What Becomes Worth Remembering

zburkey@bztsolutions.com (Zachary Burkey) — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 20:05:30 -0500

Work has been going great so far! One of the nice things has been still having that freedom to just put on background noise while I work. If it hasn’t become apparent so far though, most all of that noise is YouTube videos going over hyper-niche topics into autistic detail–Cathode Ray Dude and Technology Connections are perfect examples of such and I would absolutely recommend them. But what stood out most this recent go around was a video that randomly appeared in my feed.

A small podcast, Influence with Matt Silverman, had an interview with another YouTuber I frequently watch, Jason Kingsley or Modern History TV, going over his life as a game developer and, more particularly, a historian. Jason’s channel focuses over medieval life of the commoner, both demystifying and explaining how fairly normal it all really was. The interview is fantastic to say the least and I would encourage anyone to listen to it. Jason Kingsley is just a fascinating man to listen to.

The thesis and title of the podcast were what really stuck out to me though: The Weirdest Parts of Medieval Life Are Not In Textbooks or Fairy Tales. While people may have not been as illiterate as is often speculated, there still was a rarity of written work or free time for the average person to reflect on what they perceived as mundane life. Now, in our modern, always-connected lives, that’s no longer as much an issue and many people post or repost most anything. However, even with that access, I still struggle to get my mind out there. The very first post I made on this blog spelled it out perfectly:

I’ve had this site up for close to a year now with little to no idea of what I wanted to do with it. From the beginning, it was to be as the name stated, a place for more to divulge whatever was on my mind that was worth sharing. Lo and behold, I was left empty because I feel like I have nothing to directly contribute that hasn’t been said. Most any idea I have comes from others whom I’ve engaged with, be it enjoying their works and having others dissect what they say.

There’s clearly a value to recording and reflecting on information, but I feel with such an abundance of it, my voice is just another grain of sand in the sea. What’s the point filming a concert, particularly for a well established band? Likely they’re already being recorded with professional tech for a live album. I’d bet at least three-quarters of the audience are filming the show themselves. Why should I be wasting storage space for something I can already find?

What’s Worth Remembering?

Here, as an adult, I’ve made more of an effort to record keep, but that focus is always more centered around what I consume rather than what I experience. Perhaps it’s because of our upbringings or the lack of reflection on the impact of our lives, but most everyone takes for granted what their lives are. We all know the consequences of the modern internet with people primarily posting just to support an image of themselves. Even for someone like me who seldom posts a thing, most of the records I keep of myself are just the highlights of life: getting a job, finishing school, getting a house, etc.

A lot of the rest of that information is stored. There’s wide swaths of information readily available on any of our devices–years and years of texts, images, or locations–that we just forget about. Most of us have had full, insightful discussions with others, but much of it is just gone without a trace.

I’ve always recognized the benefit of active journaling. While I’ve never been able to build the habit, one of the things I have been doing for a few years now has been following Steph Ango’s advice and answering 40 questions to ask yourself every year. When I do, I naturally peer back into my answers from the years prior and a feel a host of emotions about where I last was in life. Not because they were outright sad or happy, but more so because it’s that image to compare myself to.

I thought different then. There was a new song, game, experience, or person that was on my mind that I completely forgot about. That’s what’s really important: the feelings and small details from that exact point. I think that’s the part we most forget.

What’s Worth Expressing?

Keeping information is one thing; figuring out how and when to express it, a whole nother. That’s the second half of the problem I’ve been facing about recording things. I’ve recognized the benefits of the keeping track of more things and reflecting on them (though I do need to get better). Actually sticking to posting things so I can get those ideas out there? I thought making a goal to have articles out at a certain rate would help, but obviously it didn’t.

Outside of the AI crawlers scraping the site, who do I write to? A lot of it has been bits of my life with a couple of my opinions scattered in. Has that been the right move?

The struggle posting things has always been a lot easier to explain though: I feel if I’m going to say something, it ought to be something worth saying. This gets back to the idea of recording a concert. The angle I’m standing at, the things going on around me, you could say I have aspects that make my perspective unique and worth remembering. Fair enough. However, we can all fairly agree that having everybody there post it would be redundant.

The world has competent summaries and accounts. I consume them on the regular. While a lot of the YouTubers I watch are the autistic bunch, I know a lot of channels that just regurgitate news articles and Wikipedia summaries. Sure, there are plenty of people who wouldn’t know about that thing without them posting it (me included), but were a lot of those videos really worth posting?

For something to really be worth posting, it needs to create a discuss or add something to one.

Recently, Matt Colville, another YouTuber I watch for tabletop RPGs, posted a video to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the channel. In it, he explained exactly how I want to treat articles myself.

I thought YouTube was cool and I wanted to try it. As in, I wanted to try making videos and I thought, what could I make videos about that folks would watch that would be fun for me? And the only other criteria I thought about was I wanted to make videos that might be evergreen. So, that’s really the context for a lot of what follows. There are two kinds of YouTubers: the ones who do it as a hobby with no desire to go pro and those trying to make a living at it.

What Will the Future Want from Us?

Colville’s idea of evergreen content got thinking a little further. Content has a short lifespan. Often times the topics they discuss or the presentation of them decreases the value of them in the long term. What’s more fascinating and what we would call more important to remember are records that only become more valuable the older they get. 4

While helping his parents clean the attic of their home in Bethesda, Maryland, Peter Jones uncovered a box of old letters. The contents of the box were fragile; the paper, yellowed, but they were still readable. The letters were addressed to his great-great-grandfather, John Hunt, who emigrated from Ireland in 1855 just after the peak of the Irish Potato Famine had ravaged much of the country.

Within the correspondence, Peter saw the home that his forefather left, the difficulties living on just debt, and the profound guilt felt by John knowing that he couldn’t return to Ireland after having started a whole new life in America. Peter Jones was a professional songwriter and took that experience and wrote the ballad Kilkelly, Ireland.

The great-great-grandfather saw value in keeping those letter–they were the only correspondence he had with his old life that he was obligated to leave–but we wouldn’t have known that had they just been left in that box to inevitably degrade. It was releasing those letters and composing the song that let the history of it be felt. Not just a recount of the time period, but also an actual glimpse into a perfect example of an every man afflicted by such an event.

While I feel my life isn’t as interesting as the Hunt’s life was, I’m also saying that with the bias from not living it. From their perspectives, life didn’t feel like it needed to be expressed to the greater world either as the letters were just addressed to family overseas. That scope though is also what makes it so fascinating.

I guess the reason I brought up the song was because whatever I intend to share needs to be looked at from two perspectives: who I’m looking to direct it to and who otherwise might pass by it themselves. I don’t know who I’m speaking to here. Do I intend to make some following eventually? Is this just a public journal? How do I balance authenticity with how I want myself to be seen?

That’s still the hardest thing I’m trying to figure out. This whole site is something for record, expression, and memory, but I’ve hardly had the urge to use it as such. This is supposed to be me.

Who am I?

How will I be remembered?

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Philosophy on Piece of Mind

What Becomes Worth Remembering

What’s Worth Remembering?

What’s Worth Expressing?

What Will the Future Want from Us?