Why Blog?
Table of Contents
I had no plans of making a blog a few months ago. Here are the reasons that changed my mind.
For Inspiration #
Blogs can inspire people. Let me explain how.
Inspiration has two ingredients. First, you have to see something awesome. Then you need to convince yourself that you can do something just as awesome.
I’ve experienced this first-hand. At RoboCup 2019, I was blown away by the insane robots we competed against. But after talking to the people who built them, I realized I could make awesome robots too. The same thing happened when I went to my first FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). I began to realize how much I could do if I set my mind to it.
You don’t have to talk to your role models to be inspired by them. There are fantastic resources on the internet. Here are a few online sources that inspired me.
- Paul Graham’s essays inspired me to pursue startups
- Team Transcendence’s Website inspired me to build better soccer robots
- FRC Reveal Videos made me fall in love with FRC
- Build-its and other MITERS blogs inspired me to make a blog
Paul Graham’s essays are more inspiring to me than Elon Musk’s startups, because the essays make me believe that I can build something awesome.
Having been inspired by so many people before me, it’s my responsibility to help inspire the next generation of engineers. If I do something cool and write about it here, maybe someday someone will read this and be inspired to do something cool themselves.
Recognition #
I have selfish reasons for creating a blog too. I can use my website to showcase my projects for research and career opportunities. It’s also a good way to show what I’m working on with friends.
Science and Technology #
Documentation advances science and technology.
When I was building soccer robots, I spent days poring over blogs of past teams. For FRC, I spent a stupid amount of time reading chiefdelphi (online forum) and studying CAD models of robots from previous years. Online documentation of other people’s projects was super useful.
“An engineer has done nothing until it has been documented” -Anonymous
Conclusion #
In short, other people’s documentation helped me a lot so I’m trying to pay it back. If you feel the same way, consider making a blog yourself!