8 ms·

Why Every Professional Should Consider Blogging

166 points by acangiano 15y ago

HPBEggo 15y ago
I find this article to be spot on, especially for professionals in very technical careers. Specifically, the bit about improving your writing skills is very pertinent. Most technical professionals would benefit quite a bit by learning how to communicate with those outside of their profession, i.e. a large portion of the people who might read your blog. I, for one, keep writing a blog with essentially no readers for more or less this reason.
- ilaksh 15y ago
  I've had blogs before, and having no readers is a little bit depressing for me. It REALLY doesn't seem worthwhile when no one is reading it. The few times I managed to get a link to stick on reddit's r/programming, the blog posts were mostly ignored, then buried and on one I was flamed because people didn't understand it.
  - HPBEggo 15y ago
    Having no readers is a bit of an over-statement. I have some friends who read it occasionally and ask about specific topics, and a few random people who probably glance at it once or twice a week. Point is, blog's are useful even if only a few people are reading it, because it's just important as a tool for you as for other people.
    - kd0amg 15y ago
      Might I recommend adding the link to your HN profile's "about" section? It may be of interest to some folks here (at least, I don't think I've been able to go very long without seeing people here talk about economics).
kalid 15y ago
Great article, and very true in my experience. One of my favorite, unexpected benefits of blogging is it's like a time-machine/memory dump for your brain. Here's what I mean. When you're thinking about a problem, you struggle, and struggle, then find some insight. When you go to sleep that insight might be gone. So you write it down, ideally in the shortest, most vivid language that can recreate the idea in your head: I serialize my mental RAM into words, and at a later date, reload that information into my head. If I wrote well, the deserialization is fast (few minutes) and my head is back into the mental state when I "got it". Then I can continue working, add some new insights, then serialize that new state back into words (a follow-up post, or adding to the original). Over time, you develop some deep insights which are the result of several "me"s collaborating on the problem. I know that college-me understood class XYZ really well, and because he wrote down some insights, 10-years-after-college me can reload that memory very quickly, and maybe add something new. It's like having a perfect tutor (you, when you got it) jump into your head and bring you up to speed. I don't remember vector calculus very well, but I can deserialize my notes and in a few minutes be 80-90% up to speed. This was a hugely unexpected benefit to blogging which I hadn't even considered. And incidentally, if you write in a way that deserializes well for you, it will likely be useful for many other people too. tl;dr: create a standard library of thought snippets so you can #include "vectorcalculus.h"
- jseliger 15y ago
  One of my favorite, unexpected benefits of blogging is it's like a time-machine/memory dump for your brain. I've had this experience too, albeit not in a coding sense. I will say, however, that I use Devonthink Pro according to Steven Berlin Johnson's scheme: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/000230.html http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/0002... to archive my own posts, as well as other quotes, writing, and so forth, and DTP's "see also" algorithms often find material I wrote years ago but that's relevant to what I'm doing now. It helps me get to this: "Over time, you develop some deep insights which are the result of several "me"s collaborating on the problem."
  - kalid 15y ago
    Really interesting. I use Notational Velocity to keep track of text snippets, but it doesn't have the "see also" feature. I imagine it could be very useful.
forrestthewoods 15y ago
A good post but it misses the single biggest reason I blog - to share knowledge. I want to share what I've learned and for others to do the same so that we all can become improved.
- acangiano 15y ago
  Thanks. I think you may have overlooked this part, "The number one reason to blog for many people, is the desire to share their knowledge and teach others."
  - forrestthewoods 15y ago
    Ah so I did. That's under the bullet point "Blogging can help you reach and teach a wide audience" and I missed it. Now I have to be honest, by the end I was reading the bold headlines and skimming the text. Oops. :)
petercooper 15y ago
If I hadn't blogged personally 10 years ago, I'd not have been approached to write a book for Apress. Without that book I wouldn't have launched the professional blog that was my main source of income for several years (more than the book was!). Without that professional blog, I wouldn't have got the podcasting gigs or launched the weekly newsletter which has now turned into 5 profitable newsletters and has just helped me become co-chair of an O'Reilly conference. This is not to brag but to show the "chains" that can happen by putting yourself out there. It's totally unpredictable but increasing your "luck surface area" has amazing outcomes. Also, consider Jeff Atwood, a similar chain arises.
- acangiano 15y ago
  Absolutely. Funny that you mention "luck surface area". At some point in the book I actually say as much: > There is no magic wand that can make this happen, instead it’s all about increasing your luck surface area.
  - petercooper 15y ago
    Yeah, I was really just trying to confirm your message ;-) I probably subconsciously stole that term from when I read your book actually(!)
- ludwigvan 15y ago
  Thank you for the newsletters Peter, your success is well deserved! Just this morning, reading the latest JS weekly, I thought what a great service you are doing for the community.
  - petercooper 15y ago
    Thanks, much appreciated. I hope to keep it up as long as possible!
- ecspike 15y ago
  I have had a similar more modest luck vector. The blogging got me selected for Google Summer of Code and opened doors for conferences, which lead to a book for Pearson. Rather cyclic not that I think about it.
timsally 15y ago
HNers including Patrick (http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Apatio11+(blog+OR+blogging)+AND+resume&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Apatio1...) and Matt Might (http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Amattmight+(blog+OR+blogging)+AND+money&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Amattmi...) have been talking about this for years now. There's a lot of benefit to be had by carefully grepping through the comment archives of HN.
estacado 15y ago
I tried blogging once, but what put me off was the amount work and time it took to make it look good. You've got to format it so that it's readable to persons other than yourself. You need to provide links to relevant/related sites (which sometimes you have search for it because you didn't bookmark it, which you didn't think you needed to because you didn't know you were going to use it in your blog). Embedding stuff is such a pain in my experience. If it's a video, you got to get the size right, the default is always either too big or too small. And I have yet to find a hassle-free way to embed code, especially from the free blogging sites. With images, you need to resize them so that there's a small one inside the post itself, which links to the bigger one when clicked. All that time spent on making it look good is better used to actually do my work, in my opinion.
- eric-hu 15y ago
  Good aesthetics has been on my mind too. I started one on a Wordpress site and after a few posts, my interest fizzled because I wanted to make better looking posts. When I spend all day trying to make some pages look good at work, I don't really want to do the same thing at home. I've been trying to think of ways around this, and one might just be to embrace minimalism more. Keep it simple so as to keep creating content. That is what's of value, right? Going further down the timeline, I want to try to improve that minimalist site, but this desire can't eclipse the desire to keep recording the meaningful thoughts I've had.
  - estacado 15y ago
    If it's only thought-recording, then it's fine. But the reason I wanted to blog in the first place was to make a kind of online notebook where code snippets, useful videos/audio, progress history etc. are online and easily searchable. Kind of an personal online reference, but accessible by the public. It's just too much work. It's a good idea for a startup though - User friendly online notebook.
- bigiain 15y ago
  Those are probably skills you want to get better at anyway, right? Even if "your code speaks for itself", I. Your career you're going to need to write (or at least contribute to) documentation, specs, requirements, proposals, pitches, business plans, here's a _lot_ of writing tasks that are really just "part of the job", hell - you're going to have to write a few versions of your cv and matching cover letters. Maybe "actually doing work" by blogging is more of a skillset increasing (and caree advancing) exercise than it seems at first... Big (busily not following my own advice...)
Swizec 15y ago
Personally, I blog because writing helps me think. But as it turns out it's also a marvelous lead generation tool, and just generally a brilliant way to put my name out there and make sure people remember me when they're thinking "Hmm, where could I find a crazy coder right now?" Not to mention the rush of adrenaline when a post sticks and starts raking in traffic. Very addicting.
SonicSoul 15y ago
i've been thinking about starting a blog for sometime. There seems to be a lot of ways to achieve this.. I'm a developer but not sure if i want to host/administer my own instance of word press.. aside from working 50-60 hours, i spend 10 hours a week on personal projects, so not a lot of spare time.. what's a good streamlined way to start a blog quickly, but still have good flexibility in it's appearance?
- acangiano 15y ago
  You won't have the some degree of flexibility provided by WordPress, but good old Blogger is a solid choice if you don't want to deal with the hassle of hosting your own thing.
- Reltair 15y ago
  I highly recommend going with hosting your own WordPress. The setup is painless and allows you to quickly get your blog up and running. There are tons of themes to choose from that you can use as a foundation to get the appearance you desire. The plugin system also works great and allows you to easily add various features to your blog. I have used WordPress for a non-technical blog for over 3 years now without any issues. I've also been thinking about starting a technical blog and have been looking into using Drupal for it.
  - DCoder 15y ago
    If you're hosting your own WordPress (or any other solution, actually), you really should be keeping an eye for any updates. WP is a popular hacker target, even waiting a day after an announcement can be enough to get hacked. Thanks to Muprhy's law, such an announcement will definitely come when you're on vacation somewhere. That's, of course, assuming that such an announcement is made in the first place. Last year the timthumb bug was being exploited and not all theme download sites bothered to alert the users that the themes were vulnerable.
    - Reltair 15y ago
      Definitely. If you log in to your WP blog at least once a day, it informs you about any updates and lets you apply the update with the click of a button. Ah, I remember reading about the timthumb bug at work and checking right away when I got home if my site was vulnerable to it (which it wasn't).
sliverstorm 15y ago
So how does this fit in with a job at a corporation that would not appreciate public broadcasts of the details of what (or heck, even what) you are working on?
- acangiano 15y ago
  Check out HR to see if there is a business conduct guideline or blogging/social media policy. As an IBMer I can't disclose too much information on my blogs, either. But it does still leave me with plenty of disclosable information to blog about.
stfu 15y ago
As serial failed blogger (3-4 "dead" blogs) let me ask you "pro" bloggers this: - how do you stay motivated over time and don't get sidetracked - how do you keep a focus on the blog i.e. that it doesn't turn into some random rantings about daily politics etc. - how to you keep pushing for that blogging thing over other similar "productive" tasks (i.e. reading/writing articles, conference papers etc)
- joelrunyon 15y ago
  Hopefully this can help: -Set a schedule. 2x a week. Pick a couple days. stick to it. it's like working out. set aside time for it and make it happen. -Make a focus/theme for it. Don't make it "stfu's daily ramblings" - pick a theme, then try to write about it. You can still have a broad range of topics, but if you tie it back to a theme, you stay consistent. -Blogging helps me articulate what i'm thinking. I've tried journaling, but it doesn't work as well for me. Blogging has been one of the most productive things I've done in my own life and has helped me to go out and create different things that I wouldn't have if I weren't blogging.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- acangiano 15y ago
  In the book I discuss at length about how to keep your blog up, but Joel's advice is pretty spot on. It really comes down to treating blogging like a business and scheduling time to write: * 2-4 hours a week need to be booked for this marketing activity. * Use the pomodoro technique during those hours to help keep you focused and more productive. * Give your blog a clear focus and "reason for being", whether it's a niche blog (e.g., CoffeScript Inside) or a more general one (e.g., stfu's adventures in web development). Answer the question "why should readers care?". * Keep a list of headlines you intend to write about in the future in an ideas.txt file or Google Docs. * Get your blog popular (and perhaps profitable). Part of the reason why I focus so much on getting bloggers to attract traffic (and then benefit from it) in my book, is because when you start seeing traffic spikes and perhaps even getting some extra benefits (money, freebies, etc), you'll get addicted to that feeling and you'll be more inclined to keep up with blogging.
Detrus 15y ago
I'm not so sure. Maybe every professional should hone their writing skills, but blogging is not the ideal exercise. Typical pop blogs spew out thoughts with regularity, even when the writers haven't thought about the subject carefully, they write just to write, to make the blog look up to date. That's ok as a writing exercise but it's not in the interest of readers who's attention they'll inevitably try to attract. You can blog out many quality posts if you have some big yet narrow theme to write about. But most people don't. If you want to keep a diary of thoughts, it will work much better as badly edited short braindumps, not writing exercises. If enough professionals blogged, it wouldn't be a good way to improve your career and make professional connections, since there would be a multitude of terrible blogs and it would drag down the current reputation of blogging, which isn't so hot already. That's why every professional should treat the separate aspects of blogging like writing exercises, attention whoring or leaving braindumps, as separate aspects.
nhangen 15y ago
When I blogged, I was popular but felt like a scammer. When I stopped blogging, I wasn't popular but made some pretty nifty stuff. I'm not saying it's like that for everyone, but I'd rather be building stuff than become yet another talking head on a soapbox.
- techiferous 15y ago
  "I was popular but felt like a scammer" I think I know what you mean. I titled my latest blog post "Stop Using Single Point Estimates" but almost immediately regretted it. The tone was too rigid and link-baity. What I really wanted to say was, "Hey, point estimates are fine, but do you realize that you may be missing an opportunity by not using range estimates?" Really I just wanted to show people a different way of thinking about something. But it can be easy to pander to the up-votes. But mostly I stay true to myself and use my blog to educate, which is truly rewarding. My favorite post is "Roadmap for Learning Rails" because it genuinely helps people and that's a wonderful feeling. So I think if you are blogging and start feeling like a "scammer", step back and re-examine your goals. Instead of viewing it as primarily for self-promotion or making money, view it as contributing to the community and participating in the joy of education and sharing. Also, I'm realizing that the blog posts I feel the best about aren't opinionated as much as informative and helpful.
  - nhangen 15y ago
    I think the clear delineator for me in this space is: "Am I writing to get on the front page of HN, or am I writing this because I think it needs to be said?" I haven't had a piece on the front page here, but I could see how someone could get addicted to that. I've often thought about writing one of those opinionated pieces as my entry back into blogging, but decided it wasn't worth writing. So I agree with you 100%.
    - mattmanser 15y ago
      Joel Spolsky (I think) wrote a good article about why he adopts a stance in his blogging even though he knows it's always got exceptions to it. Can't find it for the life of me though. There is something to be said about presenting a clear message. It's easier to follow the flow and a critical reader should be able to take the point an author is making without blindly accepting the conclusion.
lunarscape 15y ago
Most of these benefits can be achieved from being a contributor to popular forums or support sites (StackOverflow etc). I think blogs suffer way too much fragmentation, are too difficult to find and require a lot of effort just to keep people coming back. However if your contributions are in a popular, well visited place they'll get more exposure and things like karma make it easier for users to access how valuable your contributions are.
- stdbrouw 15y ago
  Between RSS and Twitter, people generally find their way to interesting material. You just can't expect every single thing you write to garner attention. If you're writing for your own edification as much as for others, that's not a big deal anyway.
  - lunarscape 15y ago
    >If you're writing for your own edification as much as for others Agreed. I know a few people who do this but the article focused on professionals. There's little point spending time writing stuff which doesn't get attention if your sole motivation is professional advancement.

166 points by acangiano 15y ago

I find this article to be spot on, especially for professionals in very technical careers. Specifically, the bit about improving your writing skills is very pertinent. Most technical professionals would benefit quite a bit by learning how to communicate with those outside of their profession, i.e. a large portion of the people who might read your blog. I, for one, keep writing a blog with essentially no readers for more or less this reason.

ilaksh 15y ago
I've had blogs before, and having no readers is a little bit depressing for me. It REALLY doesn't seem worthwhile when no one is reading it. The few times I managed to get a link to stick on reddit's r/programming, the blog posts were mostly ignored, then buried and on one I was flamed because people didn't understand it.
- HPBEggo 15y ago
  Having no readers is a bit of an over-statement. I have some friends who read it occasionally and ask about specific topics, and a few random people who probably glance at it once or twice a week. Point is, blog's are useful even if only a few people are reading it, because it's just important as a tool for you as for other people.
  - kd0amg 15y ago
    Might I recommend adding the link to your HN profile's "about" section? It may be of interest to some folks here (at least, I don't think I've been able to go very long without seeing people here talk about economics).

kalid 15y ago

Great article, and very true in my experience. One of my favorite, unexpected benefits of blogging is it's like a time-machine/memory dump for your brain. Here's what I mean. When you're thinking about a problem, you struggle, and struggle, then find some insight. When you go to sleep that insight might be gone. So you write it down, ideally in the shortest, most vivid language that can recreate the idea in your head: I serialize my mental RAM into words, and at a later date, reload that information into my head. If I wrote well, the deserialization is fast (few minutes) and my head is back into the mental state when I "got it". Then I can continue working, add some new insights, then serialize that new state back into words (a follow-up post, or adding to the original). Over time, you develop some deep insights which are the result of several "me"s collaborating on the problem. I know that college-me understood class XYZ really well, and because he wrote down some insights, 10-years-after-college me can reload that memory very quickly, and maybe add something new. It's like having a perfect tutor (you, when you got it) jump into your head and bring you up to speed. I don't remember vector calculus very well, but I can deserialize my notes and in a few minutes be 80-90% up to speed. This was a hugely unexpected benefit to blogging which I hadn't even considered. And incidentally, if you write in a way that deserializes well for you, it will likely be useful for many other people too. tl;dr: create a standard library of thought snippets so you can #include "vectorcalculus.h"

jseliger 15y ago
One of my favorite, unexpected benefits of blogging is it's like a time-machine/memory dump for your brain. I've had this experience too, albeit not in a coding sense. I will say, however, that I use Devonthink Pro according to Steven Berlin Johnson's scheme: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/000230.html http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/movabletype/archives/0002... to archive my own posts, as well as other quotes, writing, and so forth, and DTP's "see also" algorithms often find material I wrote years ago but that's relevant to what I'm doing now. It helps me get to this: "Over time, you develop some deep insights which are the result of several "me"s collaborating on the problem."
- kalid 15y ago
  Really interesting. I use Notational Velocity to keep track of text snippets, but it doesn't have the "see also" feature. I imagine it could be very useful.

forrestthewoods 15y ago

A good post but it misses the single biggest reason I blog - to share knowledge. I want to share what I've learned and for others to do the same so that we all can become improved.

acangiano 15y ago
Thanks. I think you may have overlooked this part, "The number one reason to blog for many people, is the desire to share their knowledge and teach others."
- forrestthewoods 15y ago
  Ah so I did. That's under the bullet point "Blogging can help you reach and teach a wide audience" and I missed it. Now I have to be honest, by the end I was reading the bold headlines and skimming the text. Oops. :)

petercooper 15y ago

If I hadn't blogged personally 10 years ago, I'd not have been approached to write a book for Apress. Without that book I wouldn't have launched the professional blog that was my main source of income for several years (more than the book was!). Without that professional blog, I wouldn't have got the podcasting gigs or launched the weekly newsletter which has now turned into 5 profitable newsletters and has just helped me become co-chair of an O'Reilly conference. This is not to brag but to show the "chains" that can happen by putting yourself out there. It's totally unpredictable but increasing your "luck surface area" has amazing outcomes. Also, consider Jeff Atwood, a similar chain arises.

acangiano 15y ago
Absolutely. Funny that you mention "luck surface area". At some point in the book I actually say as much: > There is no magic wand that can make this happen, instead it’s all about increasing your luck surface area.
- petercooper 15y ago
  Yeah, I was really just trying to confirm your message ;-) I probably subconsciously stole that term from when I read your book actually(!)
ludwigvan 15y ago
Thank you for the newsletters Peter, your success is well deserved! Just this morning, reading the latest JS weekly, I thought what a great service you are doing for the community.
- petercooper 15y ago
  Thanks, much appreciated. I hope to keep it up as long as possible!
ecspike 15y ago
I have had a similar more modest luck vector. The blogging got me selected for Google Summer of Code and opened doors for conferences, which lead to a book for Pearson. Rather cyclic not that I think about it.

timsally 15y ago

HNers including Patrick (http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Apatio11+(blog+OR+blogging)+AND+resume&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Apatio1...) and Matt Might (http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Amattmight+(blog+OR+blogging)+AND+money&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=by%3Amattmi...) have been talking about this for years now. There's a lot of benefit to be had by carefully grepping through the comment archives of HN.

estacado 15y ago

I tried blogging once, but what put me off was the amount work and time it took to make it look good. You've got to format it so that it's readable to persons other than yourself. You need to provide links to relevant/related sites (which sometimes you have search for it because you didn't bookmark it, which you didn't think you needed to because you didn't know you were going to use it in your blog). Embedding stuff is such a pain in my experience. If it's a video, you got to get the size right, the default is always either too big or too small. And I have yet to find a hassle-free way to embed code, especially from the free blogging sites. With images, you need to resize them so that there's a small one inside the post itself, which links to the bigger one when clicked. All that time spent on making it look good is better used to actually do my work, in my opinion.

eric-hu 15y ago
Good aesthetics has been on my mind too. I started one on a Wordpress site and after a few posts, my interest fizzled because I wanted to make better looking posts. When I spend all day trying to make some pages look good at work, I don't really want to do the same thing at home. I've been trying to think of ways around this, and one might just be to embrace minimalism more. Keep it simple so as to keep creating content. That is what's of value, right? Going further down the timeline, I want to try to improve that minimalist site, but this desire can't eclipse the desire to keep recording the meaningful thoughts I've had.
- estacado 15y ago
  If it's only thought-recording, then it's fine. But the reason I wanted to blog in the first place was to make a kind of online notebook where code snippets, useful videos/audio, progress history etc. are online and easily searchable. Kind of an personal online reference, but accessible by the public. It's just too much work. It's a good idea for a startup though - User friendly online notebook.
bigiain 15y ago
Those are probably skills you want to get better at anyway, right? Even if "your code speaks for itself", I. Your career you're going to need to write (or at least contribute to) documentation, specs, requirements, proposals, pitches, business plans, here's a _lot_ of writing tasks that are really just "part of the job", hell - you're going to have to write a few versions of your cv and matching cover letters. Maybe "actually doing work" by blogging is more of a skillset increasing (and caree advancing) exercise than it seems at first... Big (busily not following my own advice...)

Swizec 15y ago

Personally, I blog because writing helps me think. But as it turns out it's also a marvelous lead generation tool, and just generally a brilliant way to put my name out there and make sure people remember me when they're thinking "Hmm, where could I find a crazy coder right now?" Not to mention the rush of adrenaline when a post sticks and starts raking in traffic. Very addicting.

SonicSoul 15y ago

i've been thinking about starting a blog for sometime. There seems to be a lot of ways to achieve this.. I'm a developer but not sure if i want to host/administer my own instance of word press.. aside from working 50-60 hours, i spend 10 hours a week on personal projects, so not a lot of spare time.. what's a good streamlined way to start a blog quickly, but still have good flexibility in it's appearance?

acangiano 15y ago
You won't have the some degree of flexibility provided by WordPress, but good old Blogger is a solid choice if you don't want to deal with the hassle of hosting your own thing.
Reltair 15y ago
I highly recommend going with hosting your own WordPress. The setup is painless and allows you to quickly get your blog up and running. There are tons of themes to choose from that you can use as a foundation to get the appearance you desire. The plugin system also works great and allows you to easily add various features to your blog. I have used WordPress for a non-technical blog for over 3 years now without any issues. I've also been thinking about starting a technical blog and have been looking into using Drupal for it.
- DCoder 15y ago
  If you're hosting your own WordPress (or any other solution, actually), you really should be keeping an eye for any updates. WP is a popular hacker target, even waiting a day after an announcement can be enough to get hacked. Thanks to Muprhy's law, such an announcement will definitely come when you're on vacation somewhere. That's, of course, assuming that such an announcement is made in the first place. Last year the timthumb bug was being exploited and not all theme download sites bothered to alert the users that the themes were vulnerable.
  - Reltair 15y ago
    Definitely. If you log in to your WP blog at least once a day, it informs you about any updates and lets you apply the update with the click of a button. Ah, I remember reading about the timthumb bug at work and checking right away when I got home if my site was vulnerable to it (which it wasn't).

sliverstorm 15y ago

So how does this fit in with a job at a corporation that would not appreciate public broadcasts of the details of what (or heck, even what) you are working on?

acangiano 15y ago
Check out HR to see if there is a business conduct guideline or blogging/social media policy. As an IBMer I can't disclose too much information on my blogs, either. But it does still leave me with plenty of disclosable information to blog about.

stfu 15y ago

As serial failed blogger (3-4 "dead" blogs) let me ask you "pro" bloggers this: - how do you stay motivated over time and don't get sidetracked - how do you keep a focus on the blog i.e. that it doesn't turn into some random rantings about daily politics etc. - how to you keep pushing for that blogging thing over other similar "productive" tasks (i.e. reading/writing articles, conference papers etc)

joelrunyon 15y ago
Hopefully this can help: -Set a schedule. 2x a week. Pick a couple days. stick to it. it's like working out. set aside time for it and make it happen. -Make a focus/theme for it. Don't make it "stfu's daily ramblings" - pick a theme, then try to write about it. You can still have a broad range of topics, but if you tie it back to a theme, you stay consistent. -Blogging helps me articulate what i'm thinking. I've tried journaling, but it doesn't work as well for me. Blogging has been one of the most productive things I've done in my own life and has helped me to go out and create different things that I wouldn't have if I weren't blogging.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
acangiano 15y ago
In the book I discuss at length about how to keep your blog up, but Joel's advice is pretty spot on. It really comes down to treating blogging like a business and scheduling time to write: * 2-4 hours a week need to be booked for this marketing activity. * Use the pomodoro technique during those hours to help keep you focused and more productive. * Give your blog a clear focus and "reason for being", whether it's a niche blog (e.g., CoffeScript Inside) or a more general one (e.g., stfu's adventures in web development). Answer the question "why should readers care?". * Keep a list of headlines you intend to write about in the future in an ideas.txt file or Google Docs. * Get your blog popular (and perhaps profitable). Part of the reason why I focus so much on getting bloggers to attract traffic (and then benefit from it) in my book, is because when you start seeing traffic spikes and perhaps even getting some extra benefits (money, freebies, etc), you'll get addicted to that feeling and you'll be more inclined to keep up with blogging.

Detrus 15y ago

I'm not so sure. Maybe every professional should hone their writing skills, but blogging is not the ideal exercise. Typical pop blogs spew out thoughts with regularity, even when the writers haven't thought about the subject carefully, they write just to write, to make the blog look up to date. That's ok as a writing exercise but it's not in the interest of readers who's attention they'll inevitably try to attract. You can blog out many quality posts if you have some big yet narrow theme to write about. But most people don't. If you want to keep a diary of thoughts, it will work much better as badly edited short braindumps, not writing exercises. If enough professionals blogged, it wouldn't be a good way to improve your career and make professional connections, since there would be a multitude of terrible blogs and it would drag down the current reputation of blogging, which isn't so hot already. That's why every professional should treat the separate aspects of blogging like writing exercises, attention whoring or leaving braindumps, as separate aspects.

nhangen 15y ago

When I blogged, I was popular but felt like a scammer. When I stopped blogging, I wasn't popular but made some pretty nifty stuff. I'm not saying it's like that for everyone, but I'd rather be building stuff than become yet another talking head on a soapbox.

techiferous 15y ago
"I was popular but felt like a scammer" I think I know what you mean. I titled my latest blog post "Stop Using Single Point Estimates" but almost immediately regretted it. The tone was too rigid and link-baity. What I really wanted to say was, "Hey, point estimates are fine, but do you realize that you may be missing an opportunity by not using range estimates?" Really I just wanted to show people a different way of thinking about something. But it can be easy to pander to the up-votes. But mostly I stay true to myself and use my blog to educate, which is truly rewarding. My favorite post is "Roadmap for Learning Rails" because it genuinely helps people and that's a wonderful feeling. So I think if you are blogging and start feeling like a "scammer", step back and re-examine your goals. Instead of viewing it as primarily for self-promotion or making money, view it as contributing to the community and participating in the joy of education and sharing. Also, I'm realizing that the blog posts I feel the best about aren't opinionated as much as informative and helpful.
- nhangen 15y ago
  I think the clear delineator for me in this space is: "Am I writing to get on the front page of HN, or am I writing this because I think it needs to be said?" I haven't had a piece on the front page here, but I could see how someone could get addicted to that. I've often thought about writing one of those opinionated pieces as my entry back into blogging, but decided it wasn't worth writing. So I agree with you 100%.
  - mattmanser 15y ago
    Joel Spolsky (I think) wrote a good article about why he adopts a stance in his blogging even though he knows it's always got exceptions to it. Can't find it for the life of me though. There is something to be said about presenting a clear message. It's easier to follow the flow and a critical reader should be able to take the point an author is making without blindly accepting the conclusion.

lunarscape 15y ago

Most of these benefits can be achieved from being a contributor to popular forums or support sites (StackOverflow etc). I think blogs suffer way too much fragmentation, are too difficult to find and require a lot of effort just to keep people coming back. However if your contributions are in a popular, well visited place they'll get more exposure and things like karma make it easier for users to access how valuable your contributions are.

stdbrouw 15y ago
Between RSS and Twitter, people generally find their way to interesting material. You just can't expect every single thing you write to garner attention. If you're writing for your own edification as much as for others, that's not a big deal anyway.
- lunarscape 15y ago
  >If you're writing for your own edification as much as for others Agreed. I know a few people who do this but the article focused on professionals. There's little point spending time writing stuff which doesn't get attention if your sole motivation is professional advancement.