Hello, world!

Let’s just say, it’s been a long time coming.

A lot has happened since I originally planned to start a blog. Years have gone by; I moved a few times. Andrew Coyne got back on Twitter!

The idea of writing things and publishing them on the internet has been appealing for a long time. I think it’s mostly because people I admire a lot – David Eaves, Sara Souidan, Brad Frost, Mike Bracken, Lucas Cherkewski – make a habit of doing that regularly. There’s some small fear that comes from that – on the one hand, living up to the standards set by heroes of mine. And on the other hand, putting down opinions of my own, that I know I will also eventually think are wrong, with the benefit of years of hindsight. Things on the internet last a very long time.

I think it’s worth it, mostly just to try it and see what happens. There are a lot of interesting conversations taking place every day – especially in my favourite niche topic, the intersection of technology and governments – and I’m excited to contribute small ideas to these conversations somehow.

The subtitle on David Eaves’ blog is, “if writing is a muscle, this is my gym”. That’s an attitude I’d like to adopt here. Expect a lot of imperfect posts as I, er, exercise in public. I think I’ve been to a real-life gym once in my life, so …this should go well.

There’s a few people who I have to thank, for encouraging me to do this since longer than I can remember. James, Leon, Alex, and Brad (my original Twitter friends!). Kwabena and Delalorm, who led a phenomenal workshop on blogging at Barcamp Kumasi in 2013. I promised I’d let you know when I started blogging – turns out I’m only 6 years or so late. The things I plan to write about here aren’t quite what I imagined they’d be then, but I’m excited about where they’ll go. And, thanks to Heather, as always, for a whole bunch of things.

Thanks for believing in me, years ahead of time. Here goes…!