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> "I know writing is good for me. But why write for other people, why open myself up like this? If it's all in the process, why post or publish it, after all, w
by RyanMcGreal 16y ago
> "I know writing is good for me. But why write for other people, why open myself up like this? If it's all in the process, why post or publish it, after all, when I'm done writing, I'm done."
The feedback is important. You improve your writing skills by honing them against the whetstone of your readers.
> "If I write something, expose myself, and nobody reads it, will I not look ridiculous?"
If nobody reads it, no one will think it's ridiculous.
> "There is so much noise out there, why would I think I'm not just adding to it? Let's all be quiet for a time."
If there's too much noise, the solution is to improve the signal-to-noise ratio by broadcasting more signal.
> "If I have a good insight, why put it out there and take the risk that someone will come and 'steal' it or adapt it and win big?"
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Value comes from how carefully and persistently you put an idea into practice.
> "Will I not be easily manipulable if I put my thoughts and preferences out there? Someone could take me for a ride by using this material to their advantage or fun"
The more you interact with others, the better you'll get at spotting people who just want to take you for a ride.
> "Ok, blogging/writing/publishing stuff can make you known and perhaps even popular. Now, shouldn't you optimize for 'what people want'? Or leave out unpopular things?" (but where is the fun in writing if you can't say what you just want to say anymore?)
Optimize for what turns your crank. Your readership will figure itself out.
- HSO 16y agoHey, I like some of these comebacks ;) > If nobody reads it, no one will think it's ridiculous. Ok, you got me here. Still, if you have a blog and there's tens and tens of entries and nary a comment to be seen, doesn't that look sad somehow?
- frossie 16y agoif you have a blog and there's tens and tens of entries and nary a comment to be seen, doesn't that look sad somehow? Some people blog on locked-down (private) blogs. You don't have to make it public.
- philwelch 16y agoThis is why I turn off comments. On publicly trafficked blogs threads are often an idiotic menace--among people who know me, Facebook suffices.
- Lewisham 16y agoI think part of it is to remove ego from the equation. The likelihood that anyone will be followed by name/blog alone is minuscule. However, if you treat writing as a personal exercise, and understand that "marketing" (for want of a better word) a post of yours you particularly like, it's definitely useful. Submit high signal posts to here/Reddit/Digg/communities you are part of and you think will enjoy it. I've had two blog posts hit the HN front page; both garnered about 4000 views. One of them also hit Reddit's /r/programming, pushing the view count to 20000. However, the Reddit commentary was essentially useless, whereas the HN commentary was awesome. In fact, the Reddit commentary was quite scathing, and that bruised my pride for a good couple of days afterwards. Sometimes obscurity is better. However, I don't regret writing. The writing is the most important bit. The reading... less so.
- mkr-hn 16y agoSomeone somewhere is going to read it if it's posted. I think it's worth the maybe slim chance that someone will get something useful out of it. When I make a blog post, it gets about 80 hits during that week, then drops to about 10 hits a day. Over the theoretically endless life of the blog, that's a lot of chances to make a difference for someone.