Writing Publicly is Nerve Wracking

Years ago while working as a lowly intern for a giant company, I received an email titled MANDATORY IN-PERSON SECURITY TRAINING. They took attendance to ensure everyone participated. On the day of the training, everyone shuffled into the theater and awaited the presentation. The presenter then launched into the dangers of sharing too much information online. It was actually a great presentation full of funny video clips to keep people engaged.

Everyone in attendance worked in a secure facility, many with Top Secret or Secret clearances, so the stakes were higher than someone robbing your home because you posted vacation photos while still on the beach.

At the time, I was an Extremely Online Person. I posted to Twitter multiple times a day, Facebook actually kept me updated on what my friends were doing, and I was on top of all the memes on reddit. I grew up with the internet, and I knew what was OK and Not OK to post online. But this presentation planted the seed that perhaps it’s best to keep my cards close to my chest. 

Over time, data breaches started to become more common. Equifax, Office of Personnel Management, take your pick. It seemed like the less information you had about yourself online, the better.

When I struck out west to Colorado, I started posting lots of photos of my mountain adventures. One of my friends commented, “Wow, your pictures make me so jealous!” I never wanted anybody to feel jealous or less-than about things I was posting online. They didn’t mean it too seriously, but it was the final needle added to the haystack. My online presence stagnated.

That’s not entirely a bad thing! From a security perspective, I’m making myself a smaller target. I’m not making my friends jealous. I’m not wasting time shouting into the void. 

But I like the idea of planting my flag on a corner of the internet that isn’t a walled garden, aka bringing back the “artisan web.” The hard part is finding a reason to do it. I’m not famous, so I have no built-in audience. I worry that people I know and respect will read something then think negatively about me. I worry I’ll write a burst of content and then leave this to rot.

Ultimately, I need to write for myself, and it doesn't have to be hard. I want a place to put my thoughts and learnings, and hopefully have it stick around for a while. It’s already been fun to finally put this domain name to use. With all the free hosting sites out there like Cloudflare Pages, it’s easier than before! But not dead-simple, which I’ll probably write about eventually.

We’ll see what the future holds, but for now, let’s hope this doesn’t come back to bite me.