When I first built this site, I did not really have a clear plan for the blog. I did not know what to write on an "About" page, so in the end I left nothing there except the date the site was created. Careful readers may also notice that the homepage only had a title and no site description at all.

Now that I finally have a bit of free time, I want to make a more concrete plan for the next stage of this blog.

Why I started it

It has been almost two months since I created this blog on July 4, 2020. At the time, I started it with a simple thought in mind: helping myself by trying to help others. Writing knowledge-based blog posts could help me sort through what I had learned and build a more coherent knowledge system, and perhaps also help the occasional visitor who comes after me. As a student, of course, my ability is limited, so the "helping others" part should not be overestimated. The main point is still helping myself.

Using blog writing as a way to support learning may be effective for several reasons:

1. The act of output itself is a relatively efficient way to learn.
2. It helps connect scattered pieces of knowledge and build a kind of intellectual highway.
3. Compared with paper notebooks, it is easier to classify and archive.
4. When I forget something later, it is much easier to revisit.

But it also has obvious downsides:

1. It takes a great deal of time and effort. The time spent writing one post could have been used for many other things. This is especially true when typing large amounts of mathematics.
2. As the number of posts grows, management itself becomes a challenge.

Looking back at the C++ series I posted earlier, I have to admit the quality was not high. They turned into plain review notes instead of highlighting structure, difficult points, and common mistakes. If I am not writing down my own understanding, then the post is probably not worth writing at all. That is why I decided to make a plan, to give myself some constraints on what I publish from now on.

The plan

To maximize the value of writing for my own learning, I currently plan to write posts in the following way.

Topics

Mainly:

• how I solve specific problems encountered in mathematical software, software development, or hands-on projects;
• short summaries of particular knowledge points.

Content

1. Mathematics: since mathematical logic is already highly structured and theorems are well presented in textbooks, I do not plan to reproduce textbook-style notes. That would be too close to simply rewriting the book. If I write mathematics posts, they will more likely be about interesting problems or applications in real life and production. In practice, since mathematics is often more efficiently learned with pen and paper, I do not expect to write many blog posts about it.
2. Computer science: when I learn directly from books, I usually do not take blog-style notes, because I can always return to the book later. But when I build small projects or run into concrete problems, I will record the solutions as they occur.
3. Other things: for English I may collect good sentences; for non-technical books I may record the core ideas and selected passages; and I may also write about my own exploratory practice.

Writing method

My current idea is to study during the day, write down key points on paper for non-computer topics, and organize the day's learning at night as a form of review. For computer-related material, since it usually involves code, I will probably record it as I go.

贡献者: Junyuan He