Writer's Block

2021-03-01T06:31:42Z

There's all kinds of stuff I've wanted to write about in the last year, but man has the will to write been lacking.

There's a bunch of news in the last year that's been a good hook for a letter to the editor, but I never muster the will to poke around for the coverage in a local paper and then write up a response. (I managed to get enough focus this month to collaborate on an LTE about the passing of George Shultz, Republican elder statesman and climate advocate, but we submitted it nearly two weeks after his passing and the paper probably thought it was old news by then.) Last fall I had several ideas about framing carbon fee & dividends for a conservative audience, and had several days that I intended to write something, but have nothing to show for the plans other than my comment contributions to what some other folks wrote.

At the beginning of the year I was planning to be an active voice for bipartisan climate solutions in the new Congress, but then Donald Trump dispatched a mob to defile one of our country's sacred places. Bipartisanship became a challenging hook, and I was too engrossed in the "WTF just happened" details that unfolded on the Internet over the next few weeks. I was sucked in to watching all the videos posted to Parler around the Capitol on January 6th. It was a fascinating slice of history captured by people who probably didn't know just how big a historic moment they were filming. I spent several evenings and weekend days watching them in chronological order, and had thoughts of writing a blog post about what I'd observed, but then I ran out of steam between 3:15 and 3:30 of the day.

Last summer I had a couple design documents I'd said I would write at work and could barely get a couple paragraphs written. I also have several "Update the documentation with new information" bugs assigned to me that I frequently think about but never address. I was able to write a couple good design documents about things I had clear plans on how to build, but I've been nowhere near as prolific in work writing as I was in the 2011 to 2015 time frame.

I've also been pretty lousy at email correspondence during the pandemic (and for the last several years, to be frank), and social video conferences usually feel like a chore.

Oddly enough, despite all this writer's block, I've been significantly more productive at writing code in the last year than I was the previous four. Writing a five paragraph article takes all the energy in the world, but I can knock out code for hours on end with no problem. Writing English as a hobby is a no-go, but I somehow have the focus and clarity to switch from my work chair to my living room chair and still write code for personal projects.

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From the Mind of Trevor Stone

Writer's Block