Welcome

I’m writing this blog because Francois Esterhuizen suggested it.

And because honestly, it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for almost 20 years.

Not the blog, per se. But a place — and more importantly, internal permission — to share the overwhelming pressure of information, ideas, stories and intellectual currency I consume and largely… let fester.

To release the pressure, I’m planning on doing two things with this space:

1. Hopefully add value to your life by giving concise, balanced, well-researched information and insights on… well, mostly anything (I’m still refining that part). But most often things that matter.
2. Processing and trying to make sense of my internal world. This will mostly probably be kinda rough, earthy and unrefined. But occasionally, a diamond might come out of it.

Actually — and this is an important part of the process for me — I need to let go of perfection and the need to find diamonds in everything.

So fuck it, I’m writing. Regardless of whether it is diamond or dross.
(At least, for the second thing. I will always strive to make posts of the first sort as engaging, concise and sparkly as possible).

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For now, my main focus in writing this blog is production, not perfection. So I’m making three commitments as I start this process, which I will revise on an irregular basis.

1. Simplicity

• I commit to not fiddling with the design of this blog beyond security updates and critical functionality.
• I commit to not fiddling with the formatting of the text of each post beyond what is necessary to ensure readability.

2. Consistency of production

• I will post at least once a week. Even if it is short, I will post one complete piece. (Complete doesn’t mean perfect. It just means that the idea is presented understandably, and concluded in some way.)
• As far as possible, I will post one Looking In post and one Looking Out post every week.

3. Honesty

• I will self-censor/edit as little as possible (both internal and external posts). My default stance is the middle ground; I want to interrogate that a bit.
• I will be as unfiltered as possible in my approach to personal topics.
• I will edit my personal posts as little as possible. Rather honest than perfect.

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Initially, the topics may range broadly. This is intentional; in part so that I can figure out in which direction I want this to go (if any), and in part to honour the second commitment. Rather write about something random than don’t write at all because I’m “going off topic”.

Finally, this is going to be a blend of introspection, a reflection on all sorts of ideas in the realms of psychology, faith, personal growth, philosophy, and living well, and random snippets of things I find interesting.

It might also be something else entirely.

So if you’re here for a neat, homogenous product, you’re probably going to be disappointed. (Unless that product is me, which is a little creepy if you’re not my wife. Unless it is you reading this, in which case, hi love.)