Vita

📜 Life notes

Introduction
Note to the casual reader
Index
Conventions used in the text
Credits

1. Introduction

I use this public repository as a notepad for a very broad variety of rough ideas and personal musings.

I like to reflect on lots of subjects (as do most other human beings, I would presume), talk about them with others, and learn from other people. Apart from the universal interests (life, meaning, love, happiness, etc), there are some specific subjects that I find fascinating (philosophy, politics, economics — among others). As I go on living my life, reading, travelling, growing up, meeting people and talking to individuals I love or admire, I try to capture particular thoughts that I find interesting as they cross my mind, appear on the page, or are uttered by someone else.

Usually, I feel that these ideas are not fit for other formats (essays, blog posts) for three reasons:

These ideas are too broad in their scope: I ramble about any subject as it crosses my mind, as long as I find it relevant/interesting enough.
At the same time, these ideas are often small: most of the times, I feel like I couldn’t fill more than one page or two talking about my views on some important aspect of life and be original. I can express most of these thoughs in a very succint way, and that’s enough.
These ideas are mostly half-cooked (because I’m alive, changing my mind, feeling silly), and therefore not ripe to share with the world in a formal way, with a minimum level of confidence in what I’m saying.

So I think a digital scratchpad like this repository is the perfect container. Git is a version-control system; designed to handle stuff that needs to be changed, fixed and reworked permanently; with the ability to travel back in time to review material as it was at some point in the past… That is exactly what I need for these thoughts.

Bear in mind that this project is as personal as a public project can ever be.

…but, needless to say, I’m stopping short of disclosing really intimate thoughts here.

2. Note to the casual reader

Did I mention already that the thoughts collected here are personal and temporary, a permanent work in progress?

Anyway, here are some actions you can take if you find an error in my reasoning (there will be plenty of those, of course):

Fork this repo, and submit a pull request.
File an issue.
Write to me.

On the other hand, if you are offended by some of my ideas, here is what you can do:

Stay outraged, refuse to apply the principle of charity and label me as you please.
Grow up.

3. Index

4. Conventions used in the text

There is a separate section for all ✱ footnotes, which are referenced throughout the text.

Key terms (ideas, topics, people, works) appear in bold. Also, these emoji are used to highlight key terms:

💡 Ideas and subjects
👤 Names of people
💭 Examples
👉 References

5. Credits

The idea for this project is borrowed from Buster Benson’s “Book of Beliefs” (hat tip).

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