hello, world!
this is my first blog post here, and really ever. going to be interesting to see if i upkeep this as frequently as i would like. this post is just to get some basic information out of the way, so i can write freely and answer any questions which might be had.
my name is thomas bruce. i am a computer science (software engineering) student and mathematics student in the hudson valley, new york. i’ve independently been studying computing and maths for some years prior, however. other academic interests of mine include botany, climatology, and political theory.
hobbies of mine include: long-distance running, reading (mostly philosophy or other nonfiction areas), cooking, torturing myself (writing software), and having fun (writing software)
obviously this not an all-encompassing biography.
there are some important things to get out of the way:
i prefer to keep my writing (outside of academic writing) in all lowercase for a few reasons:
- it looks better to me
- it works well with my font
- my wpm increases slightlyif you don’t like it, write a tampermonkey script to capitalize my site, and share it for free on a non-restrictive platform.
while i will continue to maintain that politics aren’t the sole defining feature of an individual, it is nothing but fair to give a bit of a bias disclaimer about my poltical leanings. my political writings will (unless my mind is changed) be coming from a more lib-left slant than anything else. i will be wrong about things, or disagree with you on things, and that is ok! friction in the physical world releases energy, which has an effect on its surroundings. it is the same with disagreement among individuals; disagreement is nothing but the potential for further learning and understanding.
i do hold that there is a fundamental difference between politics and politicking about social issues. i will differentiate between the two in my writings.
i take a sligtly more “free” approach to identity than some of my peers, based on a loose interpretation of karl popper’s philosophies: identity is not based in the determinism of historical materialism, i.e. it is not merely a result of conditions and intrinsic stati, but more due to individual’s ability to reason critically and their choices thereof. it is my opinion that when the self is boiled down to a set of terms (labels) or (heaven forbid) diagnoses, it becomes an externally-mediated concept rather than an actual personal identity. it becomes a surface-level conceptualization of what it means to be “me”, rather than a deep knowledge of one’s self. it becomes a way to explain away the behaviours, quirks, idiosyncrasies, and more as due to a diagnosis or label or distinction of some other kind rather than the mild differences which we all hold from each other.
i don’t want it to be thought that i reject the comfort aspect of labels, however. i just think that there is so much more to identity than words and phrases. but i do think that this trend, ironically, serves to perpetuate what was antithetical to both marx’ and popper’s ideologies: it continues to create hierarchies and social distinctions which do nothing but hinder individuality at its purist form.
that about sums it up for this post. looking forward to writing my next one.