The official documentation of the writer; now 85% more believable
About me — Marlon van der Linde
Discretion advised: May cause misdirected introspection.
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Marlon got into writing in the early 2000s, when the internet was still all about real people and blogs had those visitor-counters. Since then, he's been coding; however, his recent pastime involves wrestling goats. That's all, folks.
The beginning
Born in the 1980s, growing up in the 1990s was unavoidable. it was the burgeoning time of personal computers, the dial-up modem's screech and constant soundtrack to my childhood (on BASF and TDK, of course). My first blogs covered topics that mattered to me. I wrote about software, code, and Linux; I reviewed local bands and live gigs on my self-run forums. Of course, I was also interested in electronics and exploration, which consumed much of my time.
The middle
I remember people enjoying the reviews, but I deliberately wrote to deliver a rant or message. It lacked meat and peas, and mash alone does not make a meal.
Writing code became a career, so I also wrote technical documentation at work and personal experience stories at home. I focused a lot more on working towards other life goals: self-reliance and survival farming in the middle of nowhere. Writing, though, remained one slice in my larger creative pie.
Thusly
My workplace tanked because of covid, and because they were deceitful cretins. We all floated in the ocean of chaos. I felt like it was a sign, so I jumped.
In 2025, my days unfold with the rich smell of coffee brewing, the joyful chaos of dogs and goats, the rhythmic movements of grazing animals. I exhaust myself with the satisfying work of building and repairing, the feel of the earth beneath my fingernails while planting and harvesting. I also write.
I do all this from an isolated little cottage, nestled between rocky hills in a semi-arid desert called the Karoo. It’s a hot, dry and difficult life; more than ever before.
I'm using permaculture and doing everything I can to farm my way to self-reliance. When there's surplus time, I love putting my thoughts on paper or learning more about insects and the natural world.
Why's and Wherefores
This alliterative title suggests what it attempts to say: the reasons I write. :)
Two decades of writing would make most authors experienced. Mighty pens, weak swords. After approximately fifteen (or something) years, my writing finally reached the desired level.
Now's the time. I know what to say. I write about surviving our times, tech, DIY farming, and the science, biology, and philosophy behind what we do.
Words are fantastic if you look at them closer. They have forms and feelings, and I suspect they might have distinct smells. Fonts, spacing, lines, negative space, and weight—words can dissect, clarify, and incite our minds and souls.
Words move people, and writers can change the outcomes of things out of their control. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and that responsibility is as motivating and remarkable as scary and offputting.
That is why I write.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in My Work
My handwritten stories linger far too long in the drafts. Even though I took English as a first language subject in school and read a lot, it isn't my first language.
When I write, I act as a writer before returning to my drafts and acting as an editor. It takes a few passes to get things polished, and I use ProWritingAid (use this link to get 20% off, it will help us both) and Anthropic with a prompt I crafted to help me skim the top layer of punctuation and grammar errors off the writing.
That is the extent of my use of AI.
When I don't use my own photos, I will use royalty-free imagery or unique and personal generated art from my trained models. Crucially, I need more than simple AI-generated images; I use my own photographs to guide color, style, and to de-identify individuals. Images must be truly remarkable, obscure, and distinctly crafted with essays of prompting.
The heinous "one-liner" prompts that generate annoyingly typoed images (we see them everywhere now) are smelly, typical AI art without substance. Art is possible if you spend as much time using (or tuning) the AI tool. I love using Blender 3D, too, but I hardly have the time to model things from scratch.
Topics and Stories
Interests and experience don't always correlate. Where they do, I share them with you so you may learn, laugh, or avoid the same pitfalls. My writing centers on my activities and interests:
- Wilderness and nature (especially the roles we all play in it)
- The philosophy and spirit behind subsistence living and survival farming
- Science and technology (past and present experiences in electronics, programming and how it couples with self-reliance and natural living)
- Biology, soil-building, permaculture, and regenerative practices
- Energy systems, dry-land water management
- Animals (livestock as partners, providers, and workers in a symbiotic system)
- Self-sufficiency, community, solo and couples survival farming
- Opinions, own research, challenges, and failures at our wilderness farm
- Communication, human issues, and politics and its effects on everyday life
I plan on building an article index here, so monitor this page.
— It is time to brush your teeth and hit the sack. Stop reading at this point.
