Soronthar: November 2007 Archives

Here I am, sunday afternoon, trying very hard to produce some posts for the blogs I created, to fulfill my self-made promise to blog something meaningful  every other day.

Of course, my mind went blank. Nothing regarding Java, or OOD (for the tech blog), no history from my role-playing past (for the RPG blog), nothing in general for this blog. I was suffering what is called "Writer's Block" or "Blank Page Syndrome"

This is very ironic, given that I'm currently teaching a course on creative thinking and idea generation.

That thought was my salvation.

As soon as that thought came, my mind clicked. I remembered Jerry Weinberg (of Secrets of Consulting fame) saying "Writter's block is an idiotic idea".

So, if I'm not blocked, why is that I cannot write a blog post? For the very same reason that a lot of people cannot generate ideas: I was trying to find the "right post" at the first pass. Trying to model something "perfect" at the first run. This is one of the main killers of creativity.

So, how did I end up with a blog post? I used one of the techniques I teach. It's a very simple one, and it's used to warm up the brain and trigger the unconscious process of linking facts: Write up a phrase. Any phrase. Then write whatever comes to your mind. Continue doing this until you have enough material to refine a blog post. By that time, your brain will be on fire, and you should be 'on the flow'.

In general, this technique can be used to generate any kind of written material. Just follow these steps:

• Write up a phrase. Any phrase.
• Write some other phrases (ideas) related to the original one, as many as your brain gives you. Even those that you think are 'idiotic', 'bad' or 'not related'.
• Try to link these ideas, and to build some paragraphs with them. As you go, write down if you need to find a reference, or to validate a fact, or to insert a link, but don't stop the flow just yet.
• When you think you're "done", take another pass to find that missing reference or link, and validate the facts. If another idea pops up, write it down.
• Repeat the above steps until either you run out of ideas, or you feel satisfied with the length of the writing.
• Read the whole writing again. Refine it until you feel satisfied with the result.

My first phrase? "I cannot produce a blog post for today". The end result, you're reading it.


Happy Blogging

The first post I made with ScribeFire, had "Powere by ScribeFire" appended at the end. I wanted to turn that down, so I started to browse the site. In one Comment for the release note i found this tip:

To disable the "Powered by ScribeFire" message, click on the << simbol at the top left of the ScribeFire panel, go to "Settings" and uncheck the "Automatically insert Powered by ScribeFire" setting.

Happy blogging.

My (real) name is Rafael Alvarez. I was born July 8, 1975 in Caracas, Venezuela.


I got a degree in Computer Engineering at Universidad Simón Bolívar (Caracas, Venezuela) with minors in Computer Language Theory (Focus on Virtual Machines and static optimizations like Partial Evaluation), Artificial Intelligence (focus on Planning and rule-based systems) and Benchmarking (focus on Web-based Applications)

According to the Jung-Myers-Briggs test, I'm a INTJ person. It describes me pretty well, so perhaps they're not that wrong.

I have been always passionate about programming: I see it more as a craft than as a science.


Over the years, I have taken several online tests for fun, you can see the results here

Some time ago, when I first read about weblogs/blogs I thought "Why on earth would someone want to keep one?". Now, after reading blog after blog, I found the answer: You can put your thought there, ideas too small or irrelevant to form a paper, but relevant enough so you want to write or tell them.

So, this is it. My collection of ideas, spread across three blogs (Personal, Technology and Pen-and-Paper RPG).

If at least one other people like what can be found here, I'll feel satisfied.