“Hello there!”

I was originally going to publish something much more big braned as this blog’s inaugural article. But, in wanting to publish before the year’s end (and now having little time to do so), I’ve settled on writing a bit about myself and some things I’ve learned in the past 2 years, which should serve as a good pseudo-introduction to me and this blog.

The Collapse

Like most people my age, I was expecting to enter a (air quotes) new chapter of life in 2020—also like most people, I ended up just being stuck inside. For a good while at the beginning of the year I didn’t think much of it. I was still doing a bit of university work, watching YouTube video’s was still fun, and every now and then I’d go ride my bike.

At some point though, riding around your neighbourhood, doing homework and consooming a daily dose of Pewdiepie gets old. In fact, it gets old pretty quick.

Boredom

Ah yes…good old boredom, a feeling I hadn’t had for quite a while (what with the last year of school and all). I probably got bored sooner than most of my friends because, at the time, I was afflicted by an odd tingling pain in my arms whenever I tried to use them for anything either physically intensive, or that demanded lot’s of repetitive motion on the part of my hands. This meant: no guitar, no chatting on WhatsApp and most of all…no video games. So no, to this day I have not played Among Us, ever.

But it was precisely at this time that things started to get interesting.

Some day in mid-April (maybe), I was so bored of scrolling through YouTube that I decided I’d put my time to good use and learn something, and in trying to think of something to learn I remembered that my Dad had told me once “Hey you should learn Python! I bet you’d really like it”. So I thought I’d give it a try.

As usual with these things, my Dad was right, and I eventually became (and currently still am) totally obsessed with programming (shortly after he also gave me the idea of trying Linux).

Nonsense

The funny thing with Linux, VIM, programming languages and everything I began encountering, is that none of it made any sense (at first).

This is pretty commonsensical, new things usually don’t immediately make sense. But the weird thing I noticed, and only just recently, is: there is no clear, rational process leading up to the understanding of new information.

I came across this idea reading Paul Feyerabend’s Against Method (whom I’ll probably write about in future), and bar a few edge cases, I think it describes my experience pretty well.

Feyerabend’s argument is roughly that learning a new skill, conceptual framework or language, doesn’t happen by carefully following the steps which explain clearly what is to be learned (except in the mind of a pedagogue or in (((school))))—new information, if it is to be truly absorbed, cannot be offered up to someone in pieces for them to logically assemble in to what appears to be knowledge. Instead, through playing, experimenting with and exposing oneself to something new, there is a steady accumulation of what amounts to nonsense, but, if given enough time, this nonsense becomes so rich that it suddenly crystallizes—like flipping a switch, what was once unintelligible can now be understood.

Throughout this year everything I’ve learned, all of it, was learned by persisting through nonsense.

At Year’s End

So in the spirit of the new year, I leave you with 2 little rules of thumb:

• You break out of old (sometimes bad) habits when you’re bored.
  Boredom is your friend.
• Don’t stop when none of what you’re learning makes sense (especially if the resources you have on the subject are terrible, that’s where you’ll discover something new).
  Become comfortable with nonsense.

I bid you all a (late) Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!