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I like to read articles by people who feel they have something that's important to say. If you don't know what you should to write about, then anything you writ

I like to read articles by people who feel they have something that's important to say. If you don't know what you should to write about, then anything you write is probably going to be pretty uninspiring. Good writing comes from a place of passion and urgency, a real drive to inform people about something that the author thinks is worth reading. This might be an answer you don't like very much, but seriously, all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work. I can't imagine that soliciting for ideas really works. I think this is the main reason why I've always failed to be the blogger I aspire to be. There are few subjects that I care enough about to write consistently on. It's weird, because I post on the web a lot and I feel like I'm pretty passionate about web stuff. It just doesn't manifest in the form of blog posts though.

kulikalov 5y ago
I’m an individual contractor. I design and implement cloud architectures that replace entire teams of developers and charge way above the average. Yet the things I do seem so obvious to me that I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t see that obvious solution I’ve implemented. This idea continuously make me doubt if my experience is valuable enough for other engineers.
- onion2k 5y ago
  Yet the things I do seem so obvious to me that I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t see that obvious solution I’ve implemented. Practically everyone who has a decent amount of experience delivering something feels that way. Usually it's a combination of the original team not having as much experience, or that the situation at the time didn't allow it (lack of resources, incompatible acceptance criteria that no longer apply, etc), or that you've missed something important that actually means the solution you're going for is the wrong approach. Understanding which it is is hard.
  - kulikalov 5y ago
    Not that hard if the solution is about gathering and transforming data. The benchmarks are quite definitive: servers cost, performance, correct output.
- WA 5y ago
  > I design and implement cloud architectures that replace entire teams of developers I'm curious: How do you replace entire teams of devs by choosing cloud architectures? Is it because cloud architectures bring so much stuff out of the box that is otherwise implemented in a custom way by individual developers? What would be an example? Edit: Found your blog post about it: https://kulikalov.com/how-to-make-sense-of-cloud-architectures https://kulikalov.com/how-to-make-sense-of-cloud-architectur...
  - kulikalov 5y ago
    Yep, stuff out of the box, correctly wired and monitored
- atmosx 5y ago
  > why they didn’t see that obvious solution I’ve implemented. Not trying to be bring you down or anything, but the most likely answer is that every senior engineer in the company knows what needs to be done but lacks the political capital/will/etc to implement the change.
bartq 5y ago
> all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work I've felt compelled to write this question on HN. Even if I don't draw anything for me, maybe someone else will. Additionally, remembering I asked this question and didn't get inspiring answer, I might finally be compelled to write my own thing without any other questions. You never know. And if we already do meta talk: 1. Every rule has an exception. 2. Always do most exciting thing, today it's asking a question, tomorrow it's writing an article. Rule 1 works for points 1 and 2. And also works for your impressions about best articles. :)
WA 5y ago
> all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work I beg to differ. Might be true for the most interesting articles, but the most useful articles are day to day stuff like How to do X in Y imho.
gls2ro 5y ago
> all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work Now I am curious of some examples of such articles. I like good articles that makes me think.
he11ow 5y ago
I like this comment a lot.

kulikalov 5y ago

I’m an individual contractor. I design and implement cloud architectures that replace entire teams of developers and charge way above the average. Yet the things I do seem so obvious to me that I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t see that obvious solution I’ve implemented. This idea continuously make me doubt if my experience is valuable enough for other engineers.

onion2k 5y ago
Yet the things I do seem so obvious to me that I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t see that obvious solution I’ve implemented. Practically everyone who has a decent amount of experience delivering something feels that way. Usually it's a combination of the original team not having as much experience, or that the situation at the time didn't allow it (lack of resources, incompatible acceptance criteria that no longer apply, etc), or that you've missed something important that actually means the solution you're going for is the wrong approach. Understanding which it is is hard.
- kulikalov 5y ago
  Not that hard if the solution is about gathering and transforming data. The benchmarks are quite definitive: servers cost, performance, correct output.
WA 5y ago
> I design and implement cloud architectures that replace entire teams of developers I'm curious: How do you replace entire teams of devs by choosing cloud architectures? Is it because cloud architectures bring so much stuff out of the box that is otherwise implemented in a custom way by individual developers? What would be an example? Edit: Found your blog post about it: https://kulikalov.com/how-to-make-sense-of-cloud-architectures https://kulikalov.com/how-to-make-sense-of-cloud-architectur...
- kulikalov 5y ago
  Yep, stuff out of the box, correctly wired and monitored
atmosx 5y ago
> why they didn’t see that obvious solution I’ve implemented. Not trying to be bring you down or anything, but the most likely answer is that every senior engineer in the company knows what needs to be done but lacks the political capital/will/etc to implement the change.

bartq 5y ago

> all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work I've felt compelled to write this question on HN. Even if I don't draw anything for me, maybe someone else will. Additionally, remembering I asked this question and didn't get inspiring answer, I might finally be compelled to write my own thing without any other questions. You never know. And if we already do meta talk: 1. Every rule has an exception. 2. Always do most exciting thing, today it's asking a question, tomorrow it's writing an article. Rule 1 works for points 1 and 2. And also works for your impressions about best articles. :)

WA 5y ago

gls2ro 5y ago

> all the best articles that I've read and shared in the past have been been things that the author would probably have felt compelled to write even if no one bothered read their work Now I am curious of some examples of such articles. I like good articles that makes me think.

he11ow 5y ago

I like this comment a lot.