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A comment on Why I Keep a Research Blog. Parent comment

Re:Why I Keep a Research Blog by pjc50 on Monday January 13, 2020 @09:56AM (#22034924)
I don't have a blog, but I find it much, _much_ easier to write comments here on HN. And I greatly improved my electronics knowledge through answering questions on electronics.stackexchange. There are some important questions which are easy to phrase but hard to answer. One day I want to write the a canonical introduction to electron flow models, provisionally titled "Lies you have been told about the electron".

I also plan to dig out my highest-rated HN comments and turn them into blog posts or even an ebook some day. There's probably 10-100k words I've written here already.

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Re:Why I Keep a Research Blog by cushychicken on Monday January 13, 2020 @10:08AM (#22035029)
One day I want to write the a canonical introduction to electron flow models, provisionally titled "Lies you have been told about the electron".

Ha! I'm just starting to grasp that - been going through chapter 8 of Art of Electronics, 3rd Ed. Getting a hard and fast education on noise. Shot noise is fascinating. I still don't have a great mental model to compare it to. The closes I've come is dripping water vs a continuous stream of water.

I also plan to dig out my highest-rated HN comments and turn them into blog posts or even an ebook some day.

I had this same notion the other day. It's neat how an internet post can inspire such clarity of thought.

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Re:Why I Keep a Research Blog by freehunter on Monday January 13, 2020 @10:53AM (#22035485)
If I get into a long conversation on HN I usually turn it around and make it into a blog post, cleaning up the arguments and discussion. I only write for myself and don’t publicize my personal blog but I’ve had some of those then turn around and be posted back to HN by someone else which becomes an interesting lifecycle of internet arguments :)
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Re:Why I Keep a Research Blog by AstralStorm on Monday January 13, 2020 @11:17AM (#22035709)
A great analogy would be rain vs shower. Rain is shot noise, shower is AWGN.
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Re:Why I Keep a Research Blog by yesenadam on Monday January 13, 2020 @11:45PM (#22041921)
If you don't know it, you may find this interesting: Bill Beaty's amasci.com, with What is Electricity?[0], with a lot of pages explaining misconceptions about electricity, currents, transistors, capacitors etc etc. Or "Science Myths" in K-6 Textbooks and Popular culture[1] - Bad Electricity, Bad Physics etc. There's much more. Even if it all seems wrong to you it may be useful to you as a model or spur! I love his writing. And his stubborn experimentalist's persistence to observe and understand what's actually going on, no matter what the theory or other people say.

Also, he has what I found useful and inspiring advice about writing/putting stuff online, e.g.

"Make your website be your filing cabinet. If you have little projects underway, put them on your website while working on them. Reject the paper-publishing traditions of polishing an article to perfection before publication. DO NOT ELEVATE IMAGE OVER CONTENT. (Perhaps even keep yourself honest by cultivating a deep revulsion for "image.") Instead, let all your flaws hang out, and type things directly into your site in rough draft form (label them UNDER CONSTRUCTION if you really must).

Expunge the fear of embarassment from your life, and instead practice making foolish mistakes in front of thousands of strangers. Stop using your PC to store files, instead use your website as your main storage. Let people poke through your filing cabinet. It will contain far more than a perfectly polished website does."[2]

[0] http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html

[1] http://amasci.com/miscon/miscon.html

[2] http://amasci.com/faq.html

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