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No, every engineer should not blog. It is hard enough to find the right information when you have to shift through clickbait and the signal-to-noise ratio is ab

by JCDenton2052 10y ago

No, every engineer should not blog. It is hard enough to find the right information when you have to shift through clickbait and the signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal. If I was interested in assessing someone's caliber, I'd rather look at their Github than their blog. Anyone can write a blog post, not everyone can write good code. Blog if you have some insight into technology that hasn't been already elucidated or if you disagree with what's out there. Having said that, I plan to start my own blog at some point. What will I be writing about? I'll start with reviews of technical books. Why? Because I have read a couple since the beginning of the year that I was unhappy with and had to return, but bought them in the first place because other people said good things about them. Hopefully if someone in the future considers them they will come across my view and take it into consideration.

mgkimsal 10y ago
I don't particularly want everyone publishing code, really. "not everyone can write good code" Not everyone can tell what's good, what's not, and why. And searching through 20x the amount of code now to find something that a) works, b) is documented, c) is kept up to date (and is also accurate/correct) - just gets harder the more 'stuff' gets published.
srcreigh 10y ago
Tim didn't say it's useful for other engineers. He said it's useful 1) to get non-technical people can hear about your skills (the ones who couldn't tell good code from bad code) and 2) for yourself, since writing forces clear thinking.
nur0n 10y ago
Code and blog posts are just two ways of crystallizing ideas. In the same way that not everyone can write good code, not everyone can translate ideas clearly into blog format.
noobermin 10y ago
Another thing this turn hurts is this another avenue the "pretty people"[0] can use to get a foot in the door with little to no actual technical experience. I am reminded by a blogpost that got to the front page a few weeks ago about the "new Google OS" that was going to replace everything...written by an admitted non-coder/technical person. Many hackers are great at what they do, actually producing working, sensible products, but aren't bloggers. Sure, if you can do both, all the more power to you. People who can't blog (out of desire or time or just because they don't like writing may be) shouldn't be seen as any less a hacker because they don't. The best way to gauge a person's ability is their work, which github, et. al. is supposed to provide. [0] https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/
mooreds 10y ago
> Anyone can write a blog post, not everyone can write good code. But can "anyone" wrote a good clear blog post that explains a problem, talks about a solution and some of the plusses and minuses of alternatives? Can "anyone" maintain a blog for a number of months or years? I'd say these are differentiating features.
collyw 10y ago
Not everyone has a full github profile as their work is in house.

mgkimsal 10y ago

I don't particularly want everyone publishing code, really. "not everyone can write good code" Not everyone can tell what's good, what's not, and why. And searching through 20x the amount of code now to find something that a) works, b) is documented, c) is kept up to date (and is also accurate/correct) - just gets harder the more 'stuff' gets published.

srcreigh 10y ago

Tim didn't say it's useful for other engineers. He said it's useful 1) to get non-technical people can hear about your skills (the ones who couldn't tell good code from bad code) and 2) for yourself, since writing forces clear thinking.

nur0n 10y ago

Code and blog posts are just two ways of crystallizing ideas. In the same way that not everyone can write good code, not everyone can translate ideas clearly into blog format.

noobermin 10y ago

Another thing this turn hurts is this another avenue the "pretty people"[0] can use to get a foot in the door with little to no actual technical experience. I am reminded by a blogpost that got to the front page a few weeks ago about the "new Google OS" that was going to replace everything...written by an admitted non-coder/technical person. Many hackers are great at what they do, actually producing working, sensible products, but aren't bloggers. Sure, if you can do both, all the more power to you. People who can't blog (out of desire or time or just because they don't like writing may be) shouldn't be seen as any less a hacker because they don't. The best way to gauge a person's ability is their work, which github, et. al. is supposed to provide. [0] https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/28/beware-the-pretty-people/

mooreds 10y ago

> Anyone can write a blog post, not everyone can write good code. But can "anyone" wrote a good clear blog post that explains a problem, talks about a solution and some of the plusses and minuses of alternatives? Can "anyone" maintain a blog for a number of months or years? I'd say these are differentiating features.

collyw 10y ago

Not everyone has a full github profile as their work is in house.