Ask HN: How do you combine writing and the skills you have

#1

Post by visopsys » Wed, May 06, 2020, 9:46 PM UTC

I recently find writing is one of the most underrated skills for me. Part of the problems is the way writing was taught in my schools. It was uninspiring and had nothing related with what I wanted to do.

After seeing people around me successful at writing, I can see its benefit now. I have my writing started but keen to hear your experience here.

How do you combine writing and the skills you already have (programming, project management, etc) to build a successful career? Does writing matter to your career at all?

Re: Ask HN: How do you combine writing and the skills you have

#2

Post by austincheney » Thu, May 07, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC

Here is a recent comment I wrote on the subject that received 105 up votes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23018347

My suggestion is to be purpose driven and use writing as your primary tool to enable your goals. Also know that programming is a form of writing. As your writing skills get stronger so will your programming and vise versa.

One way to get started at writing practice is to take a current tough programming problem and think through it as much as possible before ever putting fingers to keyboard. Build that vision in your mind. Consider the edge cases, risks, and traps. When you are confident in the vision write down the flow control in regular written language in a way that makes the most sense to you.

Other people likely won’t understand your notes if they are just for you. That’s ok. Knowing and speaking to your audience takes practice. The most important thing right now is that you are practicing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you combine writing and the skills you have

#3

Post by boberoni » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:56 PM UTC

Writing definitely matters to my career. There's some quote somewhere about how writing clearly is akin to thinking clearly. Personally, I extend this idea into _communicating clearly_. Career growth will be based on how effectively you can get people around you to want to work on the same thing as you, or support the same goals as you.

When you talk about "seeing people around me successful at writing", what forms of writing are you referring to? Blogs and books? or, technical specifications?

If you already have skills in, say, programming or product management, then there's various ways to apply writing, and it all depends on your circumstances.

My principles for writing boil down to "who is the audience", "who is the writer", and "what is the purpose".

- For example, if I'm writing a spec, then the _purpose_ will be to precisely communicate the design of a project/feature.

- The _audience_ is the implementors. How you write for the audience is related to UX (of the reader). It took me a long time to learn how to find the right level of abstraction for specs, so I don't confuse the implementor with details but still give enough guidance as to what the requirements are.

- The _writer_ is obviously yourself, but who is writer _in the reader's eyes_. Thinking in this way, I would establish myself as someone who has understood the problem and carefully designed the solution (in contrast, I don't want to give off that I have no idea what the problem space is). How you portray the writer is related to credibility and trust. For tech specs, this would likely involve references or links to your previous documents.

If you are writing for a blog, the audience, writer, and purpose will change. Let me know if you want me to explain further.