Publishing without an audience
Writing in public before anyone is reading is the cheapest way to find out what you actually think.
The first two years of a blog are private in every way that matters. Nobody is reading, and that is the point: it is the only period where you can be wrong at full volume.
Publishing changes the writing even when no one arrives. A draft can stay vague; a published post has to commit.
The archive is the audience
Write for the version of yourself who will search this site in three years, having forgotten everything. That reader is real, reachable, and unusually grateful.