4 ms·

> It’s easy to get hung up on this. I’ve definitely felt the self-imposed pressure to only write something if it’s new, and unique, and feels like it’s never be

by twic 4y ago

> It’s easy to get hung up on this. I’ve definitely felt the self-imposed pressure to only write something if it’s new, and unique, and feels like it’s never been said before. This is a mental trap that does nothing but hold you back. No! It's absolutely correct and considerate! This advice to write a blog even if you have nothing new to add is why the blogosphere is now absolutely overgrown with low-content dross, and half the reason why searches for technical questions now just turn up endless blogspam instead of answers.

cpach 4y ago
Yeah but the spam blogs are there because people are trying to make money from ads, those are not authors that are writing a journal or want to practise their writing skills.
mcbishop 4y ago
It really depends on the writer's motivation. Practicing regular public writing... awesome. Trying to rank for keywords... blah. You have zero obligation to engage with someone's personal blog (that most likely will never show up in search results).
- rpastuszak 4y ago
  Precisely, I get the sentiment/frustration expressed in the parent comment, but this is a curation, discoverability issue.
uncleshelby 4y ago
Who's to say that someone really does or doesn't have something "new" to say? New can be explaining something simpler way, as far as the writer understands it, and discouraging people from writing and getting experience through writing is pretty inconsiderate as I see it.
fm2606 4y ago
So my very first thought of reading this comment is "I 100% whole-hardily agree". But... I have read a few posts from different people who say blog about it even if it isn't new or unique. The thought being is that it 1) improves writing skill and 2) if learning something, helps cements the concepts of what was learned. It appears the Simon Wilson shared the same feeling about posts being new and unique as can seen here from his 2nd post in 2002: https://simonwillison.net/2002/Jun/12/bloggingAintEasy/ https://simonwillison.net/2002/Jun/12/bloggingAintEasy/ "with each post hopefully adding a new angle to the topic in hand" Obviously he has changed his mind through the years which we are allowed to do. And as I type this and think about the commenter's statement about "low-content dross", I would much rather sift through a bunch of individual posts from real people than from businesses trying to promote some product.
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  Agreed. Also, there's a bit of "you can't get there from here" problem : maybe you need to start writing familiar, personal stuff, to practice, get into a habit, develop better writing skills, gain confidence, etc - so that when you do have something truly unique, you are ready and capable of putting it down in an engaging and I understandable. (also, "style" matters. James Mickens does not necessarily say anything "new", but he says it in a way that's entertaining and enables you to see things from a new perspective. I enjoy Terry pratchett and patio11 for their writing style even when they're not sharing extraordinary insights. Not every piece of writing needs to be cutting edge technical research. And practice is important for that).
- Smaug123 4y ago
  By the way, "whole-heartedly", as in "with your whole heart". As opposed to "foolhardily", as in "with the hardiness (boldness) of a fool [who doesn't understand the need for caution]".
  - fm2606 4y ago
    Thank you! One would think with as much education as I've had and amount I've read that my spelling would be a bit better, but, here we are! My smart-ass comment would be "I knew that and just wanted to see if someone would catch it!"
rpastuszak 4y ago
> half the reason why searches for technical questions now just turn up endless blogspam instead of answers. To me this sounds more like a discoverability/curation issue[^1]. Most of the useless technical content I find is either spam from a content farm or poorly written, superficial articles with a higher SEO ranking due to the platform they were published on (e.g. dev.to). What I find very rarely is crappy content placed at the top of the search results and coming from an obscure low-quality blog. > No! It's absolutely correct and considerate! I do agree that it's considerate, that it's a question worth asking, but the reasons people might decide that it's not worth sharing their knowledge might not reflect reality (impostor syndrome, shyness, Dunning-Kruger effect). We're missing on those more considerate people not sharing their knowledge, so I'd say the more the merrier, it's still a net-positive. Developers are notorious for underestimating the value of clear communication. It's apparent even here on HN, where people _express_ themselves in a precise manner but often don't think/care how to _communicate_, i.e. their response will be understood by other commenters (symptoms: nitpicking, hermetic language, ignoring the context of a post, tone deafness, lack of empathy). Writing, as a means of communication provides the best avenue to acquire this skill. [^1] And, for that I blame mainly ad-tech. An ad-free search engine with blocklists would improve the situation drastically.
tomashubelbauer 4y ago
I apologize, but this is complete bullshit. I think everyone should write for themselves first, as a way to reference your jotted down knowledge at a later time or to summarize your thoughts on something and see how well you've mapped it out. Or just for joy. It is the responsibility of the reader/follower of the blog to only subscribe to blogs that post articles that they appreciate and stop reading them if they no longer feel like they do.
baxtr 4y ago
No! Absolutely not. Because: you might think it’s nothing new. But it’s only nothing new for you! For most people it’s entirely new. Sure, somewhere someone already farted about it lot an earlier than you. But guess what, it’s the f*ing internet. Ofc someone else was faster. This advice you’re giving is actually exactly why there is so much BS on the internet. Because smart people like us who have something to share won’t because it’s not new enough!!! And guess what: all the morons not thinking 1/10 as much publish away and get followers because they dare to expose themselves often and repeatedly. Btw I think it’s called imposter syndrome.
hexis 4y ago
My website is not about whatever I learned today, it's about me. As it happens, what I learned today is a thing about me, so it can end up on my website. But, if you're coming to my personal website to see exclusively brand new information, never before published, then I'm sorry but I'm a person much like most other folks and my experiences overlap with them quite a lot. My website will be full of ordinary, shared experiences and facts, with the occasional novelty thrown in, much like myself. I'd hate to only show the parts of myself that are perfectly unique to the world, I think that'd be very lonely.
twelve40 4y ago
isn't yours more of a complaint about the _searching_ part? people shouldn't self-sensor out of fear of unoriginality and it's really up to the fabled algorithm to sort this out.
mminer237 4y ago
I don't think only person should only ever write on each topic. It's good to have some retreading so healthy disagreement can be shared, views reinforced, different nuances explained, or everything just put another way. I've often read something, not really got it, and read someone else explain the same thing a bit differently where it clicked better for me. I think the important thing is just to know what you're writing about. Too many people write about things they think will tell highly but they only have the most surface-level knowledge of. That's the real problem.
csydas 4y ago
I think you're conflating SEO blogspam with genuine passion for writing. One claims to be the other in order to shield itself from accusations of being SEO blogspam, the other is just a person wanting to share their experience. I have no issues reading about how someone discovered how TTL can help in a Wireshark investigation, even though I already know it. I do have issues with someone's blog showing in online searches simply because they figured out which keywords to place (and where) in order to get to page 1 of Google, displacing actual articles of relevance to what I'm seeking. It's an absolute shame that actual companies have fallen to the same trap and even intentionally push preferable articles that result in fewer Support cases while burying the actual issue under SEO'd garbage. (The less said about Microsoft "dead-links" where they retroactively remove the content, the better) I would love to read about a first timer understanding recursion; my hopes would be either that I would learn a new way of understanding it myself because of the enthusiasm they had as a result of their moment of inspiration, or I can add to the discourse on my own understanding. I want to read about discovery and education! I don't want to read inspirational articles or how to monetize/appeal to investors when I'm looking for technical things. My favorite part of mentoring is seeing my mentees make it work by their own inspiration and mental skill; I don't care if it's inefficient as long as they did it on their own. We can discuss optimizations later, I just want to see people pushing themselves to a new level and be excited about it. They can write an entire Russian-Novel length post as far as I'm concerned, I will read and revel in every word as long as it's their excitement because of their success.
- quietbritishjim 4y ago
  I think the truth is somewhere in between. If someone wants to write about what they've done for writing's sake, then fair enough to go the extra step of posting a blog about it. But there are plenty of blogs that seem to exist because the person first decided they wanted to have a blog and then came up with something to write about. Not SEO spam, more like résumé spam maybe? Those are still awful to wade through on search see l results.
  - cafeinux 4y ago
    I've always wanted to write a blog but never dared to do it because I feel like I have nothing of interest to add to what already exists. Now after reading that article, I feel like I could indeed start a blog, and there would be a good chance that it will be boring and/or low quality, at least at first, but it would be my content and I could be proud of it. If I hold myself to a high standard that makes me want to only increase the quality of the blogosphere, I'll never write a single line, because inevitably the first thing you ever do in something new will be shitty. So I think I'll start my blog, and I think it will be shitty, and I think I won't give a damn about SEO and what people might think about how I contribute to the blogosphere. I have a hundred TILs a week and a few ongoing projects, so I'll definitely have stuff to write. Thanks for that article.
philzook 4y ago
I don't agree. If someone has gotten to the point they think they can write anything about a subject it's kind of interesting. Many, many things are undocumented because they are trivial to some and completely unknown to others. Experts rarely want to spend time writing about trivial things, so the best way to get these things written is during their journey to expertise when they are new and exciting and when it feels the most scary and embarrassing to do so. In addition, I think people overestimate how long they will retain insights even for personal use. I really, really wish I had been blogging during my education.
simonw 4y ago
There's no space limit on the internet. If you want people to do writing that shares unique, new ideas you need to allow them the opportunity to practice writing first!
AlbertCory 4y ago
Isaac Asimov wrote "Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare" and some talk show host asked him "Why did you write this? There are thousands of books about Shakespeare!" He said, "Yeah, but not by me."
CM30 4y ago
The thing you need to realise is that different people find different takes on the same idea better than others. Maybe they find one author's writing style or presentation easier to follow than another's. Maybe they're a fan of said author, and enjoy hearing their takes on everything they write about. Or maybe they just one person's writing more engaging than another's. Multiple people covering the same story isn't a bad thing, regardless of whether it's in the form of a blog post, video, podcast, TV show, book or any other format. It's like how multiple brands of sweets, soda or toothpaste exist.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
derekzhouzhen 4y ago
You are mixing authenticity and uniqueness. The stuff you blog about doesn't need to be unique; it only needs to be authentic.

by twic 4y ago

cpach 4y ago

Yeah but the spam blogs are there because people are trying to make money from ads, those are not authors that are writing a journal or want to practise their writing skills.

mcbishop 4y ago

It really depends on the writer's motivation. Practicing regular public writing... awesome. Trying to rank for keywords... blah. You have zero obligation to engage with someone's personal blog (that most likely will never show up in search results).

rpastuszak 4y ago
Precisely, I get the sentiment/frustration expressed in the parent comment, but this is a curation, discoverability issue.

uncleshelby 4y ago

Who's to say that someone really does or doesn't have something "new" to say? New can be explaining something simpler way, as far as the writer understands it, and discouraging people from writing and getting experience through writing is pretty inconsiderate as I see it.

fm2606 4y ago

So my very first thought of reading this comment is "I 100% whole-hardily agree". But... I have read a few posts from different people who say blog about it even if it isn't new or unique. The thought being is that it 1) improves writing skill and 2) if learning something, helps cements the concepts of what was learned. It appears the Simon Wilson shared the same feeling about posts being new and unique as can seen here from his 2nd post in 2002: https://simonwillison.net/2002/Jun/12/bloggingAintEasy/ https://simonwillison.net/2002/Jun/12/bloggingAintEasy/ "with each post hopefully adding a new angle to the topic in hand" Obviously he has changed his mind through the years which we are allowed to do. And as I type this and think about the commenter's statement about "low-content dross", I would much rather sift through a bunch of individual posts from real people than from businesses trying to promote some product.

NikolaNovak 4y ago
Agreed. Also, there's a bit of "you can't get there from here" problem : maybe you need to start writing familiar, personal stuff, to practice, get into a habit, develop better writing skills, gain confidence, etc - so that when you do have something truly unique, you are ready and capable of putting it down in an engaging and I understandable. (also, "style" matters. James Mickens does not necessarily say anything "new", but he says it in a way that's entertaining and enables you to see things from a new perspective. I enjoy Terry pratchett and patio11 for their writing style even when they're not sharing extraordinary insights. Not every piece of writing needs to be cutting edge technical research. And practice is important for that).
Smaug123 4y ago
By the way, "whole-heartedly", as in "with your whole heart". As opposed to "foolhardily", as in "with the hardiness (boldness) of a fool [who doesn't understand the need for caution]".
- fm2606 4y ago
  Thank you! One would think with as much education as I've had and amount I've read that my spelling would be a bit better, but, here we are! My smart-ass comment would be "I knew that and just wanted to see if someone would catch it!"

rpastuszak 4y ago

> half the reason why searches for technical questions now just turn up endless blogspam instead of answers. To me this sounds more like a discoverability/curation issue[^1]. Most of the useless technical content I find is either spam from a content farm or poorly written, superficial articles with a higher SEO ranking due to the platform they were published on (e.g. dev.to). What I find very rarely is crappy content placed at the top of the search results and coming from an obscure low-quality blog. > No! It's absolutely correct and considerate! I do agree that it's considerate, that it's a question worth asking, but the reasons people might decide that it's not worth sharing their knowledge might not reflect reality (impostor syndrome, shyness, Dunning-Kruger effect). We're missing on those more considerate people not sharing their knowledge, so I'd say the more the merrier, it's still a net-positive. Developers are notorious for underestimating the value of clear communication. It's apparent even here on HN, where people _express_ themselves in a precise manner but often don't think/care how to _communicate_, i.e. their response will be understood by other commenters (symptoms: nitpicking, hermetic language, ignoring the context of a post, tone deafness, lack of empathy). Writing, as a means of communication provides the best avenue to acquire this skill. [^1] And, for that I blame mainly ad-tech. An ad-free search engine with blocklists would improve the situation drastically.

tomashubelbauer 4y ago

I apologize, but this is complete bullshit. I think everyone should write for themselves first, as a way to reference your jotted down knowledge at a later time or to summarize your thoughts on something and see how well you've mapped it out. Or just for joy. It is the responsibility of the reader/follower of the blog to only subscribe to blogs that post articles that they appreciate and stop reading them if they no longer feel like they do.

baxtr 4y ago

No! Absolutely not. Because: you might think it’s nothing new. But it’s only nothing new for you! For most people it’s entirely new. Sure, somewhere someone already farted about it lot an earlier than you. But guess what, it’s the f*ing internet. Ofc someone else was faster. This advice you’re giving is actually exactly why there is so much BS on the internet. Because smart people like us who have something to share won’t because it’s not new enough!!! And guess what: all the morons not thinking 1/10 as much publish away and get followers because they dare to expose themselves often and repeatedly. Btw I think it’s called imposter syndrome.

hexis 4y ago

My website is not about whatever I learned today, it's about me. As it happens, what I learned today is a thing about me, so it can end up on my website. But, if you're coming to my personal website to see exclusively brand new information, never before published, then I'm sorry but I'm a person much like most other folks and my experiences overlap with them quite a lot. My website will be full of ordinary, shared experiences and facts, with the occasional novelty thrown in, much like myself. I'd hate to only show the parts of myself that are perfectly unique to the world, I think that'd be very lonely.

twelve40 4y ago

isn't yours more of a complaint about the _searching_ part? people shouldn't self-sensor out of fear of unoriginality and it's really up to the fabled algorithm to sort this out.

mminer237 4y ago

I don't think only person should only ever write on each topic. It's good to have some retreading so healthy disagreement can be shared, views reinforced, different nuances explained, or everything just put another way. I've often read something, not really got it, and read someone else explain the same thing a bit differently where it clicked better for me. I think the important thing is just to know what you're writing about. Too many people write about things they think will tell highly but they only have the most surface-level knowledge of. That's the real problem.

csydas 4y ago

I think you're conflating SEO blogspam with genuine passion for writing. One claims to be the other in order to shield itself from accusations of being SEO blogspam, the other is just a person wanting to share their experience. I have no issues reading about how someone discovered how TTL can help in a Wireshark investigation, even though I already know it. I do have issues with someone's blog showing in online searches simply because they figured out which keywords to place (and where) in order to get to page 1 of Google, displacing actual articles of relevance to what I'm seeking. It's an absolute shame that actual companies have fallen to the same trap and even intentionally push preferable articles that result in fewer Support cases while burying the actual issue under SEO'd garbage. (The less said about Microsoft "dead-links" where they retroactively remove the content, the better) I would love to read about a first timer understanding recursion; my hopes would be either that I would learn a new way of understanding it myself because of the enthusiasm they had as a result of their moment of inspiration, or I can add to the discourse on my own understanding. I want to read about discovery and education! I don't want to read inspirational articles or how to monetize/appeal to investors when I'm looking for technical things. My favorite part of mentoring is seeing my mentees make it work by their own inspiration and mental skill; I don't care if it's inefficient as long as they did it on their own. We can discuss optimizations later, I just want to see people pushing themselves to a new level and be excited about it. They can write an entire Russian-Novel length post as far as I'm concerned, I will read and revel in every word as long as it's their excitement because of their success.

quietbritishjim 4y ago
I think the truth is somewhere in between. If someone wants to write about what they've done for writing's sake, then fair enough to go the extra step of posting a blog about it. But there are plenty of blogs that seem to exist because the person first decided they wanted to have a blog and then came up with something to write about. Not SEO spam, more like résumé spam maybe? Those are still awful to wade through on search see l results.
- cafeinux 4y ago
  I've always wanted to write a blog but never dared to do it because I feel like I have nothing of interest to add to what already exists. Now after reading that article, I feel like I could indeed start a blog, and there would be a good chance that it will be boring and/or low quality, at least at first, but it would be my content and I could be proud of it. If I hold myself to a high standard that makes me want to only increase the quality of the blogosphere, I'll never write a single line, because inevitably the first thing you ever do in something new will be shitty. So I think I'll start my blog, and I think it will be shitty, and I think I won't give a damn about SEO and what people might think about how I contribute to the blogosphere. I have a hundred TILs a week and a few ongoing projects, so I'll definitely have stuff to write. Thanks for that article.

philzook 4y ago

I don't agree. If someone has gotten to the point they think they can write anything about a subject it's kind of interesting. Many, many things are undocumented because they are trivial to some and completely unknown to others. Experts rarely want to spend time writing about trivial things, so the best way to get these things written is during their journey to expertise when they are new and exciting and when it feels the most scary and embarrassing to do so. In addition, I think people overestimate how long they will retain insights even for personal use. I really, really wish I had been blogging during my education.

simonw 4y ago

There's no space limit on the internet. If you want people to do writing that shares unique, new ideas you need to allow them the opportunity to practice writing first!

AlbertCory 4y ago

Isaac Asimov wrote "Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare" and some talk show host asked him "Why did you write this? There are thousands of books about Shakespeare!" He said, "Yeah, but not by me."

CM30 4y ago

The thing you need to realise is that different people find different takes on the same idea better than others. Maybe they find one author's writing style or presentation easier to follow than another's. Maybe they're a fan of said author, and enjoy hearing their takes on everything they write about. Or maybe they just one person's writing more engaging than another's. Multiple people covering the same story isn't a bad thing, regardless of whether it's in the form of a blog post, video, podcast, TV show, book or any other format. It's like how multiple brands of sweets, soda or toothpaste exist.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

derekzhouzhen 4y ago

You are mixing authenticity and uniqueness. The stuff you blog about doesn't need to be unique; it only needs to be authentic.