Why I created this blog

My name is Cyril Mechkov. I have taught analog, digital and microcomputer circuits for almost 40 years at the Computer Systems Department of the Technical University of Sofia.

Philosophy. My pursuit is to reveal the fundamental ideas behind circuits and show them to web readers. I do this relying more on my imagination, intuition and emotions than on the pure logic and reasoning. I prefer to understand and explain instead to learn and tell circuits to people. I have my own circuit "philosophy" and want to share it with people.

Circuit fantasia. I have been trying to do it on the web since 2002 when started with a great enthusiasm my site of circuit-fantasia.com. To attract young visitors, I made it animated and interactive by the help of Macromedia Flash.

Wikipedia. Circuit-fantasia gained a good popularity but, to promote my ideas even more widely, in 2006, I joined Wikipedia because of its highest Google rank. I managed to pass a lot of my ideas out there. My greatest achievement was the page about Miller theorem (created by me). In total, I managed to make 7700 edits. Unfortunately, Wikipedians turned out to be only editors who blindly convey information from reputable sources. They considered my explanations as "original research" (the worst thing on Wikipedia) and opposed me.

Wikibooks. That is why, in the next 2007, I created Circuit Idea wikibook where I began exposing my circuit philosophy with great enthusiasm... and expected the same from Wikibooks readers. This novel electronics wikibook was intended for creative students, teachers, inventors, technicians and hobbyists who really wanted to grasp the basic concepts of electronics by their imagination and intuition. In Wikibooks, I managed to make more than 10,000 edits. But even in this wiki project I did not receive feedback in the talk pages and there were no discussions. That is why I turned my attention to discussion forums.

ResearchGate. In the beginning of 2013, I decided to continue my pursuit in the scientific network ResearchGate. My intention there was to do the same like in Wikibooks but in the more interesting form of dialogues. For several years, I asked a total of 124 questions and 3400 comments. They helped me reach new insights into circuit phenomena. Unfortunately, few contributors were interested in such a "philosophical" approach, which came as a surprise to me. After all, these were scientists, theorists, for whom such an approach should be significant and interesting? Gradually I started to get frustrated and lose the desire to do this there.

StackExchange. I started looking for a more suitable field to promote my ideas. In 2014, I came across interesting questions and answers in StackExchange, which made me join this network. But I was very surprised by the rude relations and the open pragmatism of the contributors there... and that made me give up and stay in ResearchGate. I kept asking more and more questions... and even finally answering them myself... until at one point I gave up... and went back to StackExchange...

For a year now, I have been collaborating intensively (8,263 reputations) in StackExchange and I have got to know it very well. What is attractive about it are the interesting, often naive questions that mostly young people ask. In some inexplicable way, they provoke my thinking and make me reach new insights. I made many interesting illustrations of circuits with visualized electrical quantities (my favorite way of presentation). But I do not find support from my peers and this deters me. The relationship between us there is terrible - instead of helping each other, we envy each other. Downvoting is common. Also, it is common practice not to respond to comments below the answers. If there are any comments, usually they are negative. There are no words of praise and encouragement. Discussions do not take place, and they are suppressed by the moderators. And at the heart of it all is anonymity. In these terrible working conditions, I began to feel that much of my efforts were going to waste...

Codidact. Fortunately, the new Codidact platform was born and it gave me new hopes. The Papers section turned out to be especially valuable for me and I published four articles. But although there are not many of the SE EE disadvantages, I do not think this is the best place for me. I would like to have a warmer human relationship where everyone encourages the other and inspires them with a desire to work. Here, too, the discussions are not desired and frequently are deleted... and for me there is nothing more valuable for the visitors than discussions...

Blogger. So I came to the conclusion that, in addition to all these forums, I have to document my materials in my own place which is convenient and easy to use. A happy circumstance for me was the chat discussions with TL Fong, which led me to create this blog. So I finally ended up here...

My idea is to use the blog as a common place for my materials (past, present and future). I will accompany them with additional info about how they are created and the circumstances around them. It is going to be an interesting activity...

Comments