I assume pretty much no one except me will look at my website. So why even have it?

Sure, it's handy to have my own digital space to reference things. But the real reason is that the possibility someone could read it makes me write better. It doesn't matter that no one does. Only that someone could.

The structure necessary to explain an idea to someone else forces you to clarify it for yourself. You have to organize the thought. Question it. Make it more defensible. Mostly, if I'm honest, I'm trying to avoid looking sloppy rather than trying to produce something brilliant, but that defensive pressure is the whole point.

I journal too, with pen and paper, mostly to get ideas out and force myself to slow down. That's a different job. The ideas I keep coming back to in my journal are the ones that need additional pressure. Otherwise I'll just keep writing about them in a shallow way and burning mental cycles. Those are the ones that earn a spot on the site. This post is one of them.

So if you're not me and you're reading this, and you're thinking about starting a website, just go ahead and do it. Use the prospect of someone seeing what you write to make yourself better.