A proper hello

Hi again! I figure it might be worth a proper introduction this time.

I’m Ben Stolovitz, and I’m a software engineer at Microsoft. I’m a couple other things, too: I’m really proud of Sensible Security, a free, concrete, and evidence-informed cybersecurity guide for sensible people.

I created this website as a place for stuff. What stuff? I’m still figuring that out. But first I had to create the space for myself.

So I created this space as quickly as I could: no metadata, no SEO OpenGraph data, almost no style at all. To create a space.

That’s why my first post, “Hi!”, is just one word: it stakes out a place for me to exist.

I find my life is easier when I have a space for each thing I do — my todo lists, my home notebooks, my work notes. And I find that that space helps me do those things more reliably.

I hope this gives me a space to share thoughts with my friends and random strangers (👋). I hope it makes sharing easier.

Because in the words of Elle Cordova, one of my favorite singers, on being afraid to post:

[…] in the cosmic scale, I’m here for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a nanosecond.

We all just take up so little space and time, we might as well just make the tiny connections that we can make with each other while we’re here.

And every now and then, I’ll put something out, and I’ll make a connection with somebody — I reach somebody with it — and that’s worth it. That’s worth all the negative chatter.

I hope I’ve created a space to be kind, to be funny, to be thoughtful. I hope it reaches you well.

Hello 🙂