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Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

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Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#1

Post by blogornot »

I have a personal site. I blogged in the past and I used to use my site as a "portfolio" of sorts showcasing my projects, writing, etc.

Several months ago I removed all blog posts and projects from my personal site. As it stands right now, my personal site is simply a "whois" for myself. Basically, a business card.

I'm torn.

On the one hand companies scrape up data from personal projects and blog posts for their LLMs. People dig up things you said in the past and cancel you according to whatever is trending that day.

Why bother writing anymore? Why publish projects? What are your thoughts?

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#2

Post by emiliojd2 »

Writing is a good way to express your ideas and formalize what you are thinking. When you are sharing it with people, you open yourself up to scrutiny and pressure from the world, pushing you to think harder about the way you express ideas.

If you're uncomfortable with some stuff being shared and potentially being cancelled or used by an LLM or something, I think it's okay to shield. Shield things that are important to you and that you can't possibly have seen. Create everything else in public.

If it's not shared, what's the point of thought?

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#3

Post by 32gbsd »

The way I see it you will get cancelled no matter what you do. Some people do not like that other people have opinions that go against the marketing. So I say blog because it's better that spending all your life watching tiktok videos or influencer content. Be a producer instead of a consumer even if you are not getting a million hits. As for the AI scrapping the odds are low unless you are making tonnes of text that can shift the needle it won't matter. If your writing is unique it won't have a cross reference so it will be ignored as if you are speaking a dead language.

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#4

Post by syndicatedjelly »

"Being cancelled" isn't a new phenomenon, it's just the activity of "cancelling" is seen as the ultimate expression of justice for all these keyboard SJWs.

I don't write for other people, I write so that I can look back in time and see how I used to think. I write mainly because my memory is fallible and changes how I remember things. 99% of the things I write are never published, and the 1% that is published goes on my personal site that's hidden from search engine crawlers.

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#5

Post by version_five »

Why do you care if what you write is used to train an LLM. Re the second part, if you can't say what you want, you've already lost. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try writing diplomatically if you're aiming for a wider audience, but there's no harm in having opinions, even if some online type eventually finds something to feign outrage over. Just ignore them.

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#6

Post by blogornot »

emiliojd2 wrote: post #2

Writing is a good way to express your ideas and formalize what you are thinking. When you are sharing it with people, you open yourself up to scrutiny and pressure from the world, pushing you to think harder about the way you express ideas. If you're uncomfortable with some stuff being shared and potentially being cancelled or used by an LLM or something, I think it's okay to shield. Shield things that are important…

I can see the value in putting a product or project out there and facing the scrutiny and pressure from the public.

However, I am not sure pulling the curtains back and exposing the process is as valuable. My personal site would expose code and raw thoughts regarding my process and philosophy. I'm fine with the end result being scrutinized, but why open up the process to scrutiny? Perhaps the philosophy could be scrutinized, but it's not as valuable as the end result.

Judge what I make, not the process. I'll have to give it more thought.

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#7

Post by nicbou »

Do it if you want to, or don't. It doesn't matter.

I have a blog since almost 20 years now. Some people reach our about it sometimes. People really seem to care about some of the things I published.

But my life would be no different if I didn't have a blog. I feel no pressure to update my portfolio and make it a perfect pitch for my person. I have nothing to sell. I just share what I want to, on my own terms.

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#9

Post by KomoD »

Blog if you want to, don't blog if you don't want to. It's as simple as that.

> People dig up things you said in the past and cancel you according to whatever is trending that day.

Don't say anything extreme and you'll be fine??

Re: Ask HN: To Blog or Not?

#10

Post by goddessoflists »

I've been reading a lot about blogging recently, to help with my perfectionism. My notes on some of the best posts I found are here: https://chavanniclass.com/2023/08/14/16-learning-in-public-a...

It's my attempt at reminding myself of all the times that someone else's blog posts have helped me solve a problem or think from a different perspective about something that was bothering me. They've given me direction, purpose, reassurance. They've saved my life.

Your writing could do that for someone. We might not think that a simple tutorial or a list of thoughts could be life-changing, but things are unpredictable. You have no idea who will find your stuff and what impact it will have on them. The cost of keeping what you know to yourself is greater than the cost of being ridiculed. People will always find ways to put down others, so it's better to make something meanwhile, rather than censor yourself in the fear that it might happen.

Don't stop yourself from writing and sharing your stuff. It's one of the cruellest things I did to myself. I wouldn't want anyone else to think that they or their thoughts don't matter.

You've blogged in the past. Please do so again, for your own self (I'm assuming you wouldn't be "torn" if you didn't care about it) if not for others.

All the best, and I hope you do share a link here when you start writing again.

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