I'm Hikithe Achumi.
I'm not an expert. I'm just paying attention.
I know some things, think about others, wonder about plenty more, try things, find things, build things, and go to work.
That's probably the simplest way to explain this website.
I have never really been able to stick to just one thing. I'm interested in websites, technology, AI, domains, ideas, design, the strange corners of the internet, and the many little things I come across while trying to figure something out. Sometimes I build something because I think it might become useful. Sometimes I build something simply because I want to see if I can.
A lot of the things I start probably won't become anything.
I'm okay with that.
I like the process of figuring things out. I like finding a strange website and wondering who made it. I like looking at domain names that nobody else seems to care about. I like trying a tool just to see what it can do. I like taking an idea that is probably too complicated and trying to make it work anyway.
Some of my interests are practical. Some aren't.
And then there is football.
I've loved Cristiano Ronaldo for more than two decades now. That's long enough that supporting him has become one of those things that feels less like a passing interest and more like a permanent part of who I am. I've watched the goals, the celebrations, the great moments, the difficult moments, the changes in clubs, and the different stages of his career.
Twenty years have gone by, and I'm still here.
I expect I will be for a very long time.
It's one of those interests I don't really need to explain or justify. I simply love watching him play and following his journey. That probably means he'll occasionally find his way onto this website too.
I also work as a Havaldar in CBIC. It isn't the sort of job I would normally expect to become part of a personal website, but it is a fairly large part of my life, so I don't see much reason to leave it out.
I may write about work here too. Not as an official voice, and certainly not as someone who knows everything about government service. Just from where I happen to stand.
There are things I have learned from having a job, from dealing with people, from doing ordinary work, and from seeing how differently people can look at the same thing. Some of those things are worth writing down. Some are probably only interesting to me. I'll let you decide.
Then there is everything else.
The things I learn.
The things I get wrong.
The things I change my mind about.
The things I find interesting for no particularly good reason.
The projects that work.
The projects that don't.
The websites I keep starting.
The questions I don't have answers to.
And the occasional thought that stays in my head long enough that I feel like writing it down.
That's what Unheard.me is for.
Why "Unheard"?
The name is a little contradictory.
I'm creating a place to be heard while calling it Unheard.me.
But I don't mean "unheard" in the sense of being silenced or having some important message that the world desperately needs to hear.
I mean the smaller things.
The thoughts that usually stay in your head.
The things you learn but never write down.
The strange thing you noticed while everyone else was looking somewhere else.
The experiment that failed but taught you something.
The opinion you aren't sure anyone else shares.
The question you keep coming back to.
The ordinary experience that probably isn't important enough to become a book, an article, or a conversation, but is still worth remembering.
Most of those things disappear.
I don't want all of mine to.
I'm not trying to be an expert
There is already plenty of the internet where someone tells you exactly what you should think, buy, build, learn, or do.
I'm not particularly interested in adding another voice to that pile.
If I know something because I've actually done it, I'll tell you what I know.
If I'm only guessing, I'll say that too.
If I have an opinion, it is an opinion.
If I don't know the answer, I don't want to pretend that I do.
I'd rather write, "I don't know, but this is what I've been thinking about," than build an impressive explanation around something I barely understand.
That probably means some things here will be wrong.
Some of my opinions will change.
Some projects will fail.
Some ideas will turn out to be silly.
That's part of the point.
What you'll find here
There are seven ways I generally think about what I put on this site.
I KNOW is for things I've learned or figured out.
I THINK is for opinions and observations.
I WONDER is for questions and things I haven't figured out.
I TRIED is for experiments, attempts, successes, failures, and things I wanted to test for myself.
I FOUND is for things I discover, whether that's a useful website, an interesting tool, a strange corner of the internet, or something that simply catches my attention.
I WORK is where some of my experiences from working life, including my life as a Havaldar in CBIC, can live.
I BUILD is for the things I create, whether they become something useful or end up being another unfinished project sitting somewhere on the internet.
These aren't really niches.
They're just different ways of looking at things.
Why I write
I don't have a grand reason for writing here.
I like having a place where I can put things.
Some of these posts might help someone. Some might make someone think. Some might simply make another person say, "I've wondered about that too."
And some will probably be read by almost nobody.
That's okay.
Not everything has to become popular to be worth making.
I also like the idea of being able to look back at this site years from now and see what I was thinking about, what I was building, what I was learning, what I believed, and what I eventually changed my mind about.
So this isn't really a publication.
It isn't a résumé either.
It's more like a record.
A record of what caught my attention.
What I tried.
What I found.
What I learned.
What I couldn't figure out.
What I built.
What I thought.
Who I supported.
And, occasionally, what I had absolutely no idea about.
That's Unheard.me.
Just me, paying attention.