s a let-down. A hoax.
• We think of life as a journey with a destination (success, heaven). But we missed the point. It was a musical thing, we were supposed to sing and dance while music was being played.