I often forget that stealing hours from sleep is not worth it – I have to pay back soon, usually on the very next day. Today was one such day.

I stayed up till late, doing nothing unavoidable. I read, or rather skimmed, some purposeless writing. I found nothing that interested me, but I kept on browsing with the hope that I would. And before I knew it, I was well past my routine bedtime. Thus I woke up late, which cascadingly screwed up my whole morning routine.

Missing my morning tea, though, was the most catastrophic effect this had today. I usually need my cup before the #life’s chaos in gulps it down. I couldn’t have my tea till the sun had risen more than I liked. I knew my productivity had gone for a toss.

The evening was better, though. I went on an unplanned walk around the neighbourhood, taking care of an unplanned but long-pending task. I hoped to mend the tea saga in the morning, so I drank jaggery tea at a nice-looking eatery. The tea saga only worsened, and let’s leave it at that.

A few nice cafes have sprung up nearby that I had no clue existed. Neighbourhood passes you by as you pass by driving.

I wish I had taken a couple of pictures during the walk. Maybe next time. Without a tea saga of any sort.

A blog is this, that and a lot more. There is no one definition for a blog. To each his own.

Another thing that works in write.as’s favour is that I can hardly change anything with how things look. Theming that is possible is bare. Customization in the way things work is minimum. This will ensure I don’t get too distracted by anything that’s not words, the #meta stuff.

Of course, there is a risk of me getting frustrated with the loss of control. Well, there’s Micro.blog for that which I am not getting rid of any time soon. The platform is too valuable and near perfect not to keep as primary.

Haven’t I gone through a similar fascination with Svbtle? I wrote a lot there for a while but eventually got frustrated with how restricting it felt. So why’s write.as any different? Well, for one, it allows publishing a titleless post. Second, the interface to post is minimal, with very little to configure. Svbtle felt bloated in that regard.

So where does this leave me? Well, I have started a 14-days trial with write.as. I want to try it to the fullest and see if and how well I use it. Is this just a fad?

A blog, for me, is a space for unformed thoughts. This is that place. And, Hey 👋 I’m Amit Gawande.

why?

I recently realized I do not enjoy updating my primary abode on the internet, my website hosted elsewhere. I realized I don’t gravitate to the posting page, so I write less. Some might say I don’t write much because I don’t want to. Never blame the tools and like that. But then I open the editor here at write.as, and the place feels welcoming — with its blinking cursor waiting for my unformed thoughts. I start writing, and before I know it, I have a few thoughts jotted down.

So, I wanted to bring some unstructuredness to my blogging. No fixed pattern, no predefined topics, and no forced post lengths. Just write.

what?

I write quick posts journaling whatever is at the top of my mind. The posts have no throughline, nor can you expect any structure limitation. They are a brain dump to relieve me of the thoughts crowding my mind. I am currently posting pretty regularly, with at least one post daily. But I am also not putting any pressure on myself to stick to a schedule.

I enjoy writing here. So I do not expect me to write short notes or quips. I may do that at microblogging-focused platforms. I also do not expect to write long-form, thoughtful essays or detailed guides.

The words I enjoy writing the most are in-the-moment unpretentious thoughts. Usually, in around 200-250 words. That I foresee myself publishing with this space.

how?

To follow the blog, subscribe via RSS feed or email. Follow me on micro.blog or mastodon. Read some more about me. Or else get in touch.

I started working on a side project today that I know, deep down, I do not have time or energy for. Yet, I began because I wanted hard not to change too many things with my writing process. But I am not happy with how things are set up today. It’s the same old battle.

I get bored with the setup I have. I find faults. And Micro.blog, my primary hosting platform, doesn’t want to fix the editor. I don’t gravitate to the posting page, so I write less. This platform needs a good editor (at least I am), and I wanted to attempt to build one. A couple of hours down the rabbit hole, I know I don’t want to do that. There’s a reason why I stopped hosting my blogging engines. It requires attention that my life cannot afford.

Some might say I don’t write much because I don’t want to. Never blame the tools and like that. But then I open the editor here at write.as, and the place feels welcoming – with its blinking cursor waiting for my thoughts, unformed as they may be. I start writing, and before I know it, I have a few thoughts jotted down. Sure, often they are #meta thoughts, as of now.

But that’s blogging to me. No fixed pattern, no predefined topics, and no forced post lengths. So the editor need not be so bare that I lose interest. It also need not be so polished that I feel burdened. This place looks to have got the balance right.

My writing has changed a lot over the years. I read a post from 14 years ago, and it reads.. carefree. In a good way.

I love the writing interface for write.as platform. No-nonsense. It does what it is supposed to do. Plus, all the other options, though available, get out of the way while I write. Grammarly works as expected. The posts are auto-saved in an intelligent way. At the same time, I can also build a list of drafts while working on them. The word count is visible, not the character count, as with Micro.blog that hosts my main website.

That last point tells you about the priority of these two #platforms that are very similar, yet different in many ways. Micro.blog compares itself to Twitter; hence considers itself closer to microblogging (well, it’s in the name). So the writing interface looks similar to the one on Twitter. Or, for that matter, most social media platforms. A bare text box that accepts Markdown text.

Write.as, on the other hand, calls itself “a place for focused writing”. This shows with the editor. Every time I use it, I want to write long. I can’t say the same for the text box that Micro.blog provides. It’s suitable only for microblogging.

Sure. Given the platform’s well-supported APIs, a list of clients already supports publishing to Micro.blog. So this is not an issue that many may face. However, most are only written for the Apple ecosystem, something I am not part of.

I love almost everything about Micro.blog. But I hate its writing interface and love the one provided by write.as. No surprise, then, that I am publishing most of my thoughts here.

This leaves me very confused. Which is my primary platform?

[L]earning to write is about more than learning to write. For one thing, it’s about learning to turn a loose assemblage of thoughts into a clear line of reasoning—a skill that is useful for everyone, not just those who enjoy writing or need to do a lot of it for work.

Source: What ChatGPT Can’t Teach My Writing Students →

I love my Chromebook a lot more than my Mac. The whole experience feels straightforward, no-nonsense and light. Starting/restarting is a breeze. With smart-lock, logging in and out is polished. There are no long update cycles; instead, it is always up-to-date. I have hardly seen the loading bar while using it. It is commendable, given that the underlying hardware is not as highly configured as my i9 MacBook Pro at work.

Sure, I do a lot more with the office Mac. But then, why would I ever need such a powerful machine for the stuff I do on my laptop? It’s mostly the browser I use, so Chromebook is perfect.

Plus, this has a terminal, one thing I miss on a Windows laptop.

I wish I could convince more people to give ChromeOS a try. Especially, my parents could benefit a lot from this simple device. But, they are worried whenever I tell them to stop using their Windows laptop. They hated Linux (of course, what was I even thinking). They can’t make any sense of macOS. iPad is too bare for them, and the onscreen keyboard is a pain. Chromebook is the best fit for them. If only they would listen to me.

Instead of playing whac-a-mole with passwords, why not eliminate that avenue of attack outright? That’s our mission.

Source: Goodbye, passwords | 1Password →