2025-5-3
on the importance of writing
"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity.
And so we ask ourselves… will our actions echo across the centuries?
Will strangers hear our names? Long after we’re gone?
And wonder… who we were?
How bravely we fought? How fiercely we loved?"
As some of you may know, this is taken from the movie Troy (2004). A legendary story based on Homer's Illiad, written all the way back around the 8th century BC, still around in spirit and thought till this day and probably will remain so for even longer.
Whilst I was redesigning v2 of my website today, I thought of this quote, as many other personal websites I've seen also have a form of blog or written works attached to it, which I thought was quite nice.
And whilst, yes, you can always tweet out writings, or make a Medium blog, there's something cool about when you go onto someone's website and see they've left an archive of information for anyone who visits their own personal corner of the Net.
Is it as good as X dot com or Medium or wherever for circulating your words to those whom the algorithm deems worthy of seeing?
No, not really.
But although this website is not exactly 100% sovereign (it's made on/hosted by Framer), at the end of the day it's "mine", so to speak. My little corner of the Net which can, give or take, be however I see fit, with whatever I want on it.
Which is also kind of why I had a whole shift from the Inter black/white + rounded corner UI aesthetic to a more interesting blocky-computer one - essentially every website looks the same nowadays, and everyone says the same algorithm-optimised things which I deem "disposable information"; as in, stuff others see because they're told to for the sake of "consooooom", and then forget by the time the next suggested post hits their brain.
But my point is, this place is my own, and people may visit for a variety of reasons. The constant factor, however, is that you're likely here because you're interested in me in some way (maybe not like that, unless…?), and interested in what I do, who I am, etc.
Maybe you arrived here from Instagram, or Behance, or wherever else I may have a profile.
Maybe you met me and I handed you one of my cool business card thingies with the QR code.
Maybe you looked up my name and found it on Google or Perplexity or wherever else the cool kids search for stuff nowadays.
But either way, you're here for me.
And as I say, on a personal website, it's yours. Your very home on the Net.
To take this analogy further, I guess you can liken social media profiles to apartments, and personal websites to homes. A home feels a lot more personal, and you have a lot more responsibility to take pride in what is there.
In the same way Borat says "this mai haus", you can't exactly imagine him being as proud saying "this mai apartment".
So, we finally get to my point; why is writing important?
To return back to the quote from Troy, everything we do echoes through eternity, and maybe someone will remember it someday when we're long gone.
I've often thought, both introspectively and in response to seeing the sum of lost family's "footprints" in letters/photos/items that eventually, like everyone, I too will be gone.
And though, obviously whilst I hope I have a long time left, you can never be too sure. Life is a wild ride with many twists and turns.
Reading many letters and fragments of lost family's writings is a fascinating. It puts your own life into perspective. There's ups, downs, interesting "arcs". There's similarities of day-to-day life you can relate to. But if it wasn't written down, probably no one would ever think about it ever again.
At most, when you're gone, your kids will remember you, your grandkids too. Great grandkids at a push. Past that, ~200 years on it will be like you almost were never there. A dream that emerged, rose, lived, breathed, died, vanished.
Yet all that was thought and done by them definitely happened, and the consequences of any actions/thoughts still echoes on through me, and will do in my actions/thoughts. But I think that writing is an important thing to voice the thoughts you have, for if you don't, they too get lost with you.
Maybe in my time we will make some form of Save Your Soul Relic like in Cyberpunk 2077, who knows. But if not, writing is the next best alternative.
And sure, a website is maybe not the best place for longevity (physical paper/rock probably wins, maybe Bitcoin/Blockchain if we're talking digital), but the point is in "mai haus" I can also keep a record of thoughts along side my various other things.
And this way, worst case: no one reads it. Best case: my words live on forever (until Framer drains my dead bank account haha).
But on a serious finality nonetheless; I think a lot of thoughts. Many get forgotten by even me unless they're written down somewhere in Notes or wherever.
What better place to put them than on my personal website, on "mai internet haus"?
REFERENCES:
[1]
Troy (2004) intro
[2]
[3]
Borat "this mai house"
[4]
Cyberpunk 2077 Secure Your Soul
[5]