Skip to main content

Qualities of My Blog, Thoughts

Recently, I wondered why no one reads my blogs after I started rereading Cal Newport's How to Be a High School Superstar. In the book, he used blogging as an example to illustrate the advice-guide method. Instead of solely relying on blind effort, this method encourages high school students to ask experts in a particular field they are interested in about advice on how to succeed. Newport took an hour or two to research the characteristics of successful and mediocre blogs. He noticed that the mediocre blogs were informal, didn't have a focus (tangents about author's personal life). More importantly, the bloggers didn't put in a lot of effort in the writing because the ideas were disorganized. For Newport, it appeared that the bloggers cared more about quantity (how many blogs published) than quality. As a result, the ideas were not insightful or unique.
Before I keep going, I would like to clarify that Newport was pretending to be a high school student interested in personal finance blogs. My blog is in no way about personal finance. In fact, my blog is kind of like a diary or personal journal. Nevertheless, Newport's analysis prompted me to reflect upon the quality of my blogs. The possible reasons that very few people read my blogs is that my writing is very disorganized. When Newport mentioned the word mind dumping, I knew immediately he was describing someone like me. I am unable to focus on the matter on hand because I digress about other subjects. Also, I am not taking writing classes to improve my writing.
Maybe I am too harsh on myself, but I believe it is necessary to be aware of my weaknesses.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

YearCompass 2022-2023

 2022 had its highest highs and lowest lows. My freshman spring semester was not good, but at least I had the motivation to do well. Summer was probably the closest thing to utopia. Sophomore fall started off fine, but things eventually became a disaster and I am not exaggerating when I use the word "disaster."  Despite being aware of the many failures of this year, I think it is good for me to reflect upon 2022 and establish some goals and resolutions for 2023. Unlike previous years, I decided to give YearCompass a try since YearCompass provides a thorough examination and allows for deep contemplation.  Calendar Go through your calendar week by week. If you see an important event, family gathering, friendly get-together or a significant project, write it down here. Jan. 28-Jan. 30: NYC trip  Feb. 19: first BSO concert (Mozart and Bruckner) Mar. 20-Mar. 25: Washington DC trip  Apr. 16: Parkrun 5k May 11: Evgeny Kissin  Jun. 26: BAA 10k Jul. 24: Revere Beach...

My Accepted BU RISE Essays

BU RISE is a 6-week research program at Boston University. In 2019, the acceptance rate was around 16% so it is a selective program. There are two tracks- internship and practicum. The internship is the one I applied to because I wanted to work in a lab. Unfortunately, BU RISE in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. If you are applying to BU RISE, these essays may be a source of inspiration.  1.Why you selected your field of interest and what you would like to research (300 words)  First choice: medical laboratory research (biochemistry) Second choice: chemistry  Ever since 2018, I participated in a Science Olympiad event called Protein Modeling that sparked my interest in proteins. When I learned about the anti-CRISPR protein, it alarmed me that the protein stopped CRISPR from working. Wondering how this could happen, I used Jmol to build and visualize the protein model. Over time, I no longer viewed proteins as messy globs. Instead, I appreciated that the protein’s disti...

The Frustrations of Wet Lab

     I am sitting at my desk in the lab, still mad and frustrated that I can’t even pipette properly. My cell counter results are dismal. I don’t know why I am getting such poor percentages for cell viability – I should be getting at least 90%, not 47%. I followed what my supervisor did an hour ago: perform a serial dilution four times, pipette trypan blue into each of the four wells, then pipette a bit of sample into the cell counter plate.       Fortunately, my supervisor came into the cell room to check on me and helped me with pipetting for the cell counter step. He got 89%, close to the ideal threshold. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. I could sense that his voice was tinged with frustration, which I understood. I was also mad for not having an answer. What exactly was wrong with my pipetting technique? Did I pipette too quickly, or did I not press the plunger correctly?       The whole cell counter incident frustrates ...