One of my goals in 2025 is to write more regularly. Beyond the occasional aha moments, the biggest upside has been realizing what the point of blogging is—or at least, what the point of it is for me. A blog is just an advanced way of paying attention, very likely one of the best tools we have for that. If you're considering starting and sustaining a writing habit, you will face an immediate and non-negotiable problem: What do I write about? The answer: whatever reliably captures your interest. Things that draw and keep your attention. A blog forces you to notice those topics -- collect them in your mind so you can return to them later There's a quote from Michael Nielsen where he says: > "It’s part of the reason why I take photos. **I will look more closely**. It’s part of the reason I will take notes. It is part of the reason why I do spaced repetition. It provides me with another way of paying attention to the world. **Any general-purpose strategy you have which will cause you to pay attention to the world is _incredibly_ valuable, so I collect things like that.**" For me, the blog is that general purpose attention strategy. That's why all of the stuff on my site is here. It's not that I write in order to post these things up. I post them up because doing that consistently provides me with another way of paying attention to the world. And since I own this corner of the internet, anything I experience is up for grabs. Things I see on the subway, thoughts on a book, about work, making friends, the Lebanese restaurant I just visited, the vanilla-infused coffee from Guatemala I had in the morning, various ML systems, side-projects and things I'm learning. When you pay enough attention to the world, it gives something very precious back to you, and the blog is simply a way of keeping track of that value.