Introductions

Posted by Danny on Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 1:29 am

Alright, perhaps a high-twee mission statement with an extensive pre-ramble wasn’t the most astute PR decision I could have made, though in a few years, when Philomathy.org rules the Internet and cyber historians clamour to write its biography, its aggressive salutation will be vindicated and lauded. Luckily, I have between now and then to remove the actual first post where I was still fooling around with themes and emphasis colours.

Welcome, readers! At the time of this writing, you don’t exist yet. That’s fair: at its peak, my first (collaborative) website project was getting about two hundred unique hits per day, and nonetheless things were allowed to slide into dereliction[1]—I suspect I won’t have a web-comic this time around to entice readers for whom my tedious prose and occasional verse are insufficient to foster loyalty and fanaticism. Part of the reason I’ve been averse to resuming a regular web presence is my worry that I’ll flake out again and disappoint a strangely large and expectant number of people. I’ve also been grumbly about the (self-perceived) association of web logs with exhibitionism since the rise of LiveJournal, let alone FaceBook, and this gross oversimplification has stunted my regrowth appropriately.[2] I remain broadly impatient to follow the affairs of my friends using a broadcast model and expect nothing less than your impatience for the same in me; an open diary would sustain neither of our attentions, and so this website will not be one. I’m eager to provide value, insight, or at least pleasure for the honour of your time and consideration (though you may be even now in the throes of procrastination and I am penning oblique contributions the eventual dissolution of your academic or commercial career), so while my publications may incorporate anecdotal information, I promise to vigilantly maintain their use as a means to an end.

What end, then? I first conceived (and secured) philomathy.org with plans of having a space to share my love of learning and knowledge with patient friends and likeminded strangers. When I discover a fresh bit of information—or more importantly, a fresh and promising avenue of information—the pleasure it gives me is instantly diminished if I find I must inefficiently enjoy it alone. I’ve also systematised many of my learning habits in ways that I think people interested in things and stuff might make use of or build upon; rather than rehearsing these strategies irritatingly and apropos of very little to a room full of recipients with varying interest in things and stuff, I plan to talk about them here. Then, if you find you already know what I’m gushing about and/or don’t care, you can depart with perfect discretion and not trouble yourself with my shattered feelings and self-esteem.

Footnotes! There will be footnotes. I’ve discovered that WordPress is especially good at implementing footnotes copied directly from Microsoft Word, and the digressional freedom this gives me is unmatched by even the noble parenthesis (which is self-consciously obtrusive by comparison, at least when not used in moderation, succinctness, or at the termination of an otherwise complete sentence). I promise that my footnotes will always be of an entirely ancillary nature to the body of my posts, so don’t trouble yourself for a moment to follow them.[3]

The topics I expect to write on largely concern self-education, the philosophies of information, learning, and knowledge I encounter, cerebral things which are like to give joy to more people than just myself, language and words (as you’ve already seen), resources I discover and possibly produce, and maybe the odd poem if I get really self-indulgent. There is a beautiful, friendly, silly dog, as well as four inquisitive and photogenic cats, in my family home. I will never post pictures of them weekly.