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I've been running a blog at https://xeiaso.net https://xeiaso.net for almost a decade now. It has been the single best decision I have ever made in my career. I
by xena 4y ago
I've been running a blog at https://xeiaso.net https://xeiaso.net for almost a decade now. It has been the single best decision I have ever made in my career. It allows me to skip technical screening interviews. It has made interviewing at companies _easy_ because I have _already proven_ that I understand what I'm talking about.
Learning how to write well also makes it so much easier to explain things succinctly, especially when working remote like I prefer to.
I've also been told that more junior people look up to me as a role model because of my blog, which is something that I am still getting used to, but I can accept.
- lannisterstark 4y ago>It allows me to skip technical screening interviews. It has made interviewing at companies _easy_ because I have _already proven_ that I understand what I'm talking about. Can you please elaborate more on this? Do you just go "I made a post about it, go read?"
- becquerel 4y agoI hope one day to have a site as cool as yours.
- PebblesRox 4y agoLove this line! "This code is free as in mattress. If you decide to use it, it's your problem." https://xeiaso.net/blog/GraphicalEmoji https://xeiaso.net/blog/GraphicalEmoji
- sdfghswe 4y ago[flagged]
- Hakashiro 4y agowhat
- jjice 4y agoAny tips for avoiding the urge to spend time setting up a fancy SSG and playing with that and never actually writing? I've done that a few times over the years... I imagine the advice would often be "just write", which I do agree is fair advice, but wondering if you had any takes.
- Linell 4y agoI wrote about my experience with this here: https://thelinell.com/The-Notion-Experiment-8191f33eaa864469bca03b3307f4c9b1 https://thelinell.com/The-Notion-Experiment-8191f33eaa864469... The main idea for me was to just reduce the barrier to entry so that writing more was too easy to avoid. I already use Notion for taking notes throughout the day, so transitioning to also jotting down blog thoughts has been very easy and has increased the amount of writing that I do.
- dsr_ 4y agoWhen I decrease the number of steps to go from thinking about a blog entry to publishing it, that increases my willingness to blog. Current steps: - make newpost NAME='even a temporary title is ok, but a permanent one is better' That creates a file with the headers and a couple of skeletal bits in the right place, then opens it in my editor. - make rsync That publishes it.
- sebstefan 4y agoThe blog is great, I love the layout with the tags, is it static? If it's open source I'd like to see how it's done
- xena 4y agoAFAICT this is just Notion with a custom domain.
- xena 4y agoEvery time I get anxiety, I write one blogpost. I get a lot of anxiety. But really just work on writing or ideas for writing for half an hour every day. Even if you just write "I have nothing to write about today". Don't be afraid to just keep showing up.
- anotherhue 4y agoI always enjoy your posts! Thank you
- trallnag 4y ago[flagged]
- tkyiitd 4y agoThe font is awesome. Can you please tell which font it is.
- xena 4y agoIt's just this: p, .conversation-chat, blockquote, em, strong { font-size: 1rem; font-style: normal; font-family: Menlo, monospace; } That's really the heart of it. I've wanted to try using a sans-serif font like Inter, but I'm stuck in a pit where people expect me to use a monospace font and any attempt to move away from that means I basically change a huge part of the site's visual identity. I'm still trying to figure out how to find some middle ground because I am told that the monospace font is hard for people with dyslexia to read. I'll figure out something, I'm sure.
- holonsphere 4y agoAtkinson's hyperlegible?
- GeneralMaximus 4y agoThe Input font family by David Jonathan Ross focuses on monospace programming fonts, but it also contains a nice sans-serif font that kind of has a similar aesthetic. I’m not a typeface person, so I know I’m not explaining it very well. The homepage has tons of samples if you scroll down: https://djr.com/input https://djr.com/input It’s one of my favorite fonts for code, but I also used Input Sans as a font for writing in Obsidian and Ulysses for a while. It was very good!
- vbernat 4y agoMaybe a quasi proportional font like Iosevka Etoile? You can easily hack it to your likings (see https://github.com/vincentbernat/vincent.bernat.ch/blob/feature/iosevka-etoile/flake.nix#L239-L287 https://github.com/vincentbernat/vincent.bernat.ch/blob/feat...)
- xena 4y agoOh god I have gone down a rabbit hole how. I have a custom font family that I'm probably gonna reuse across my other projects. This is your fault. Here it is in action: https://xeiaso.net/blog/coffee-isekai https://xeiaso.net/blog/coffee-isekai
- herodoturtle 4y agoGreat blog - I particularly enjoyed your salary transparency page - thank you for sharing that.
- joshcanhelp 4y agoYour blog always blows me away with how different and fun it is. I only dream of being that authentic online. I love the call-outs from the specific personalities. So great!
- xena 4y agoAssuming your threat profile allows for it, go for it! The main difficulty I run into is Hacker News being _incredibly toxic_ in the comments on my articles at times, especially if I talk about anything contentious or break from the intellectual mold that this site has. You'd be sad to know the number of people that accused me of being a [threat to children] because I'm openly queer/furry on my blog.
- joshcanhelp 4y agoI would be sad to know the exact number but that immediately came to mind the first time I read an article from you. I desperately wish the world wasn’t like that and I’m sorry you have to deal with it.
- adammarples 4y agoYou're Christine? I'm sure nobody would have turned your down for a technical screen!
- xena 4y agoYou'd be amazed. I get way more rejections than you'd be comfortable with because 2016 was a horrible year for me and I still have that year on my resume for logistical reasons.
- citruscomputing 4y agoMore junior person: have looked up to you since my first real job in 2019. Reading your posts on tarot debugging and plurality-driven development, and seeing you being so skilled and unapologetically /interesting/ was the first time I felt that "oh, there are actually people out there that I want to be like someday." Been reading ever since, thank you for all the posts!
- stuzenz 4y agoHi Xe, I am an avid reader of your blog. You have fantastic content and come across as someone with interesting opinions that I enjoy reading about. Thanks for all the knowledge sharing and education efforts you put into all sorts of areas I am interested in (Linux internals, NixOS, Rust, etc.)
- kaeruct 4y agoJust want to say, thanks for the great content. You're an inspiration. :)
- pfoof 4y agoOh, ponyvillefm, long time no see