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Writing a blog regularly has increased by compensation manifold.

vishnugupta 5y ago
I maintain a personal “thought journal”. Writing, primarily, is a tool for the mind. To explore lines of thought, brainstorm with oneself, explore lines of argument and so on. Without writing thought process is single threaded and linear. With writing it becomes multithreaded and non-linear.
jldugger 5y ago
Not that you shouldn't write blogs, but bear in mind for folks trying to split SWE & blogging, your manager will see your split priorities as a risk. Every slipped team deadline paints a bullseye on the hobbist blogger who has to spend time with legal getting approvals. Every public mistake you make will end up on their desk, with the expectation that they somehow fix it. Even if you do well, if the rest of the company finds out they'll ask you to do more writing and less of the thing your manager was hired to lead a team to achieve, without any formal headcount change. Generally speaking, blogging increases your personal profile more than it increases your company's profile, if any. I can name several HN famous bloggers, but at this point many have job hopped frequently enough IDK who they even work for anymore. Even when you hire someone like Patrick who's already a celeb, the recruiting pull only lasts as long as his employment. (I imagine Stripe is fine since there aren't many companies willing to hire remote workers in Japan while paying SV wages. YMM very much V). I really expect most tech bloggers to fall into one of three camps: 1. Consultants, who need to build a name brand around their niche expertise. The typical consultant formula is spending 30 percent of your year working for clients, 30 percent finding new clients, and 30 percent skill building. 2. Product Evangelists who need to get people excited about a tech platform their company profits from. 3. New grads whose career hasn't taken off and consumed their free time yet.

I maintain a personal “thought journal”. Writing, primarily, is a tool for the mind. To explore lines of thought, brainstorm with oneself, explore lines of argument and so on. Without writing thought process is single threaded and linear. With writing it becomes multithreaded and non-linear.

jldugger 5y ago

Not that you shouldn't write blogs, but bear in mind for folks trying to split SWE & blogging, your manager will see your split priorities as a risk. Every slipped team deadline paints a bullseye on the hobbist blogger who has to spend time with legal getting approvals. Every public mistake you make will end up on their desk, with the expectation that they somehow fix it. Even if you do well, if the rest of the company finds out they'll ask you to do more writing and less of the thing your manager was hired to lead a team to achieve, without any formal headcount change. Generally speaking, blogging increases your personal profile more than it increases your company's profile, if any. I can name several HN famous bloggers, but at this point many have job hopped frequently enough IDK who they even work for anymore. Even when you hire someone like Patrick who's already a celeb, the recruiting pull only lasts as long as his employment. (I imagine Stripe is fine since there aren't many companies willing to hire remote workers in Japan while paying SV wages. YMM very much V). I really expect most tech bloggers to fall into one of three camps: 1. Consultants, who need to build a name brand around their niche expertise. The typical consultant formula is spending 30 percent of your year working for clients, 30 percent finding new clients, and 30 percent skill building. 2. Product Evangelists who need to get people excited about a tech platform their company profits from. 3. New grads whose career hasn't taken off and consumed their free time yet.