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Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

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Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#21

Post by jgrahamc »

_3ex7 wrote: post #19
jgrahamc wrote: post #16

1. Arrogance. All writers have some form of arrogance because they think that what they say is worth reading. 2. To promote my book. I hope readers of my blog will be tempted to buy The Geek Atlas. 3. To quote Alain de Botton: "Authors write things down so as to have to think of them less." 4. It helps me practice writing.

To quote you quoting Alain de Botton: >3. To quote Alain de Botton: "Authors write things down so as to have to think of them less." This is what I do when I have a lot on my mind. It is a nice exercise to flush everything out and get closure. Also, can I get a review copy of your book? Ill write a review on O'Reilly .. No? ok didnt think so ...

Try asking O'Reilly directly.

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#22

Post by _3ex7 »

jgrahamc wrote: post #21
_3ex7 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To quote you quoting Alain de Botton: >3. To quote Alain de Botton: "Authors write things down so as to have to think of them less." This is what I do when I have a lot on my mind. It is a nice exercise to flush everything out and get closure. Also, can I get a review copy of your book? Ill write a review on O'Reilly .. No? ok didnt think so ...

Try asking O'Reilly directly.

Is that how that works? Thanks for the tip!

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#23

Post by dan_sim »

No

1) Noise. I have opinions about things but they are just adding more noise. The only place I write is here... and I know I shouldn't...

2) Blogging is writing about doing instead of doing (I think Jeff Atwood said that).

3) Bloggers will do anything for self-promotion and it makes me sick.

4) What a blogger writes just doesn't matter.

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#24

Post by allenbrunson »

When I'm picking up some new technical subject, the best way to learn about it is to google it. Most of the time, what I end up at is some blog post that tells me more or less exactly what I want to know. So it seemed only fair that I should try to give a little something back.

Some of my blog articles have been pretty popular. A couple of times they have been used as answers at StackOverflow. I always get a little buzz when I am the top google hit for some technical term.

Google rewarded me for frequent blogging by increasing my PageRank to 3. Now I don't blog as much as I used to, and they demoted me to 2. sadface

shameless plug: http://www.platinumball.net/blog/

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#26

Post by zackattack »

_3ex7 wrote: post #22
jgrahamc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try asking O'Reilly directly.

Is that how that works? Thanks for the tip!

In high school ('01-05) I had a site called "rants". It was a blog read by maybe 10 people total, including my parents. I happened to email O'Reilly to ask about something and they noticed the blog in my sig. They invited me to start posting reviews in exchange for free copies. I only got through two books but it was fun! Anyway, I found my old review of Learning Perl on the wayback machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030421033045/http://rant.c99.or...

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#28

Post by DanielBMarkham »

Yes.

I blog for three reasons:

1) To make some written record of my opinions and thoughts for my progeny to read years after I die

2) To organize my thoughts. I find that by writing about things that somewhat confuse me, I am able to clarify what I believe and why

3) To preserve my skill at long-format(!) writing. Blog writing is different than tweeting, or emailing. "Long format" seems a stretch, but in today's technology arena a blog is like a novel used to be. Being able to cogently organize a theme, a tone, a thesis, and supporting details makes me a better communicator overall.

There are some bonus reasons: it also helps me remember easily forgotten details of issues. It is a good way to have some lightweight web design work to tweak every now and then.

Blogging is a good habit that is good for you. I hate to see that Facebook and Twitter take a lot of my time away from it.

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#29

Post by c_allison »

Actually, I've been blog free until just recently. I'm a terribly sentimental type of guy, but I had never realized the potential of a blog to be almost like the "new" photo album.

Since I started with that idea, I've also realized that online identity is becoming very, very important. So much so that people land jobs because of it. It's a great way to break the ice, on the readers terms.

So while I feel like I'm late to the game, I have now immersed myself into social networks. I started blogging, flickring, facebooking, tweeting, githubbing(?), and now, buzzing.

Re: Do you have a blog? And if so, why?

#30

Post by jasonkester »

I had two things to say(1,2), back in 2007 or so, so I started a blog. Now I've said them, as well as a few other things, but I don't really blog all that much these days.

Who knows, maybe I'll get inspired again one of these days...

(1) http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/02/two-weeks-vaca...

(2) http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2008/05/laid-off-one-t...

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