My last post got more attention, than I usually get.
I picked up a topic that I had written about before; Many times, actually.
This last post however, did not cause endless debates, snarky comments or crazy misunderstandings.
It attracted new readers and I got votes from people, who ignored me for years.
Maybe it was because I unfollowed some...
Maybe it was the format, though...
I ask ChatGPT to explain like I'm 5, what ELI5 means:
Sure! ELI5 is like when you ask someone to explain something in a really simple way. Imagine you're a 5-year-old kid and you don't know many big words yet. So, if someone uses easy words and examples that you know, like toys or cartoons, it helps you understand better. ELI5 is just like that - explaining things in a super simple way so even a kid can get it!
That feels so condescending.
I usually like the ELI5 format on Reddit.
It works especially well, with complex topics and more complicated questions, than the one above.
One of my mathematics teachers used to say:
If you can't explain it to your grandmother, you haven't understood it well enough, yourself.
He was a good teacher and he was good at explaining stuff, without leaving the slower pupils behind. He also kicked me from the school for my behavior. But that's a different story, maybe.
Anyways, he was right.
I ask ChatGPT to draw something about this dialogue, like it was 5:
Image made with chatGPT + Dall-E
rhyme, lol
I only knew ELI5 from Reddit, where it works the other way around; someone asks the community to explain a certain topic like they were 5. The best answers are sometimes quite impressive.
Sidenote: It should be 'Explain like I was 5, right?
Now, I am thinking about doing more in that format.
It felt so patronizing writing like that. I never expected the post to do well.
I have always enjoyed creating naive, silly pieces. Just look at my old posts here.
Or my account banner, or my avatar...
My most successful post, ever, was written and illustrated like that.
Maybe I should focus more on that. Maybe I am good at that.
I mean, 2-8 year olds ask some of the best questions. And I enjoy answering them.
I have been following Elon Musk a lot recently.
I am still surprised at his success - almost annoyed by it.
Anyone with knowledge in physics or engineering must cringe at some of his ideas and the way he tackles questions.
But that might just be why he is so successful.
People who seem to have little interest in math, physics or engineering seem to worship that guy suddenly. He made electric cars and astronauts cool again, especially amongst people who seem to have ignored science during school.
I have also been playing around with ChatGPT a lot recently.
It's amazing and can solve complex problems within seconds. At the same time, it can be very naive and sometimes even stupid. It's like taking to a super-intelligent 5 year old.
Actually it feels as naive as a typical 3 year old, still.
Instructing it and talking to it like it is a 5 year-old, has given me really good results.
Just look at the image I got from it - it's perfect.
If I give it precise context, it can even reason quite well, but if I just ask it to reason and it accesses its knowledge base freely, results are sometimes awful.
It's really immature in that sense, but highly functional. Like the world's smartest 5 year old.
Back to:
Maybe I should focus more on this format, this style.
Maybe my posts about code and the inner workings of Hive aren't worth the effort.
Maybe they aren't as good as I think they are.
Maybe it doesn't matter how good they are, if too few people read them.
After all, English isn't my first language, and even though I know some big words and can express certain things better than in my first language, I sometimes reach my limits and feel like I write like a child.
Please believe me, I can express myself better in German.
I recently thought about activating my witness again.
I am more active these days and I am working on the computer more for different reasons.
It was always my approach to view this witness thing half-serious.
I view my strength in being an outsider to these things, a complete noob admin and naive to Linux.
That was exactly my approach: I wanted to be an intermediary between the pros and the common user.
I did it so I can explain to the uninnitiated and the seasoned alike, what it feels like to get into it.
It was more to report about the process rather than actually being good at it.
I lost a good chunk of witness votes, during a fork.
I made a crucial mistake and some big witnesses seemed really pissed off about it.
I am still not sure what I did wrong, exactly, but I missed 300+ blocks within 1 hour.
That was my fault and I am sure they were furious in the (super) secret witness chatroom.
Maybe it was just because I did something silly, mabe it was because I showed them, how easily some low-rank witness could mess things up for everyone.
I have the suspicion that I am on some type of blacklist ever since then.
I might be the last person to try and compile hived from source.
While the top Ws brag about running the thing on a tiny box, I had to rent a big, pricy machine for that approach and it was tiresome and clunky.
To me, administering like that is -quite literally- like working with a black box.
I know what steps to take, but how it works inside is a mystery sometimes.
(I have improved a lot though and I just recently had quite the breakthrough)
Maybe I should just rent one of these cheap boxes, follow the instructions step by step and focus more on the original idea of writing openly about the process. I still don't like docker. It feels like cheating.
Maybe I have taken this blog too serious.
Maybe I have taken myself too serious.
I should focus more on writing pieces that are easy to read, and focus less on being right.
I do this for fun and profits are secondary. I should try to express this more by the way I write.
My strength seems to be that I enjoy learning new things.
I enjoy the process more than the result.
Rather than trying to blog conclusively, I should focus on the methods, the insights I pick up along the way. Be less absolute, but more relatable instead.
ChatGPT says this (eli5):
[...]
So, you're making your blog more like a fun chat with friends, where you share all the exciting things you learn, and everyone enjoys it together!
I like that...
I fell asleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of the night, after dreaming about stealing a motorcycle and doing other weird stunts. I just sat down and wrote this in one go and tomorrow I will probably regret posting it, but it was fun.