A long time ago, I used to read an internet magazine called Spider. That’s where I first encountered the idea of writing blog entries. Back then, as now, the advice was the same: leave comments on other blogs, build a community, cross-link, network. All sensible counsel.
But try as I might, I can never find it in me to do anything beyond the writing itself.
After sitting with that for a while, I’ve made peace with it. I occasionally scroll back through old entries and think to myself — that wasn’t half bad. Which brings me to the title: for all practical purposes, this blog has an audience of one. His name is Hamdan.
But if you happen to be considering starting a blog and you need advice on keeping your expectations from the internet at their absolute minimum — here it is. Cut yourself some slack. Guarantee yourself exactly one visitor, and that visitor is you. When you come back, you’ll find you actually want to add more. You reflect, you sigh, you count your blessings, and you move on.
Of course, every time I come here to reflect, I get ideas. Old domain names I liked and bought resurface. Projects that still need their own space. And as AI becomes a little more practical every day, I know that when I find the time, some of those projects will finally get built.
For now, though — one reader. And that’s enough.
And then there is God — the one witness who knew what would be written before there was anything to write. The all-knowing. But even with that thought, I sometimes catch myself wondering: what would it be like if we were shown what is to come? Someone once told me that would be a curse. The novelty of life — the not-knowing — is precisely how we were made to live it.