I realise that when you let yourself get caught up with things around you, you forget to do the one thing that has enabled you to get thus far:
Reading.
I was a bookworm when young. At age 14 I attempted to read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time – even though I didn’t study physics. I kept on reading, beyond what was necessary in the school syllabus (unless it was in Chinese).
Then I discovered the Internet and my eyes re-adjusted themselves to reading digital text. I liked how one link would lead to another. I discovered people through through their blogs. Online academic papers led me from one footnote to another. I
Today, we don’t just link to other people. We tag stories, rate them and give trackback pings on our own blogs. In that process we learn more about what the community is thinking about at the time.
After so many years I realise I’ve never really said it until now – the web is a beautiful thing.