What Andy is Excited About

Many years ago, I started something like this blog. I had begun to learn a lot about the world around me that I wanted a place where I could write about it. That child-like wonder led me to begin writing long, detailed articles about cool (often Computer Science-related) things that I was learning about. I had high hopes for this site as being one of the most interesting sites on the web for cool facts and neat concepts.

Then I found Wikipedia and my heart sank. Who knew that millions of people editing a website 24 hours a day would be able to put out more information than my measly website? Defeated, I hung up my spurs. I almost came back to my writing, then a little thing called “grad school” crept into my life and sucked every ounce of energy I once had for writing about cool and interesting things.

After several years of grad school, however, I have learned one very valuable lesson: that fascination is a gift everyone should treasure, yet few people do. Amidst all of the trials and tribulations that face a young PhD student – finding a dissertation topic, honing my research skills, and articulating my findings to anyone who would listen – I learned that the best gift I ever had was a genuine sense of awe and respect for whatever I was studying.

I started applying my exuberant fascination to my attitude toward my PhD work and, somehow, those super-stressful moments of “defending” my ideas became a dialog of exciting perspectives and questions. I was no longer fighting people, but participating in a shared exploration of the messy, complex truth. Without fascination, I would have become a burned-out automaton driven by fear of rejection.

All that said, I think fascination is what this blog should be about. Excitement. Concepts. Elegant simplicity. Learning about God’s big world. And maybe some bad geek humor now and then.

So go to Wikipedia if you want a bunch of facts linked together. Come here if you want to share in my fascination.

Welcome to what I am excited about.