by zulrah on 7/18/22, 12:11 PM with 306 comments
Personally, I tried writing in some blogging platforms (medium, dev.to etc), then moved to self hosted solution with Hugo but honestly it was too much maintenance. Writing up my thoughts in presentable state took too much time/effort. Right now, I simply save my notes to my personal Notion for future reference.
by xena on 7/18/22, 2:44 PM
EDIT: also because independent personal blogs are a rarity now, having a decent one means that you can really stand out from the crowd.
by alexpotato on 7/18/22, 7:27 PM
I read patio11 over the years and was struck by his often mentioned "Write about what you know and it will surprise you the value it will add to people" (paraphrasing). In particular, in one of his posts about consulting he mentions: "Some of my consulting engagements were essentially me doing a dramatic reading of my blogs posts."
I realized that for the past couple years I had been coaching my friends through salary negotiations and general career advice as well. This led me to start a blog and write about some of the ideas and stories I used to help people get a better understanding of how to negotiate a compensation package, how to think about switching jobs etc.
I then posted it to Hacker News and didn't get any response at all for the first couple posts. Then one of them took off. I should mention that when that post did take off, I thought there was a bug in my metrics script but no, not a bug, it did indeed hit the front page of HN.
~30 people reached out and a couple turned into paying clients.
So answer to the question "was it worth it"?
- From a personal financial perspective, better than not doing it
- From a "wait! you can write things down, people read your words and then pay you money to hear more?!?!?" perspective, I can't think of a more worth it experience
PS There is this one distinct memory from when I did a free consult and the person said "I read your blog and thought to myself 'If I'm ever switching jobs, this guy is the first person I'm calling' ".
by PragmaticPulp on 7/18/22, 3:03 PM
9 out of 10 times, blogs are extremely stale content from 5+ years back. A lot of people start blogging at the beginning of their careers and then just stop. This creates a weird frozen-in-time effect where what's shown on their blog doesn't match their current skillset at all.
I've read enough personal blogs that I know to look for timestamps and put it in context. If I see a "Ruby on Rails TODO app MVP" blog post or Github repo dated 8 years ago, I'm not going to use that for consideration in hiring them.
However, not every resume reader is going to be that considerate. If your blog isn't up to date, you may want to omit it from applications to avoid giving someone the wrong impression that you're still a beginner.
by nicolas_t on 7/18/22, 1:07 PM
Now it seems that whenever I search for something, I only get content farm and search engine optimized garbage.
I do get that now a lot of this has migrated to instagram, tiktok and/or youtube but it's not searchable (and it's a lot less useful than it used to be)...
by podviaznikov on 7/18/22, 2:00 PM
The best part for me is receiving some random emails from time to time with people saying they liked my post or poem or something else.
I don't have expectations for those letters though. Intentionally I don't have google analytics on my site. When I did have it, it influenced how and what I was writing.
Now I just write for myself. And if my writing happens to be valuable to someone else - it's a bonus. Mostly I write when I want to offload some thoughts about some topic. When I finish thinking about something, I write it down and that topic is "closed" for a while.
Also, what helps me to write and publish is my setup. I changed setup many times. When there was friction to write and publish - I rarely did it.
by drakonka on 7/18/22, 1:07 PM
In terms of getting noticed/finding jobs, my blog (https://liza.io) is not super high traffic or anything. I don't market it. I don't even usually tweet about my new posts, even though Twitter is my one active social media platform. But I have had recruiters mention checking out my blog posts and sometimes reference my blog content. I've also had interviewers mention my blog and ask about personal projects I've written about in the past. I also used some of my blog articles as supporting material when applying for a position that featured a lot of technical writing. So I think that even though improving job prospects is not the primary goal of my personal blog, it has been a bonus.
Another bonus has been getting occasional emails and comments from random readers to say a certain post has helped them. A while back I wrote a post about testing external API calls in Go, and have had a few people reach out to thank me. Though I write primarily for myself, it's always nice to see when someone stumbles across my content and appreciates it.
It's also always cool when a post ends up in newsletters I've never heard of. I don't have a consistent way to detect each time this happens, but can sometimes trace back traffic through a referrer or notice a backlink from a newsletter archive.
by dmor on 7/18/22, 1:20 PM
by jbandela1 on 7/18/22, 12:56 PM
Being a speaker at a decent size programming conference, opens up a lot of networking opportunities.
The blog provided an outlet for me to make an idea into something more concrete, as well as allowed me get early feedback on the idea. I used this to refine the idea into something that would be of interest to a larger audience.
by parksy on 7/18/22, 4:10 PM
Granted it's a very "me" problem but was worth it for me business-wise? Not really. I just found it made my anxiety worse. Maybe in the future I'll start up something small and low key and pseudonymous but I will definitely not be wanting to tie it in any way to my sense of self-worth, my work, or anything like that. I'm glad it works for many people but for me it's just not worth it on a personal level.
In terms of finding jobs etc, I just try and do a great job on my contracts, be honest and open with clients, be friendly and check in with people from time to time to see how business is doing. I get longer term and much more fulfilling work through the people I know and have worked with previously, granted it took years to establish a small network but none of the blogs or articles I wrote ever attracted any attention beyond my own obsessive self-doubts.
by raesene9 on 7/18/22, 2:27 PM
1) Writing forces me to think through things clearly and when doing things like walkthoughs I often find things where my understanding wasn't quite right, so it helps there.
2) I often return to things I wrote a while back where I can't remember the details of a specific topic.
3) I appreciate when other people take the time to explain things, nothing like finding a good blog post when you're researching a topic, so this is my part of helping out.
4) Getting the odd message from someone saying they appreciate something I've written about is nice :)
5) It's helped my career. I now work in a field where I'm paid at least partly to write (security advocacy), and I've had companies approach me to talk about jobs based on them having read something I wrote.
In terms of the tech. I use, I keep it super simple. Jekyll and GitHub pages, so there's no server maintenance, just write markdown and publish.
by mooreds on 7/18/22, 2:54 PM
100%. I've been blogging since 2003. It helps clarify my thoughts. It helps me learn things. It helps me see how much I've learned and changed.
I wrote a bit more about blogging for myself here: https://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/2188
> - Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
Umm, a bit. I've gotten a bit of contract work from it. I've published a book from my blog (yet to earn out my advance). I've been in job interviews where people mentioned my blog. I was asked to be on a podcast because of something I'd written (but only because it trended on HN).
But no "Dan is making $Xk/month from his blog and only works 10 hours/week."
> - Do you learn something new from it?
Yes! I have found that I've never learned something so much as when I tried to explain it. And explaining something using words is so much harder than interactively; you have to be clearer and you have to be more rigorous.
Examples:
by gwbas1c on 7/18/22, 1:32 PM
BUT: What really made a personal blog worth it for me was writing my own blog engine as a learning project. I hadn't done much in the Node.js stack, so I wrote my own blog engine to run in Heroku. Maybe if I have some downtime between jobs I'll do it again, too.
My blog engine isn't anything special; but it achieved my goals: To get a feel for Node.js and the general state of web development in April-May 2020: https://github.com/GWBasic/z3
by diamondap on 7/18/22, 1:12 PM
Turns out, a handful of like-minded readers, authors, and editors have gotten in touch through my contact page. Those contacts have opened up a number of opportunities and helped me develop a network.
I had a larger following on my Facebook author page years ago, but I didn't like the platform or the company. I stayed on solely for the author page. Judging by the number of followers and post engagements, I seemed to have a broader reach there. But I can say the actual engagement of those followers was much shallower.
People have contacted me through my blog for film rights and European publishing rights (neither of which panned out). They've given me free copies of books by other authors to review. They've invited me to write articles for their sites, and more.
I wouldn't say my blog has helped develop a brand, but it has definitely been useful. And it's never a chore if you just write when you please about what you please.
by raphlinus on 7/18/22, 2:19 PM
I really don't like Medium - I did a few things there before switching to GitHub Pages. The point of writing is to reach an audience. Why accept friction to juice their monetization?
And yes, there's no question my blog opens doors for me. For example, I recently got invited to give a keynote at RustLab this fall, and I'm sure that was on the strength of a blog post I had done on Rust UI architecture.
by somehnacct3757 on 7/18/22, 3:35 PM
Also as I get older I find the hot takes I used to write down are not interesting enough to share in article form. They live better as comments or tweets. I'm more aware of nuance in everything, and caveating my claims out the wazoo to appropriately constrain my claims is not worth it.
I see a lot of this hot take style writing from other young devs making it to HN front page. So that's not to say this style of writing isn't popular. But it isn't popular with me, and first and foremost I'm writing for myself.
by canadianwriter on 7/18/22, 1:32 PM
I wrote about why most smaller companies don't need a blog here: https://kolemcrae.com/notebook/humblesuggestion.html
You may say: isn't that a blog post? I would disagree. You can read how my website isn't really a blot here: https://kolemcrae.com/notebook/notablog.html
I'd say a website is fantastic for your brand, and combining that with a fantastic LinkedIn profile can take you far. Needing to blog constantly on the other hand isn't as important.
by Brajeshwar on 7/18/22, 1:54 PM
My Website wasn't the best or the top but was right up there amongst many popular ones. Once upon a time, I believe it was within the Alexa top 1,000 or something like that. If I can recollect right, it has even seen its millionth visitor in a month. There was also a popular term called Google PR (I need to double-check this term); mine had "8" out of 10 for a long time.
To this day, I get occasional emails from people thanking me for kickstarting their careers because they read and followed my writings.
I will not dwell on those, but here are a few more interesting personal anecdotes.
I got one of my girlfriends because she doesn't trust the visitor counter on my Website. She contacted me via the contact form, "It must be a script. How can your visitor counter jump so fast every second?" "Meet me for coffee, and I will show you the real-time Website Analytics."
I was on a business trip. One fateful winter rainy night, I introduced myself to some new friends at HackerDojo, Mountain View (halfway around the world). Someone on the side overheard and approached me, "Are you brajeshwar.com?" "Yes." "Wow! I followed your blog, and thanks for your articles." That made my night.
My Website's revenue had bank-rolled me for many years while I kept failing with my Startups while continuing to stay in an upscale part of Mumbai.
My Website, indirectly, got me my USA Visa pretty easy and smooth.
I had brought down a business/Startup because the founder was cheating. But later, I regretted that and deleted every article related to that business. I should have never written something like that, and I will never forgive myself for it.
These are the quickies I remember without probing into my mind and notes. Now, I keep it as my Time Capsule. I don't have analytics either (I'm married).
Suggestion: Have a personal website/blog; don't rush. Start today, and have fun in 25+ years.
by dusted on 7/18/22, 12:37 PM
by ChrisMarshallNY on 7/18/22, 1:47 PM
I do blog, in sporadic bursts[0]. I haven't written much, lately. I tend to write (both code and prose) for myself, as opposed to any particular audience.
I feel as if it is "worth" it, but I don't bother trying to have a high "social media" score. That takes way too much time and effort.
by oofnik on 7/18/22, 1:55 PM
Other than that, I did get a few positive remarks and interested questions during job interviews. I've even had a home assignment waived after they checked out my blog[1] and concluded that I "seem to know what I'm talking about," so that was a welcome surprise.
Inspiration waxes and wanes, and I make no promises about publishing regular content. But occasionally I solve an interesting problem with an elegant (IMO) solution and get the urge to tell the world about it.
by spacehunt on 7/18/22, 3:36 PM
I did try to start a blog many, many years ago, but I can never get over my fears that whatever I put out publicly will inevitably be used against me, by someone with power, in one way or another. (Yes, including this comment.)
by jordanmorgan10 on 7/18/22, 3:37 PM
Benefits:
- I don't do much front end, so I enjoy learning new stuff to maintain it like Tailwind, Jekyll, etc.
- I learn new things all the time since I typically write technical posts.
- I Google something, and stumble upon my *own* posts sometimes!
- I look at it as a career benefit as well, something employers could look at.
- It does help with other things, for example, when I created a book series over iOS - people were aware of my work, writing style and more from years of my previous posts: (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31534988)
- It does feel that if you don't keep it up to date you become a bit skittish, so in that sense - having one means you kinda feel like "there is always something to work on." I am still trying to make peace with this.
- I ran sponsorships (they are still live right now) but wow did I not expect how much I don't enjoy them. Even though they were good money for, basically, doing something I already do - they are very mentally taxing for me.
- It also becomes your online identity, for better or worse.
by acemarke on 7/18/22, 12:50 PM
My blog ( https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com ) is primarily a way for me to share teaching material around React, Redux, JS, and TS. Most of my blog posts have been written in response to questions other folks have asked that I've answered repeatedly. It gives me a way to write a longer answer _once_, and share it going forward.
A few top examples:
- "A (Mostly)" Complete Guide to React Rendering Behavior": https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2020/05/blogged-answers-a-...
- "Why Context Is Not A 'State Management' Tool (and Why it Doesn't Replace Redux": https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2021/01/context-redux-diff...
- "The History and Implementation of React-Redux": https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2018/11/react-redux-histor...
- The slides and videos for my various conference talks: https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/series/presentations
I've never had a specific goal of "trying to get noticed" per se, but I've certainly done a lot of "hey, here's this post I wrote that answers your question". And yes, in addition to brain-dumping my existing knowledge, I often end up doing additional research while writing posts.
As a result, I've had numerous folks tell me that my posts were helpful and that they learned something, which is really all I wanted out of this.
(side note: my blog is still using an ancient version of Hugo, 0.17, because that's what was out when I started. It's simple, it works, and I have no reason to change it :) )
by pamoroso on 7/18/22, 12:21 PM
What made me blog way more, from once per month to nearly daily, was to switch to a lightweight, low-friction hosted blogging platform. Now the tool fades away and blogging feels fun.
by Ozzie_osman on 7/18/22, 2:41 PM
- It really clarifies my thinking.
- If I'm going to work with someone (someone I hire or who wants to hire me), I can share my blog posts as a way of showing how I think (outside the interview context).
- With my team, I can share posts that reflect an opinion and they are way more coherent than me doing it in audio.
- It's also really rewarding to occasionally get a note from someone about how they learned something from something I wrote (or just to see it organically mentioned on Twitter and such).
Honestly one main roadblock for me (as someone with no social media following) is that when I try to share to HackerNews, I've gotten flagged as promotional. But really when I share I'm kind of in the mode of "I think this would be interesting for the HN crowd, let me share it and if they agree they will up vote it". And when I'm writing, it's mostly for the HN type of audience (I used to write on Medium but found that I ended up being pulled to write more click-baity, mass-consumption pieces that were less rewarding to me).
by theandrewbailey on 7/18/22, 1:37 PM
No one has ever wanted to hire me because of it.
Yes, I have learned things from it. Sometimes I like to experiment with web features that I don't or can't at work. Over the past 5 years, I've been carefully considering what I write in blog posts, and it has forced me to research and reflect more on what I write. Even though it's mostly notes and thoughts on whatever videogame I've just finished playing, I think that blogging has improved my writing overall, from work emails to HN comments.
by tomashubelbauer on 7/18/22, 1:42 PM
To get known within a niche I am interested in would mean I would have a wider array of opportunities to choose from and would give me a leg up towards other candidates or among fellow contractors as I get older and face the possibility of ageism. That's what I tell myself anyway.
It seems to me that in our industry eventually older developers who won't go into management are forced to go solo or to settle at a job they don't like or that doesn't utilize their full potential just because of its security. This seems like a trap that I am looking to proactively avoid and having a personal brand seems like a great tool to achieve that.
by sebastianconcpt on 7/18/22, 12:28 PM
Said that, is worth for self-referece as the very least. You'll see the evolution of your subjects of interest, styles and voice.
For example, some post might be useful for referencing in a future interview.
by loganmarchione on 7/18/22, 1:54 PM
1. You need the same username/handle on all platforms (e.g., your domain name, your twitter name, your github name, etc...). This is easier if you have a weird name.
2. You need to consistently update your content on these platforms (e.g., no one will care if you have a blog with a single post from 10 years ago)
3. You need to identify a reason for the blog (e.g., is it for work, or is it for fun?) and know your audience.
4. Your "brand" lets you control what people see when they Google you. However, if you're trying for a more professional appearance, don't blog about politics, religion, etc... because you'll be bound to upset someone at some point. Also, don't write controversial Twitter posts.
I've been blogging for almost 10 years now [1]. I only write a few articles per year, but they're always about things I'm working on. I work in IT and try to apply things I learn at work to my "homelab", and then write about it. This actually landed me a DevOps job because they saw that I used Ansible, Terraform, Docker, etc... and was proficient enough to write about those tools. When I asked in the interview, they mentioned my blog and github content as reasons why I was chosen over other candidates.
I personally use Jeff Geerling [2] as my inspiration. His "brand" has blown up recently, and while I'm not trying to get YouTube famous, I think he has great posts, creates great public code (ansible playbooks and docker containers), etc...
PS - I also blog using Hugo on a VPS. I run Debian server and let unattended-upgrades do my maintenance. I use a GitHub action to publish my code to the VPS, so once I commit, I'm done.
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by tpetry on 7/18/22, 1:19 PM
I share a database tip on https://sqlfordevs.io every two weeks and get a lot of feedback. I started on Twitter almost a year ago sharing weekly tips but I always felt the 280 characters to be limiting. You simply can‘t explain a complex topic by being such constrained. So I share a full article every two weeks and the other one a simple one with Twitter‘s constraint.
And the feedback is really great. People tell me they had been able to solve a performance problem, do something more efficient or simply got a new idea on how to do something relevant. Seeing the content you write influencing someone is totally valueable and a good reason to start blogging.
by lbriner on 7/18/22, 1:38 PM
If it is just opinions about stuff, probably not worth the effort unless you are the top of your field and your opinions are worth something (mine aren't!)
If you want to get noticed, it might help but in general I think that only happens if you have a niche. I got invited to speak at two dev conferences and part of that was because of my blog.
If you are blogging things that took you time to find out then that probably means other people will also struggle so your blog post can save them lots of time. In these types of posts, I try to copy error messages exactly so people find articles through Google.
I think it is also useful to practice writing generally, a blog is as good as medium as any.
by dewey on 7/18/22, 1:21 PM
My thinking is if I spend the time to figure something out I might as well post it public and not in some silo where I won't find it again.
by justinhj on 7/18/22, 7:58 PM
by feifan on 7/18/22, 5:50 PM
by sshine on 7/18/22, 12:46 PM
I thought I'd want to try and do it on purpose, and that attempt landed two requests to interview.
My reason to write anything was always a need to express myself rather than seeking a goal.
Peaceful ranting.
I had a similar path:
- started with personal notes (hackmd.io)
- when something seemed publishable, started a dev.to blog
- eventually moved to a self-hosted platform (getzola.org)
- due to overwork stopped publishing, but still keep personal notes
by davidtos on 7/18/22, 1:03 PM
It helped me to get noticed at my work and to make new connections.
You will always learn something about the stuff you write. To write better, some new way of doing something, or something from the comments.
I run my blog through cloudflare pages. I only have to push a new markdown file to github and the Hugo template and cloudflare do the rest. Took only a few hours to setup correctly.
by healeycodes on 7/18/22, 12:58 PM
People email me about things I’m interested in, and I’ve made new friends through it too.
It's nice to look back and see my progress — taking on harder projects, and writing more clearly.
> Does the time spent writing feels worth it to you?
Yes but I've always enjoyed writing.
> Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
Yes.
> Do you learn something new from it?
Yes, by writing for it. And, I suppose, by "running it" I learned more about the frameworks I've used.
by ahnooie on 7/18/22, 3:53 PM
1. I have met a lot of people who reached out to me by email; sometimes it's fun to find other people with similar interests, it's resulted in many good discussions (even with people with differing viewpoints).
2. I have not landed any jobs from it (but I have been offered a lot of contract work--I have turned every opportunity down because I don't want to take time from my family).
3. Writing helps clarify thought. I often correct my own thinking through the process of writing. I'm not a great writer, but I'm a better writer because of blogging.
4. I also enjoy it, I wouldn't do it otherwise. I don't do it for others, I don't try to optimize for SEO or pick popular topics or grow a large audience. If I see another blog has written a similar post I usually don't see the need to write my own. I write what (a) what I enjoy writing or (b) what must be written even if it isn't popular or (c) what I think will be useful to others.
5. I'm often terrified at how bad my early posts were. At least I can see the growth!
6. Even though it's not the most efficient way to host, there is something special about hosting a blog from a server in your own garage.
7. I have more control on a blog (both in terms of freedom and expression) than I would writing on social media.
8. It's a way to leverage your knowledge. If I figure something out, I'll post it. It might cost me a few hours to write, but then for the next few years thousands of other people may benefit saving hours of time, research or money.
by tverbeure on 7/18/22, 6:16 PM
I see 2 major benefits:
- I blog about things that I didn't really know about in-depth earlier. Just writing down the words to explain things to others often makes me realize that there were aspects that I didn't quite understand. I learned a ton of stuff that I wouldn't have without blogging, and it's surprising how some things turn out to be useful at my job.
- I try to maintain a 2-month cadence of blogging about something. (It doesn't always work.) This artificial requirement is a great motivator to force me to finish a project. My blog has 67 git branches. That's 67 topics which are at some stage of completion (often just in the information gathering phase, with a list of web links.) Most will never materialize in a completely blog post, but sometimes I go through them and pick up a topic that I had left behind a long time ago and just finish it.
I use github.io with Jekyll as blogging platform. It's essentially effortless...
by mattlondon on 7/18/22, 2:06 PM
Instead of a blog, consider just a well put together site about things that interest you. There is no pressure to keep adding and updating, just a site where you can add a new page as often or infrequently as you like without any guilt. For added bonus points host it on GitHub pages so you can use their web based editor to make updates with near-zero friction.
I deliberately keep all of my online activity anonymous and firewalled for obvious reasons (so it is not a personal marketing outlet) but the learning opportunity is great. If I need to go learn something then for me that is often a good thing to write a page about.
Good luck.
by giuliomagnifico on 7/18/22, 12:25 PM
What I think is missing online, is a minimal blog service that is also fast to use and not expensive, something like a minimal Ghost or Squarespace for 5-6$/month. I’m using it for my portfolio (https://giuliomagnifico.it) and its a great service but it’s also way too expensive (20$/month) unfortunately!
by dhosek on 7/18/22, 3:09 PM
I keep no analytics on either site. I assume no one reads them and leave it at that. It makes me much happier that way.
by k8sToGo on 7/18/22, 12:43 PM
by nicholasbraker on 7/18/22, 1:42 PM
by p0nce on 7/18/22, 1:36 PM
by bobblywobbles on 7/19/22, 1:59 PM
-Is the time spent writing worth to me? Yes - I find it's helpful to jot information down so that I can refer to it later. It's a bonus point to get known within a topic or when others come and say that my material is helpful
-Did it help me find opportunities? I've been approached once for an opportunity to work based on my work online
-Did I learn something new from it? Yes. Writing down my work is a great way for me to learn as it tells me if I have holes in my knowledge when I go to explain my thoughts.
by jvanderbot on 7/18/22, 1:47 PM
It's become a catch all reference page for all my work, and that's extremely handy and also happens to help solidify some credibility when I need it. I can just send canonical links to anyone interested in what I've worked on.
by trumbitta2 on 7/19/22, 9:26 AM
Never worked again since (Yes, I stopped writing about Bootstrap in 2014).
by lbrito on 7/18/22, 4:59 PM
>Does the time spent writing feels worth it to you?
Yes but YMMV. I enjoy writing. I was the kid at school that teachers hated grading because I filled the full space for answers in exams.
>Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
Hard to prove if it made an objective difference in hiring, but in all jobs I've had since blogging my bosses/hiring-committee coworkers mentioned that they enjoyed something I wrote in the blog. Also quite a few interviewers have mentioned it in the final rounds.
>Do you learn something new from it?
For sure. I learned that my phone-server survived HN frontpage. :)
by wwqrd on 7/18/22, 1:05 PM
by bitxbitxbitcoin on 7/18/22, 1:43 PM
There was another post on HN a few days ago which likened publishing blogposts to increasing your luck surface area and I very much relate.
When I get hit with writer’s block and can’t seem to come up with my own work - which can be months at a time - I end up reverting to something like email interviews to highlight other peoples’ work and still have content for my blog.[0] Similarly, guest posts (that you seek out, don’t let random writers write guest posts aka insert links on your blog) can keep your blog “alive” through periods where it otherwise would have died.
[0] www.thehighestcritic.com
by okumurahata on 7/18/22, 1:46 PM
Most writers are huge introverts. Blogs are great to know people that you probably would never meet in real life. It feels like magic that you can connect with someone from a different culture, that is interested in the same things that you do, and with whom you share a similar sense of humour.
by nullbytesmatter on 7/19/22, 5:08 AM
I quit my blog and focused on my projects in the dark.
by stevenfoster on 7/18/22, 4:28 PM
https://stevenfoster.substack.com/
Writing and Publishing or maybe now Creating and Sharing have been incredible for my mental health. I can refine and bring clarity to my thoughts. Then sharing those thoughts I more often then not find at least one person who finds value in them or perhaps is moved by my words/photos/video, to share something of value with me.
by wincent on 7/18/22, 8:47 PM
When I write, it's for me, for the pleasure (and sometimes pain) of ushering thoughts out from the unstable flickering of my consciousness and into the realm of the fixed and concrete word. Well, as "fixed" as these kinds of digital artifacts ever are, I guess.
Sometimes people write to me to share their thoughts about something I wrote, and that's cool,but it's not the reason I'm doing the writing.
by tiborsaas on 7/18/22, 1:29 PM
by fandorin on 7/18/22, 8:58 PM
I’m publishing it regularly, although not on a weekly cadence anymore.
It was totally worth it - I got several amazing contacts out of it and one job offer. Plus I’m learning a lot.
PS * https://fintechmeetscrypto.substack.com if anyone is interested.
by cyberge99 on 7/18/22, 1:48 PM
https://chrisbergeron.com/2022/05/29/own-yourself-you-are-yo...
by theshrike79 on 7/18/22, 12:45 PM
I think you should always own your own content. For example iff you review a movie on letterboxd or IMDB or a book on Goodreads or maybe do a longer review of a product on Amazon - duplicate the same content on your own blog. Or just a markdown file on your own drive.
That way you can copy the same content to as many platforms as you want, but you still own the original if the service goes down or decides your contribution isn't worthy.
by a4isms on 7/18/22, 5:18 PM
I'm glad you mentioned both a blog AND a brand. They can go together (as they have done for me), but I honestly get different things out of them. Blogging helped me work out my thoughts on many subjects, not all of which were useful for "building my brand."
The brand, on the other hand, helped me build enough personal security to feel safe taking chances like quitting my job long enough to write a book or three (e.g. https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read).
So, each one contributed to the other, but I feel they delivered different benefits to me personally.
Now as to whether the blog or the brand have been worth it to me... I'd say blogging was worth it to me independently of the brand, and I'd do it again exactly the same even if I knew I wouldn't build a brand again.
In fact, if I started today under an alias, I probably wouldn't build the same brand. I think a lot of my minor, b-list success was my work, but a lot of it was timing as well, my first modern blog-post was published in 2004, and that was a time when it was much easier to stand out.
by rozenmd on 7/18/22, 12:48 PM
I spend maybe a couple of hours on each article. I learned to be a better writer, and its helped me professionally.
My favourite part is googling common problems I wrote about, and finding my own articles still there, like past me helping current me.
Site is https://maxrozen.com if you're curious.
by cauliflower99 on 7/18/22, 4:01 PM
I have also given 2 presentations in my company about an Agile practice I am passionate about. Just 2 presentations - nothing more. In my follow up to the presentations I sent an email mentioning a particular post I wrote that people could read.
A couple of weeks after giving these presentations, I was talking to a couple of new-joiners and introduced myself by my first name. "Hi my name is John, when did you join?"
To my surprise, the new joiner replied "Wait - you're not John Doe are you? I've heard some people talk about you". Apparently, I had started to become known for this niche area of knowledge. My presentations, together with my blog, showed people I was serious about what I said and - most importantly - I cared.
Your brand shows that you take yourself seriously and, as a result, other people take you seriously. Writing is difficult because it requires you to think deeply. It takes time and mental effort. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't write. It means you should write more.
by petros789 on 7/18/22, 4:47 PM
In general, my opinion on blogging is it's a powerful tool allowing you to get better at writing which I think lends into lots of aspects of most jobs. At this point, I'm better at writing design docs or explaining complex topics to folks through writing.
One interesting aspect of writing on Medium is it showed me how writing about topics people are interested in can lead to lots of search volume and the ability to connect with people who you wouldn't normally talk to. I wanted to delve into that more and decided to start writing a new blog about credit cards and travel, Turn On Course - https://www.turnoncourse.com/, which I set up using an SEO driven template hosted on Vercel. It's fun to watch it grow through consistent effort and it's a topic I love to talk about in general.
by ginger2016 on 7/18/22, 5:37 PM
Here is a hypothetical scenario, you and your co-workers are working long hours on solving a bug; and during that weekend you publish a blog entry you have been working for a long time, and the blog entry becomes some what popular. Now your manager and co-workers think your mindshare is not focused on work and you are not dedicated to work as others.
Is it better to maintain the blog anonymously?
by karaterobot on 7/18/22, 3:32 PM
Yes, for the most part. I write things out to clarify them for myself, but imagining an audience of readers helps me do that. Communication is the hardest skill for me, and I don't always succeed, but I've definitely gotten better at it as a result of consistent practice.
> Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
No. It never occurred to me to do that. In fact, I take reasonable steps to keep my professional life and my personal life separate on the internet. If I wanted to write about topics related to my profession, I think having a blog could be a good way to do that, but that sounds really, really boring to me. In my off hours, I want to do other things. Obviously, other people think differently, and that's completely fine.
My unsolicited advice would be that if you don't like doing something, you should try not to do it. At the same time, if you are drawn to writing, but don't like some aspect of it, try to remove that aspect and see if it's better for you.
> Do you learn something new from it?
I'm sure. I've been running the blog, with a 3-4 year intermission, since 2000. It was one of my first web projects, and I went on to become a web developer and designer. It was the first place I published fiction, and I went on to write a couple books, or book-like artifacts. I met a lot of people, and got exposed to a lot of interesting ideas. I learned a lot about things I don't like on the web, like advertising, and SEO, and certain tendencies in online communities. I learned how much you can get done by doing a small bit of work every couple days, consistently, for a long time.
by biotinker on 7/18/22, 5:25 PM
I like to write up neat projects that I do. The first post on the site actually helped me get my current job. Occasionally I'll also write up other things that cross my mind that I find interesting, such as the most recent climate post.
Working on another one describing the process of automating a greenhouse.
by modeless on 7/18/22, 3:06 PM
You want something good enough to make it on social news sites, not just for the traffic spike but because it will make search engines notice you. I have some posts that are just "here's how I solved this error message" or similar and I'm not posting those on HN but I want people searching that message to find my blog so I can help them. When I get a post on HN then over time those other posts get more search traffic.
I got my most interesting and fun job through my blog, when the CTO of a startup read a post on HN and reached out to hire me. And at that time my blog only had two posts, so it wasn't like I was a prolific regular blogger. I just had one thing interesting enough to make it on HN.
I just moved to self hosting my blog at https://james.darpinian.com and trying to post a little more often. Honestly self hosting is probably not worth the trouble. A hosted platform with a custom domain is probably the sweet spot.
by syntaxfree on 7/18/22, 1:39 PM
I might as well spam it. asemic-horizon.com would you trust a digital transformation / AI project to the man in that blog.
by dynamite-ready on 7/18/22, 3:09 PM
So yeah. I find it valuable, even if I do sometimes feel like 'I could be writing some code / designing something right now'.
A problem I think I have is knowing when to stop writing... I look around at other people's blogs, and see all these succinct, perfectly targeted paragraphs, all the while considering my work to be bloated and overly long. But I do try to reread and rewrite stuff. I think it's a skill worth working on, so that's another reason why I spend the time doing it.
by ghaff on 7/18/22, 1:01 PM
by warrenm on 7/18/22, 1:51 PM
I also tell people "don't blog" [2] ...for the wrong reasons
Do blog for the right reasons [3] - if you find it too tedious to write-up your notes into a format you and others can reference later with all the "whys" and not merely the "whats", then don't do it ... but I'd wager you'd benefit from doing it :)
As I commented here [4] recently, "I presume no one reads what I write - but attempt to write as if it's being read by millions"
I can not tell you how many times I've been able to refer to something I wrote (technical or otherwise) that's helped at least myself again, if not myriad others
Also - your public-facing blog may easily be accessible even if your "notes" aren't :)
-----------
[0] https://bigthink.com/the-learning-curve/personal-brand-trap/
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32138311
[2] https://antipaucity.com/2014/04/11/dont-blog/
by julianlam on 7/18/22, 12:46 PM
What seemed to work for me was realizing that I am not blogging for others, for meaningless internet points, etc. I blog for myself, and I blog publicly on the off chance it helps someone.
That's all. No pressure, no commitments.
by franze on 7/18/22, 12:52 PM
did not get it via blogging but via conference speaking and a book. blog is just a channel.
by mejutoco on 7/18/22, 1:46 PM
by thenerdhead on 7/18/22, 4:19 PM
I started with a blog about technical topics:
This page somewhat acts like docs/reference for some obscure topics in mobile development and has quite a bit of views.
I then pivoted to be a more personal blog/brand:
It absolutely has helped me get noticed and people regularly use it to find me to pitch me something.
I learned plenty from creating it and posting regular content. I think nowadays everybody needs a personal blog or site of some kind to separate yourself from the masses.
I think the biggest mistake you can make is giving the power to other platforms like medium/dev.to/etc. It's not to say you shouldn't post to those places, but you should always own your own image and content and then syndicate to the appropriate places.
by kepler1 on 7/18/22, 4:55 PM
For someone who's unknown or just another face in the crowd, a successful blog should have some unique information, analysis, or authority on something specific.
If you're someone famous, then your take on things you've seen and observed and lessons that others can benefit from, which they don't get to experience / glimpse in their daily life.
If you're just someone with an opinion, all you're doing is working out your need to publish your thoughts to randos. Unless your writing is super insightful, the only person it benefits is you (pretty much). (Again, unless your blog serves to collect your work for applying to a job.)
by psim1 on 7/18/22, 3:11 PM
After a few years of this I have become known in some of these communities as an expert, have received requests for paid work, have been referred for paid work, and have absolutely learned a lot.
My only tip if you take this direction is to find community forums that are specific -- not Reddit. Reddit has too many casual browsers and commenters and is not well-regulated. Participate in forums that are more professionally oriented or have a professional feel. If you see a lot of troll posts, don't waste your time.
by ellisv on 7/18/22, 4:34 PM
Yes. I write for myself (and reference some of my posts years later) but unexpectedly some of my posts have helped other people and that's a great feeling.
> Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
Not yet! Although I think it has encouraged a lot of other behaviors that might have helped to get noticed or find other opportunities.
> Do you learn something new from it?
That's generally the reason I do it – to document things I've learned.
> Writing up my thoughts in presentable state took too much time/effort. Right now, I simply save my notes to my personal Notion for future reference.
IMO that's good enough. If you want to make your writing public don't waste time trying to make it "presentable" - just get it "good enough" and publish. Or slap a giant "DRAFT" label at the top.
by lettergram on 7/18/22, 3:48 PM
It has been wildly successful and useful to me. Many of my consulting gigs have been found through my blog. I’ve been featured by a few people and get somewhere between 200k - 1m unique visitors a year. It’s been really fun and when I have time I really enjoy diving deep into topics (say firearms https://austingwalters.com/firearms-by-the-numbers/).
The past couple years, I have had far less time: but definitely plan on getting back to more regular posts.
by munificent on 7/18/22, 4:33 PM
by qudat on 7/18/22, 6:40 PM
However, I totally agree that maintaining the blog has been a bit of a chore and since I wanted to write more I feel like it is actually hindering me.
I'm slowly transitioning to use https://prose.sh (disclaimer, I helped build it) exclusively which should make writing a blog post as easy as creating a markdown file locally and calling `scp post.md prose.sh:/`
As far as it opening doors for me, not really. I sit at around 10-20k unique users a month but who knows how many people are actually engaged in the content.
by manuelmoreale on 7/18/22, 6:30 PM
Absolutely. For me it's mostly a tool to get thoughts out of my head and also to "think in public" in a way. It's useful to put thought out there because people can pick them up and help you move your thinking forward by interacting with what you published.
> Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
A few but I don't write about my job for the most part because it a personal blog and not a work blog.
> Do you learn something new from it?
That internet strangers are—for the most part—a lot kinder that we might think. I've been blogging on my manuelmoreale.com for more than 5 years and I only had very pleasurable exchanges via email with people around the world. Not one that I regret and I got to learn from other people's experiences. Which is awesome.
by dimmke on 7/18/22, 2:42 PM
It’s mostly because when I am motivated to write a post it’s about something that’s a really big deal in my life or something that took a long time.
Like I wrote a post about being a software engineer at the CDC when COVID hit and more recently about becoming a digital nomad.
My blog is not for job opportunities/professional purpose. My resume and LinkedIn gets me through any of those doors. It’s my representation of myself online I guess. The same way someone might curate their instagram feed, if someone wanted to do a deeper dive into who I am they could use my website.
But I do have opinions about technology and have considered writing polemic style articles. I’m just not sure anybody would read them or care.
by somenewaccount1 on 7/18/22, 3:10 PM
That said, it was indeed a PITA to keep up and I eventually just let it die. That one article had taken almost 2 weeks to write and I didn't have that sort of time or interest to devote to other topics, which undoubtably would have been less interesting.
The point is though, for those that find early success, it can be quite pleasurable and addicting. For those that don't, it might be an exercise in pure personal growth.
by muhammadusman on 7/18/22, 6:27 PM
At some point, I started writing more about keyboards, nothing crazy, just some I was interested in or when I built my own keyboard and I decided to track all the expenses related to it. It also helped me quickly go back to it and share the build process with friends whenever they asked about it.
My blog: https://blog.usmanity.com
The biggest struggle for me has been to write consistently, I will have a few days in a row when I write and then I go silent. Looking for any input/feedback on how people maintain cadence on writing.
by hatware on 7/18/22, 6:25 PM
So, I'm writing loosely and when I remember too. Eventually I will have enough to piece together a few blog posts and imagine more momentum will build from there. So I guess the key is patience.
It's really hard to understand how much work goes into blogs when you just see a bunch of finished products that people have poured into. But I think it's worth it for the cathartic, mind-clearing effects I have described.
by iamflimflam1 on 7/18/22, 3:05 PM
The YouTube channel has done fairly well with around 24,000 subs and has led to a lot of interesting conversations and consulting work.
My original intention was to do blog posts in conjunction with the videos, but it's proved very hard.
I do occasionally make an effort and get something out the door, but soon slip behind: https://www.atomic14.com
by caseysoftware on 7/18/22, 2:19 PM
I've been blogging in some form for ~18 years - https://caseysoftware.com/ - and use it to put out ideas that are fueled by my day job or just generally document things that I've thought through and made sense of.
At least 3-4 times/month, when someone asks me something, I have a blog post written in that area and I send it to them. The credibility shift between "here's my email answer" and "here's a blog post" is HUGE and people take it much more seriously.
The vast majority of developers out there don't write at all, let alone regularly. Even writing a handful of times per year will make your writing better and put you in a higher tier of devs.
And finally, our very own Patio11 talks about this (and me) in this post: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/do-not-en...
> I have a few friends who are developer evangelists, which is a funny job created at API companies where your brief is basically "Go demo our product to a group of developers. Now, do that again, every day, for the next several years." Sentiment on the actual job is decidedly mixed. Keith Casey gives a pretty good account here.
> (Side note: I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Keith just got his work shared with 10,000 people because Keith did the work and made it easily shareable, and also because Keith knew me, through his previous job at Twilio. I'm a customer there. Everyone can play six degrees to Kevin Bacon in our industry, but actually putting in the work makes it much more likely that other people will play six degrees on your behalf.)
This is the post he links to: https://caseysoftware.com/blog/developer-evangelism-the-whol...
by adrianmsmith on 7/18/22, 4:34 PM
I have a blog [1], with over 200 posts. I went for interviews at three companies in Austria in 2015, was surprised not one company mentioned my blog. Turned out the recruiter had removed the link from my CV. Presumably because it had my email address on it and they were worried the company would contact me directly. Great "value" the recruiter provided to the company there.
So no, my experience is if recruiters are going to remove the link to your blog, having a blog makes absolutely no difference to the job-seeking process whatsoever...
by ajkjk on 7/18/22, 5:30 PM
by abadger9 on 7/18/22, 6:39 PM
As I've gotten older, i've come to terms with the fact that's there is really 2 solid ways of earning great money - leet code (yuck but it does the trick) or start a consulting business and build out referrals, most startups aren't worth the time
by benhoyt on 7/18/22, 8:31 PM
by liberia on 7/18/22, 7:35 PM
by ge96 on 7/18/22, 2:04 PM
I do it for the points/views ego boost but also part of me wishes it lives on when I'm gone (ha). I write about whatever I'm building (project).
I have not gotten anything out of the writing though, other than pushing out content/getting followers. I used to think I'd run a high-traffic blog and live off that but it's hard since I think most people use centralized stuff like Reddit.
by SergeAx on 7/20/22, 10:00 PM
I am writing about everything I am interested in and about things in my life. Work is a big part of my life, so I write about work quite a bit.
I don't know if it really helped me somehow or it is just a network effect or otherwise, people getting to know me IRL and then found me on social networks. I never thought about "building a personal brand", it happens naturally.
by monksy on 7/18/22, 7:08 PM
Why don't I blog? Well I don't feel like I should be running marketing for it and have to sydicate it everytime I write an article. It's exhausting to build your brand not get rewarded for it. I wouldn't mind if it built a community that would contribute back to me based on the article and I could contribute to them. I.e. We could do code golf challenges have blog replies etc.
Nope.. the audience is just not there. Our tools were crippled and abandoned (ping backs for blogs) etc.
by codedeadlock on 7/18/22, 5:08 PM
Writing is a way for me to clear out my head, I usually scribble a lot in my notepad and recently in Obsidian. From past one year, I also share the things out in public on my blog - https://binaryho.me/
The traffic is < 5 daily users but that's not discouraging as I find peace in writing.
by thesuitonym on 7/18/22, 3:14 PM
A lot of people feel that writing a blog is a thing that has to be done a certain way, that is you have to update it regularly, with interesting content. I think more people would have interesting sites if they looked at it as just that: A personal site that gets updated as you want, rather than a blog that has to be kept fresh and relevant.
by neilpanchal on 7/18/22, 7:35 PM
It brings 2k unique visitors per day according to Cloudflare analytics.
by benwerd on 7/18/22, 12:30 PM
Self-hosted is the way to go. Start small; post on a regular schedule; comment on other peoples' blogs.
by chidiw on 7/19/22, 7:40 AM
While I haven't gotten any jobs or major opportunities from it, someone once emailed me saying one of my posts helped them prepare for (and ace) an interview at Google. Plus, I've randomly run into people who, after hearing my name, tell me they've read and liked some of my posts.
by stevelsong on 7/21/22, 12:11 PM
by Barrera on 7/18/22, 3:09 PM
What you may not realize is how crucial writing is to thinking. You won't really know what you think about a topic until you try to put those thoughts into a persuasive or informative essay. The "time/effort" is an investment in your brain.
This is something I've personally experienced hundreds of times.
It's possible to do as you are doing and not publish written thoughts. However, doing so motivates thinking about the topic from many different perspectives as you try to anticipate objections/questions.
by rcarmo on 7/19/22, 6:45 AM
I think the main issue these days is that people have either become more focused on short form content or on relentless promotion of fluff. Once blogs became a corporate thing, a lot of objectivity (and usefulness) was lost.
On the other hand, there are still plenty of people out there writing about niche technology topics with a lot of quality.
They’re just not on Medium or any of the usual content mills.
by jlelse on 7/18/22, 4:28 PM
1. I enjoy sharing things with the world. 2. I got to know a lot of people who wrote me mails because I posted something. Some really nice connections with people from all over the world. 3. I learned a new programming language by developing my own blog software. 4. In job interviews I can tell about developing my own blog software with new technologies.
But I just post when I want to and what I want to. That can range from tutorials to just a casual images I took when walking through my neighborhood.
by lcall on 7/18/22, 4:59 PM
Plus, there are just things I want to say that are important to me. It is an outlet. I use my personal organizer software to make the writing easier, then export it in an outline form.
by mathgladiator on 7/18/22, 6:36 PM
I found it hard to maintain content around myself, but for my new company I find it easy to pump out content since there is a topic: https://www.adama-platform.com
by dgudkov on 7/18/22, 4:50 PM
I started blogging 15 years ago and probably what I wrote made some sense because at some point the blog had up to 10K visitors every month and I had many interesting conversations with readers. Also, since then I never looked for a job.
The blog audience also became the initial audience for my 1st commercial software product. The product itself became a stepping stone to another, much more successful software product, but that's another story.
If not the blog, things could've been very much different.
by DustinBrett on 7/18/22, 5:20 PM
by forrestthewoods on 7/18/22, 5:22 PM
It hasn’t gotten me a single job. I’ve only changed jobs once in the past 12 years and my blog had no impact on that. My blog helped me learn out to right. How to formalize my thoughts. How to effectively express ideas to peers.
IMHO everyone would be very well served if they improved their writing. A personal brand on that blog may or may not help.
by asicsp on 7/18/22, 2:15 PM
Writing is an additional form of learning for me. Just the thought of sharing with someone makes me to do my research better, verify my assumptions, etc. I look up my posts first over docs/online-search if I've written about a topic before (and often, I'd have added related links which would be easier to follow compared to fresh research).
>Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
I sell programming ebooks, so having a blog helps in marketing.
by leto_ii on 7/18/22, 3:39 PM
Personally I have a github.io that I tried to make presentable. I have it on my CV, but actually my main goal is to do little projects I like, not necessarily things I think will impress employers.
Writing things in a blog as opposed to just having personal notes I think brings more discipline and helps you improve presentation/writing skills. You'll always take something more seriously if you do it as if somebody else has to understand it and maybe use it.
by Sevii on 7/18/22, 6:23 PM
I also use it as a bit of a release valve for frustrations I have with the way things often times work poorly in the software world.
Has it produced money, or other opportunities, not yet.
by RileyCR on 7/26/22, 4:20 PM
by tut-urut-utut on 7/18/22, 3:52 PM
I don't "write" for an audience, it's just about non-controversial technical topics that I write for myself. If it's already in an org-mode format, why wouldn't I publish it then?
Some people find it useful, I also find it useful when I need to refer to my notes in the future, to know where to look at.
That being said, I never had an intention to have a big audience, or expect any business related gain.
by borroka on 7/18/22, 3:48 PM
by nibbleshifter on 7/18/22, 12:31 PM
Its well worth it tbh.
by bkrishnan on 7/18/22, 1:47 PM
On that note, what would be a recommended approach to connecting with individuals? Just throw in a contact email? I hate the idea of a Disqus or other commenting system forcing you to throw away ownership of the user interaction.
by brycewray on 7/18/22, 1:50 PM
BTW, as a long-time Hugo user: I hear you. If one doesn’t have the time to tinker with it, things can get nasty in a hurry. (Same is true for most if not all other static site generators, to be fair.)
by jameshush on 7/18/22, 12:36 PM
by swyx on 7/18/22, 4:45 PM
- Does the time spent writing feel worth it to you?
yes, but finding time to write is always hard, particularly when work or life responsibilities get in the way. However I find that the time I do have is very rewarding (and not just in a touchy feely way, as per below)
- Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?
multiple podcast and conference talk invitations, 2 job opportunities that I actually wound up taking, and perhaps most importantly helping me make contacts within the industry that I could not have made on my own.
- Do you learn something new from it?
not sure what this question is specifically about, but yes i think writing is a "tool for thought" where you discover what you know through putting it down and trying to explain from first principles. However I also write after I discover something new and feel like sharing it, so it's not exactly learning "from" writing, but rather "writing after learning".
either way, it helps build my second brain (https://www.swyx.io/obsidian-brain) and is a key part of my competency at work, highly recommend.
by jwilber on 7/18/22, 6:55 PM
Even though these heavy frontend-style articles are often different from the ml stuff I do for work, I think the similarity in content has helped me out. (It also feels nice when people enaio me with a nice comment).
by teodorlu on 7/18/22, 2:08 PM
Now I've aimed for:
- minimal friction to post or edit.
- useful for my thinking process.
I touch on what I like about my process here: https://play.teod.eu/documentation/
by lucytalksdata on 7/18/22, 6:41 PM
But mostly though, it has been super fun! I have a long list of side projects and ideas to work out and I really get a lot of joy out of sharing these with a (small!) audience. :)
by tr1ll10nb1ll on 7/18/22, 2:25 PM
Plug: https://blog.arthtyagi.xyz
It's not as much about the brand as it is about voicing out my thoughts quickly.
by moviewise on 7/18/22, 4:03 PM
I write about the life lessons in movies: https://moviewise.substack.com/p/are-you-socially-mad-or-cap...
by sircastor on 7/18/22, 3:55 PM
I write on my personal site to share about projects that I’ve made, or accomplishments, or in one recent case how often I get things wrong. I don’t have much of an audience, and that’s okay. I post a few times a year, don’t advertise, and only have cookies so I can see what people are reading.
FWIW, I write in a personal journal as well, much more often.
by djbebs on 7/18/22, 2:58 PM
I write an investment blog and find that it's great to force me to think through my investments to see if they are actually a good idea or not.
I also often refer back to it later on when judging my performance and to see if I did the right thing or not.
In terms of opportunities, it's certainly opened the door for other side gigs that do help give some substantial side income. Though taxes there are a pain!
by mhitza on 7/18/22, 3:33 PM
Now for those that write surface level programming language/library tutorials the story might be different.
Personally I just like to share small technical tidbits from time to time, and hope it helps someone out there.
by gerikson on 7/18/22, 12:37 PM
My blog has never led to any professional advancement, it's purely self-expression.
by soco on 7/18/22, 1:00 PM
by curious_cat_163 on 7/19/22, 3:41 AM
For real though, I don’t know why should it matter if it leads to a job? What happened to the web? Why is everything… so… selfish on the public internet?
Are we really only left with this site, the Wikipedia and a subset of Reddit where the internet happens now?
by floppydiskette on 7/18/22, 4:08 PM
I’ve slowed down with it, though. I only make content when I feel like it, not because anyone else wants it. And the more advanced the problems I have to solve, the smaller the target audience of anything I’m solving is.
by briggers on 7/18/22, 1:39 PM
I write fairly deep ML performance tuning articles at https://paulbridger.com and the (many) hours I've spent on each article have been hugely worth it.
Many people reach out to me via this work, and when we talk they already see me as an expert or already want to work with me.
I need to blog more, thanks for the reminder.
by BLO716 on 7/18/22, 4:43 PM
If you are using other platforms for exposure or expression, then you are the product of that platform. If you can drive traffic to your blog for whatever reason you would like to, then it becomes more of a value prop depending on motivations.
I can't be more constructive, then asking why its worth it than freedom of expression and monetization through content generation.
by pclmulqdq on 7/18/22, 2:17 PM
I used to try to do two posts a month, hoping for extra "exposure" that way, but now I am doing one. Right now, it feels like a bit of a chore since projects I am working on do not naturally align with blog posts, but that should change soon.
by gpesola115 on 7/18/22, 3:59 PM
by memorable on 7/18/22, 1:34 PM
Yes. Writing about my life and let people know it is pretty cool.
- Did it help to get noticed/find jobs or other oppotunities?
Maybe not right now, but it has helped me gather a very small group of people who is interested in my work.
- Do you learn something new from it?
Perhaps not much, but writing and sharing it makes the entire thing worth it IMO.
by bennyp101 on 7/18/22, 3:50 PM
Instead, I'm thinking I might just link my Obsidian to public pages and do it that way, so it's a blog/knowledge dump - and I tend to keep that updated fairly often.
by usrn on 7/18/22, 1:03 PM
by fatih-erikli on 7/18/22, 4:46 PM
by mikedelago on 7/18/22, 2:18 PM
I think the most I get out of it is that it's a project where you can just make a website/infrastructure stack the way you want it, without anything really holding you back.
by jelkand on 7/18/22, 2:02 PM
It’s mostly an outlet for me. I get to practice my written communication, and write a bit about how I think the world of software engineering should be.
by billconan on 7/18/22, 5:02 PM
But each time I decide to start a new blog, I couldn't keep writing after a while. Writing is mentally exhausting for me as a non-native English speaker.
I'm thinking about making videos instead. I want to make content in a more casual way.
by stereoradonc on 7/20/22, 1:29 AM
In a nutshell, yes!
by zevulous on 7/24/22, 6:29 PM
by vladstudio on 7/18/22, 1:51 PM
Seems like writing "per se" does not excite you enough ("too much effort"). Perhaps, sharing knowledge on sites such as HN, StackOverflow, etc might work as blogging replacement.
by ryanmercer on 7/18/22, 2:45 PM
It is 100% for me, not for trying to get a job or anything.
by kaetemi on 7/18/22, 5:08 PM
by nixpulvis on 7/18/22, 3:30 PM
It may not be for everyone, but it helps me learn and motivate to do things sometimes.
Sharing is a large motivator for people.
by lpolovets on 7/18/22, 11:11 PM
* My blog helped me differentiate myself and build a name for myself when I shifted from coding to venture capital. For context, I had no VC network at all when I got into the business, but a few good posts led to cold emails from strong VCs and founders, and a higher response rate to my own cold emails and twitter DMs. My gut feeling is that the less differentiated your skills are or the harder it is to stand out in your field, the more value there is in something like a blog or podcast or twitter presence.
* A blog sharpens your business sense: you start thinking about marketing, SEO, growing your readership, monetization, etc. It can be a mini startup if you want it to be.
* The great 1:1 connections that resulted from blog posts cannot be understated. Each post is like a bat signal: "here's how I think about some topic, and if you like my thoughts or like thinking about this topic, then maybe you should reach out." This leads to connections with people whose interests align with yours.
* Posts take a lot of time to write, but in the long run they often "pay that time back." For example, if someone asks me about equity comp benchmarks for early startup employees [1], or how VCs spend their time [2], or how to prioritize effort between funding rounds [3], I often just send them a link to a relevant blog post instead of creating a one-off answer each time. If I get a question a few times per year, then after a few years the associated blog post has paid back its creation time.
* Once in a while someone from across the globe will email you out of the blue and tell you that a post you wrote made a big impact on them or changed how they think about something. This will make your day, and probably your week. TBH this is probably my favorite benefit.
[1] https://www.codingvc.com/p/analyzing-angellist-job-postings-...
[2] https://www.codingvc.com/p/behind-the-scenes-at-a-vc-fund-pa...
by sgoto on 7/18/22, 2:25 PM
by danbrooks on 7/18/22, 5:55 PM
by Taylor_OD on 7/18/22, 2:58 PM
by mistrial9 on 7/18/22, 2:39 PM
by rr888 on 7/18/22, 4:28 PM
by itomato on 7/18/22, 8:43 PM
“Does my idea hold up?” Is better answered by floating an actual boat down an actual river than by private conjecture.
by hypertele-Xii on 7/18/22, 9:46 PM
by lcfd on 7/27/22, 12:12 PM
by bag_boy on 7/18/22, 3:34 PM
Writing in depth about old projects is therapeutic for me. It also helps me appreciate others’ writings.
by t0bia_s on 7/18/22, 10:36 PM
by saddington on 7/22/22, 6:07 PM
... also, i realized i wanted more privacy, not less as i got older. the blog was becoming a potential risk by increasing surface area of attack on identity.
by adityaathalye on 7/19/22, 2:24 AM
This, I think, is almost always worth it. All the other stuff is a welcome positive externality.
For example, readership:
- I don't write for an audience, rather to sort my thoughts out, so I don't mind "looking stupid" or being wrong.
- My writing is longform, without regard to "snappiness" or whatever people believe gets content distribution in a world of chopped up attention spans.
- I don't have analytics or tracking of any kind, and so it's been such a pleasant surprise to hear from strangers that they read the blog and _like_ it!
- Also, https://xkcd.com/386/ "Duty calls" is real, and I've had the nicest conversations by being wrong (or obtuse)!
Here's how it got started... like all civilized blogging re-starts, it is a long apology https://www.evalapply.org/posts/hello-world/ :)
---
edit: missed a point
by gpesola115 on 7/18/22, 3:58 PM
by ThomasMoll on 7/18/22, 8:37 PM
Don't get me wrong, I do a lot of cool stuff at $JOB but there's a limit on how much info I can discuss about various internal systems. So just doing a greenfield project that's a 180 from my current profession (in my case doing biological modelling for art purposes) is a great joy.
I've gotten a lot of recruiters reaching out because they saw an article or repost on HN or lobste.rs
by jhiggins777 on 7/19/22, 12:39 PM
by jppope on 7/18/22, 3:13 PM
To answer your other questions:
*Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?*
YES. This however is not linear. No one has ever been like, "would you like to interview" because they read something I wrote. People just remember you more or you have more reasons to interact with them. You impress them more at work because you can communicate more effectively which is like 30% or 40% of the job. (my code is more readable too)
*Do you learn something new from it?*
Sure, but again there's a lot learned that doesn't fit nicely into a box of skills. I'll give you an example....
Neil Strauss has a 3 edit process for writing, something like: write for yourself, edit your piece so that it's useful, edit your piece so that the haters don't have any material. This generalizes to all sorts of things. You could use that same sort of logic for a first date. Go out on a date for yourself first, make sure that the other person enjoys it, make sure that you aren't setting yourself up for failure with anyone who would comment about the date.
I think you learn a lot by writing but there's really no way to tell if it will be useful to you.
*Self hosted is too much maintenance...*
Yes, but this has gotten MASSIVELY better with cloudflare pages, Netlify, etc. My trick here is to simplify then iterate. Start with just the base theme... don't do anything to it... just write. With cloudflare pages you just `git commit -am 'message' && git push origin master` and it's published. I'm not a big fan of the medium/blogger scene - it's a personal preference.
*Writing up my thoughts in presentable state took too much time/effort*
I have a couple of tricks for this... first, go SMALL. very SMALL. 400 words is fast to write and fast to edit. 400 words is about what it takes for a short story, or a well thought out idea. You'll probably bleed into 500 words if you aim for 400 but it will keep you from writing those 2000 word monsters that suck up weekends. BUT it will also lead to the style of writing that will have you put out 1200 word pieces quickly. Next, stop caring what people thing, just publish it. Jack Conte has a beautiful speech on this (https://youtu.be/LzwwMGxohnI). Lastly, I'm lazy so I use tools to help me edit. Grammarly works great, but theres some open source cli packages if you work in plain text or markdown.
by oxff on 7/18/22, 1:01 PM
Not in this day and age when you might lose a job if they find out you support Trump or aren't on-board with progressive egregores. Too much risk.
by balentio on 7/18/22, 3:24 PM