The Tech Writer Highlight - Tivadar Danka

Tivadar Danka talks about the beauty of Mathematics at The Palindrome.

Welcome to the second edition of The Tech Writer Highlight, a newsletter that brings you both new and seasoned tech writers. This week we converse with

Tivadar Danka

who writes about the beauty of Mathematics at

The Palindrome

.

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First, tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you, what is your day job, what are your professional interests?

Hi there! My name is Tivadar; it's nice to meet you :) In case you are wondering, Tivadar is Theodore in Hungarian.

I used to be a researcher, but I found my true passion in teaching. The best way for this is content creation. So, I became a technical writer, which is my day job.

That pretty much sums up my professional interests as well. I am interested in teaching mathematics :)

Now tell us about

The Palindrome

. What is it about? What topics do you cover? Who is your intended audience?

I am explaining mathematics to non-mathematicians, mainly engineers and scientists. That is, for smart people who use math to advance human technology and knowledge.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't found my true voice yet. I often cross between more narrative-driven pieces and textbookish technical explanations. Ultimately, I want to blend these two together to create seamless and inspiring learning experiences.

How, when, and why did you begin writing about technical topics on the Internet?

I started a blog in 2014 as a PhD student, but it was horrible. I began to take writing seriously around late 2019 when I started to publish on Medium.

Initially, it started by explaining technical concepts to colleagues. Some of my spontaneous lectures about mathematics and machine learning worked better as blog posts. Soon, I was hooked on writing.

What role does technical writing play in your job and life?

Technical writing is my job :) Before this, I explored several career paths. I was a researcher, a machine learning engineer, and a startup founder. None resonated with me as much as being a content creator and a writer.

How is your writing process? How do you organize your writing schedule? How much time does writing take you, on average?

I am a pretty chaotic person, at least regarding my writing. My process is having a random idea and then going 100% focus mode until the material is finished. Then, I do a couple of editing and proofreading passes and hit publish.

This is not a process I would recommend to anyone —perhaps only those whose brains are wired in a similarly chaotic way.

By default, I am a slow writer. I used to re-think every sentence ten times before I started to type, but I’m constantly working on this. For example, every sentence you read here is perfectly spontaneous :)

I came a long way.

What kind of advice could you give people considering or getting started with technical writing?

Accept that your early work will suck, then do everything you can to improve. If you enjoy writing, you are already halfway there.

Any closing words you’d like to share with the readers of The Tech Writers Stack?

Just start writing.

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Feel free to leave a comment for

Tivadar Danka

if you want to know more about his writing. And don’t forget to check and subscribe to

The Palindrome

.