I haven't written anything publicly in a while. I can't really make any excuses for myself beyond the fact that whenever I have anything interesting to talk about I have multiple avenues of discourse to pursue it in, and they tend to be a great deal more active than a blog where I never put anything. So almost anything interesting I want to talk about is discussed on Google+ or Facebook with my more tech inclined friends, or discussed with them in person.

This is a fine approach most of the time. You'll never find my disparaging social interaction via social networks or in person, especially the latter. I am very sociable and I tend to use social networks far too often for my own good, and they're highly interactive formats to discuss in. They're ideal for a quick discussion. That tends to be the kind of discussion I'm looking for, since I tend to be reasonably busy and mostly talk discuss things in my spare time in a shallow way. It's a good way to pass time.

So why am I resurrecting writing about stuff in greater depth and posting it here instead of just linking interesting articles on G+, facebook, etc? I've realised it's been a while since I had to think very hard about what I'm talking about, mostly. When you need to talk about something in a post, it requires you to think about what you're saying to create clarity in your message. In my professional life the most demanding writing I tend to do is small email discussions and justifying myself via comment during code reviews, so I don't want my writing skills to diminish. By forcing myself to write more often I can ensure that my ability to break down a topic and clearly represent my position or opinion.

If I rarely need to do this exercise in either my professional or personal life, one might wonder why I bother caring about whether or not I retain this. I could argue that the ability is essential to being a well rounded human or some other inspired reasoning, but honestly I just enjoy the idea of self improvement. Improving my writing is an easy way to hone a skill that's useful and applicable in most walks of life, and tends to be sometimes poor in my particular industry. All in all, it can't hurt.