Welcome to my blog!

Why the blog, what's the point?

When it comes down to it: communication is important. Especially for a programmer/developer/engineer. Being able to communicate ideas is just as important as writing the greatest code or coming up with the most innovative idea.

Unless you're working 100% on your own, you'll need the help of others to bring it to fruition. That isn't going to happen unless you can sell your vision, back it up with data, and convince your stakeholder (e.g. boss, coworker, random internet discussion board) that it's worth the time.

And once your idea's all grown up... how will you market it to an audience?

Communication is a nuanced skill that takes even the most skilled developers and engineers (across ALL disciplines) years and years to master, if that's even possible.

I do my best to improve my communication abilities as well: I've grown comfortable with public speaking, I've led small group discussions and seminars, and I'll create slide decks and proposals to formally present ideas even though I could probably get away without it. But it's still something that I want get better at. And what better way to improve than with a new blog!

I've owned the domain erolunal.com for quite some time. Since 2008, actually. Over those years, this website has gone over many makeovers, many purposes, and yes, many blog iterations. In fact, it underwent so many iterations I finally gave up and starting using this site as an online CV and storage server for personal projects and freelance work.

So what's special about this iteration? Probably nothing. I'm being honest from the get-go: this blog is certainly not going to be easy and things aren't going to go perfectly. It's going to require a substantial effort to maintain, and yeah, it may fail. And I'm ok with that.

That statement sounds painfully obvious when I write it down (Hey, maybe the blog IS working out?). I struggled in the past due to the difficulty I had with putting myself out there. I wanted things to be perfect: I wanted to write the most amazing insight or share a snippet of code golf that changed lives.

In hindsight, that was dumb and those things never ever happened. Ultimately, I psyched myself out. I refrained from writing because it felt too personal or because I was afraid that the knowledge I was sharing was too obvious or just plain wrong.

Writing to communicate instead of aiming to solve the world's problems forms the goal of this blog: Paragraph is improve.

Is improve?

The reference comes from the saying "Lose is improve" often repeated by users in competitive video games as a way to put a positive spin on a losing game. I think the phrase works perfectly here: in a blog founded on the ideas of imperfection and learning to fail.

As I write, I will improve. I am confident of that.

So, improve what? I can go on and on but here's a short list:

And lastly, I want to feel more confident putting myself out there and sharing ideas, thoughts, and work. Especially in areas that I don't consider myself an expert.

What's next

Not much, other than to buckle down and start writing. Here are some ideas I had for potential blog posts:

And on the more techincal side, I'd love to share:

My name is Erol, by the way. I'm a civil engineer turned software engineer. Looking forward to writing more and introducing myself to the internet.

Until next time!