Before and After
*** Hello again! ***
tl;dr – blog!
I’ve not posted here for about 18 months but I’m going to try and resume regular posts. Years back, on Raw Blog I probably posted once a day on average. Usually something brief, fine-grained, occasionally more long-form. That will be my target here.
Apart from all the other reasons, there is a specific prompt for this. The other day I’d spent a few hours tidying up outside. It occurred to me that anyone walking in at that point would only see the “after”, the effort I’d expended was far from obvious. So I walked around outside and took loads of photos to act as “before”s.
The following day, coincidentally I happened to be looking through old photos I’d put on Flickr. I found some photos of this house, New Place, I’d totally forgotten about taken soon after we’d bought it, 2003?. Years before I moved in. “Before”s.
For example, here’s Caroline & Beryl in upstairs-old-part_132894003_o.jpg :
This room is now my office. This is what this corner looks like now :
Bit of a change, eh? But awareness of that difference had slipped out of my head, I take the current state for granted. A lot of work went into getting this house in to it’s present condition.
The thing is, experience has taught me that it’s vital to monitor and document progress on programming projects. It keeps you clear on the direction in which you’re heading and – significantly – gives you feedback on the progress you’ve made. I have a lousy memory so that documentation also acts as note-to-self material. If a formal write-up is needed when the project is finished, 90+% of the work has already been done. It’s something concrete to add to your portfolio. Yet another benefit is that it may be useful to others. (To see how I go about this nowadays, check my current focus: Chatterbox).
A blog can be a convenient form of continuous documentation for everything. Aside from work-oriented things like coding & writing, I do a fair bit of electronics, DIY, some woodcarving, a bit of music, etc etc. Not to mention more generic activities like gardening, walking, all the mundane and personal stuff. But often I lose sight of what I’ve already done. Especially with longer-term projects (and chore-like things), it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The imposter syndrome is never far away.
In a nutshell, advice to self : yes, keep future targets in sight. But don’t forget past trajectories. Blog ’em!
