Hack and Stash: the Intro

Welcome to the new and improved personal website of Samuel Christie. At least, it would be improved if there was ever a previous website…

The meaning of the name is simple; it's referencing the common workflow of editing code haphazardly and then temporarily 'stashing' it out of the way so that more important things that actually work can be pulled in. At the same time, it also alludes to adventure and gratuitous violence, which are much more exciting. Both ideas also contain implications of incompleteness and uncertainty—just like most of my own work.

However, I hope the existence of this website ultimately proves beneficial for all of us.

For you, because I think some of my ideas are actually pretty good, and perhaps you might as well. Or not. The potential upsides seem much broader than the potential downsides. Even bad ideas can be useful as an example of what not to do.

For myself, because I hope to push myself to actually produce more useful content, and in doing so learn and grow much more effectively than I have before. Much of my time is wasted on musing that never becomes anything. Thinking without acting is indistinguishable from simply sitting and staring at a wall, though the latter is probably more relaxing. By communicating my ideas, even the unfinished ones, they will become more concrete, and I can pick them up again and continue working on them more easily in the future.

Also, I find myself rather partial to essays as a format for communicating ideas, rather than comments. An essay involves more deliberate thought than mere reaction to a previous statement, even if the only reason is because it's longer. Properly done, an essay involves the development of an actual thesis, and can include sufficient evidence and arguments to support it. At least, it seems much more productive when opponents take their time, develop their points, and write heated essays in response to each other rather than simply posting "Nuh-uh!" comments. The best essays are even edited multiple times, proof-read, and tested on unfortunate friends and relatives before publishing. Or peer-reviewed in more sophisticated academic contexts, though it is sad how poorly written most academic papers are (even my own). I can't promise I'll go to that level of trouble though.

Hopefully I will be able to overcome my own perfectionism and actually produce a few such essays, instead of constantly polishing and never publishing. Then again, on a site that's even named after my habit of leaving things unfinished, perhaps that's how it should be.