Engineers Should Blog

I'm surprised he didn't encounter the 4th reason for not blogging:

4. The topics I want to blog about are controversial.

That is, strong but controversial opinions on certain technologies are just as likely to help you get noticed as hurt you (i.e. get noticed in a negative way.) Even if the topic isn't technically controversial, it can still be a negative. Revealing that you helped {religious minority church} set up their network, or that you solved a problem with {porn website} can also put a mark on you that is not automatically good. Heaven forbid you worked for/supported {political organization} this election cycle.

So the answer is, of course, to self-censor. You have to strip out your opinion and context and only blog about technical details that you are very confident are correct. Keep your jokes gender neutral and your insights limited to your profession.

But that's boring. That's not blogging, it's writing a corporate memo. We've just ratcheted up the difficulty, limited the new thoughts you're allowed to think, and made you invisible to all hiring managers who can't recognize when your technical manuscript applies to their industry.

I used to have an issue with writing classes in college. Since the writers-to-be in the class aren't experts in any particular field, they are forced to pick sides in ridiculous polemic topics just to fill a page. This transfers over to the real world in the form of frivolous articles written to provide a constant stream of content to a readership.

People like engineers and other folks with technical jobs have some of the best writing material to work with - all they really need to do is recount their day's work and the problems they've encountered, and any non-expert interested in the field can read and learn from it.

There is a plumber who lives in my state who publishes video documentation of every job he goes on. Since I'm not a plumber, I learned a ton from these videos. All of the things he did would seem basic to anyone in his field, but for a lay person like myself, his videos were extremely educational.

By far the most frustrating part of blogging for me (though certainly not the only one) is the assumption that no one will ever see it. I can probably solve this by options I dislike -- giving up ownership to Medium or obnoxiously cross-posting to all social media platforms -- but the end result is I am discouraged before I even start.

Oddly I love speaking at conferences...maybe because some nonzero audience is more or less guaranteed?

I don't know if this is strictly true. I don't deny that blogging about controversial subjects will turn off possible employers or close doors. That is definitely something to be aware of.

But you could look at the flip side of that and say that this is actually filtering out opportunities wouldn't be a fit. Much like qualifying leads in sales is something you want to do as quickly and easily as possible, doing the same for employment opportunities can help you focus on organizations where there is a culture fit.

With respect to your example, if an employer was offended by your support for a minority group or political candidate, is that an employer you'd feel comfortable bringing your whole self to work at?

I may be hopelessly Pollyanna, but I think I'd avoid that type of situation. If you are a software developer and those are the only type of opportunities you have access too, I agree, you should avoid blogging about such controversial topics. Or get good at remote work.