They say a blog’s audience expects a routine, so you should always post new content on time. I’m not trying to game an algorithm at this time, so maybe I should follow the rules I’ve set out for myself. However, there is a contradiction in my rules. Publishing to meet the weekly schedule and not publishing if I haven’t got a post ready are at odds with each other.
I think I might have found a loophole. I think I can write quickly about my writing process and sneak it in as a post.
I started the blog a few years ago when I started consulting. Work was coming in a bit hit-and-miss. The bills were being met, and I had time to work on personal projects, including the blog and the book project. However, a victim of my own success, I managed to get a contract that kept me busy and then an offer of a full-time position. At that point, the blogging stopped. Who needs another obligation beyond the 6 days a week and 10 hours a day we so often find ourselves giving in to a start-up?
Fast forward to six weeks ago. I started a 3-month sabbatical, with the project being a writing exercise. I wanted to give back some of my learning. Whether this exercise will yield a book or a website, I am still not sure. One thing I knew was I needed a blog to get immediate feedback. So, blogging is baked in as part of the discipline. Useful chapters or sections of the book are being added to the website. Some of the magic is being held back for the book.
You can see I’m conflicted. Is this “empty content?” I’m not advancing anyone’s knowledge of the world of embedded systems. It’s still writing, but is it just filling a post or inviting a discussion.
Whatever projects we do, unless the scope is small and confined, we will always be at risk of late delivery. There is so much “peeling the onion” in development and debugging that it’s hard to know when you’ll be done. Your issue might be a stock library not meeting timing requirements, noise on the audio signal coupled from VSYNC, or inheriting an extra code module when a colleague exits the company. There are so many unexpected things, like that leaking roof or a trip to the doctor, that will steal a few hours from your routine.
Last week, I lost a day to what seemed like a simple task: writing a better Makefile to convert markdown to PDF. But let’s be honest, tweaking a Makefile is something I venture into only once in a blue moon, so it turned out to be quite the escapade. I also got sidetracked, eagerly evaluating some new I2C and SPI monitors I just acquired. And later setting up a Windows PC to host my RIGOL DS1202 Z-e scope? That was an adventure in itself, with the aim of capturing directly into my PC – breaking my reliance on my USB thumb drive sneaker net.
All those great experiences gave me fodder for upcoming posts but no time to actually write one. What fun. I promise, a blog next week, and apologie for the lack of one today.
Glorified Plumbing 