Most statements are obvious

Many statements are obvious in a blog post, especially if you are a literate person. I was reading the "Why I Write" essay by George Orwell after a dinner with Vig. I was recommended to take a look at it now that I'm trying to get better at writing. Being slightly intoxicated, I made the remark that the text was very clear but not necessarily groundbreaking or introducing novel ideas. Vig, in his great wiseness (always surprising me for someone that young), remarked that most texts are like that.

But when you're a researcher, an engineer, someone who cares about putting novel things out there, it seems strange to put words on something that thousands of others have already. And yet, you won't reinvent the wheel every time you write a blog post and you should be okay with that.

Very stupidly, I re-discover frequently how writing is more about expressing things in your own way than constantly inventing novel things. We are not writing papers, creating novel contributions. We are just saying things in a new way sometimes, and that is okay, and it can be beautiful.

Come to think of it, most of the blogs I've read—shoutout to Sam Altman ofc, Paul Graham, Nikunj Kothari, Ben Bolte—are not necessarily saying anything crazy. Sometimes, they do, when they write a thesis about something they're an expert on. Sometimes though, they just write about what they observe, which multiple others have observed before.

But for every person reading you that has read about that same idea before, there is likely a lot more that haven't, or haven't thought deeply about it. So you're still giving them food for thought. And if they did, not with the particular take, the particular emotion and approach that you are.

These two things are valid at the same time: you don't have to say something new when you're writing, but anything you say might still be new for many others.