Simply put, A Man Shortly is a site about projects and continuous self improvement. It revolves around a philosophy of incremental progress, and a mission to help people learn.
Much of the existing and planned content today (September 2020) is technical in nature, featuring runbooks that cover procedures to install or configure something (usually software) at a high level, and video tutorials that cover the same subject matter for people who aren't as familiar with the core concepts, or who simply learn more effectively visually and aurally. That said, the content type presented here is not set in stone, it just happens to be where I've (miliarch) focused effort recently and feel passionate about developing/sharing at present. In six months to a year the content I'm producing could shift completely to artistic expression, or video game shenanigans (with a slant toward learning, of course). It's even within the realm of possibility that I'll be but one of many authors presenting content here.
I simply don't know how this project will evolve yet, but I'm delighted that you've decided to take a look!
Philosophy
Every project (creative activity) starts as a question that evolves into an idea (goal) worth pursuing. Perhaps after some pursuit of said idea the determination is made that launching a project to implement the idea would be too difficult to be worth while - maybe due to cost, time investment, current knowledge, social acceptance, or simple disinterest after initial development. But what is pursuit of an idea if not a project? How does one retain the lessons learned during that pursuit, or truly understand if the determination is accurate, without completing the project in some respect?
Considering whether an idea is worth developing early in the cycle is problematic. Conjuring up an idea is a fun, care free, liberating, intoxicating experience. The sky, or more accurately the human imagination, is the limit. Coming back to that idea with a mindset toward implementation is not so fun. Translation from the abstract to the concrete is not easy, and is beholden to rules of all sorts. Many people struggle with this exercise, myself included, and approach it with an all or nothing attitude. Consequently many people destroy much, and create very little.
The phrase "a man shortly" is a tool I devised to help myself get better at accepting that my ideas are worth follow-up, and the resulting projects can be completed given small amounts of effort over the longer course of time. It helps temper my expectations of myself, and my perception of the expectations of others. It helps ground me in the truth that an incremental approach to progress is valid, that there is simply no reason to keep an idea on the back burner until it fully bakes, which frequently means forever.
Every project can be broken into smaller chunks, even projects that are already fairly small. While that does mean the full idea won't be realized immediately, it's okay, as it may not be realized at all otherwise...and that would certainly be worse.
Mission
- Help people learn about topics that are interesting to them
- Help people accept incremental progress as a valid method to achieve their goals
- Make learning an enjoyable experience for the audience
- Present honest information, including sources/references