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Engineers Should Blog

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Re: Engineers Should Blog

#91

Post by saryant »

Chyzwar wrote: post #62
zzzcpan wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blogging is waste of time. It certainly is a waste of time for improving your engineering skills, it's a myth. But it isn't for PR, which is very important these days even to get somewhere in software engineering, not to mention for pushing any kind of product or attracting other engineers to hire.

You are either Engineer or not. Writing blog post will have less of effect on your engineering skills than writing code.

I was able to step up to a major tech company because they noticed my blog posts, Stack Overflow answers and conference talks.

That nearly doubled my income.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#92

Post by lloydde »

pcmonk wrote: post #89
drdeadringer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps one should refrain from posting their practice posts, then. Write bad blog posts to get better, sure, but it does not need to be published by necessity.

While I find value in writing things I don't ever intend to publish, that's a different sort of writing. For me, at least, a post written without intent to publish will be very different from a post written with intent to publish. Writing a post without intending to publish is similar to writing pseudocode, never intending to compile. With great discipline one can learn to write good quality code without compiling it…

The analogy doesn't work for me for a few reasons:

* That may be true for producing better code in a particular programming language or family of languages, but not designing better solutions. Designing software including prototyping and pseudocode independent of the constraints of a particularly development environment is invaluable. Too often I squish my problems to fit the tools I know best.

* Depending on the audience writing can be very different. This feels like a different spectrum of communication. I mentor teammates in improving all forms of written communication and this often starts with connecting with the audience of their email.

* Journaling (keeping a dairy) is being shown in recent studies to have all kinds of health benefits.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#93

Post by ericjherrera »

I think the biggest thing is that any kind of writing makes you visible to the right audience. The key though is to know who you are writing to and make it tailored to them on their level.

I think far too often people try to get their name out there and even though they should be writing for a specific crowd, in reality, they end up alienating the very people they were trying to tailor to. The writing should always be for yourself and in that way you will reach the right people. Let the rest fall into place.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#94

Post by pcmonk »

lloydde wrote: post #92
pcmonk wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I find value in writing things I don't ever intend to publish, that's a different sort of writing. For me, at least, a post written without intent to publish will be very different from a post written with intent to publish. Writing a post without intending to publish is similar to writing pseudocode, never intending to compile. With great discipline one can learn to write good quality code without compiling it…

The analogy doesn't work for me for a few reasons: * That may be true for producing better code in a particular programming language or family of languages, but not designing better solutions. Designing software including prototyping and pseudocode independent of the constraints of a particularly development environment is invaluable. Too often I squish my problems to fit the tools I know best. * Depending on the aud…

* Working out solutions free from the technicalities of the compiler and framework is a great technique, and one that I use often. Again, this is great for those who already know how to code, but if those technicalities still trip you up sometimes (as they do a beginning coder/writer), then you get a lot of value out of writing the code before declaring the problem solved (= publishing the blog post before declaring it written).

* For sure, and most people get a lot more practice with certain kinds of writing (email, technical documents, HN comments) than others. Blog posts generally have a certain audience in mind (you can specify at the beginning of the post which audience you're targeting, if you want), and it's a very different audience than most forms of writing. You should write blog posts if you want to get better at that.

* I don't contest the value of writing for an audience of one. It's just different from writing to an audience of a blog (even if that audience is mostly theoretical).

I should note that I disagree with the statement "every engineer should blog", as it has the usual failings of sweeping statements. However, if you wish to become a better writer, and in particular a better writer of content that can be widely understand by a relatively vaguely defined audience, then I highly recommend blogging.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#95

Post by thr0waway1239 »

patrick_haply wrote: post #86
pcmonk wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Engineers should blog publicly when they have something to say. Something useful for their colleagues. This sounds a lot like saying, "You should only learn to code when you have something useful you want to build. Something useful for other people". You can't write a good blog post without having already written some number of bad ones. If you think you might someday have something to say, you should practice blog…

> You can't write a good blog post without having already written some number of bad ones. To add to this, I'd say: if you don't have a writing habit, the barrier to actually writing something when you do finally have something useful to say will be incredibly high. I am willing, however, to give the GP the benefit of the doubt because they said "Engineers should blog publicly when they have something to say", not "E…

So how do you get feedback for non-public work? On technical blogs, I always read the comments. Even for obscure/somewhat poorly written articles. Because someone who knows more than the author will sometimes leave feedback which will lead you in a better direction and expose you to more ideas.

And thankfully, technical blog articles don't attract too many comments on average. Quite often I find that a blog article on a technical point actually advances discussion on that idea.

All I would say is to make a honest effort. Try and do a basic rewrite before hitting publish.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#96

Post by jasonthevillain »

pavfarb wrote: post #20

Engineers should blog publicly when they have something to say. Something useful for their colleagues. Engineers shouldn't waste time forcing themselves to blog instead of work just to push their career forward: frequently they just expose they don't have anything to say in extremely unreadable way. What a waste of time for everybody. Soft skills helps you grow as an engineer, it's true, but I think it's important to…

Yes. The last thing the world needs is more half-baked self-promoting drivel.

I love writing. I put more than half of mine in a drawer. A drawer is a wonderful place for of unfinished drafts that aren't ready or aren't working.

I don't know if everyone should write; that feels presumptuous. But if you do, I highly recommend a drawer.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#99

Post by smdz »

> Marketplaces like UpWork and ELance, which were originally designed to match US companies with global talent, have literally made it impossible for US engineers to find work...

As a freelancer working from India - this stands true even for the good experienced freelancers in India. Upwork (and Elance that is now Upwork) make it hard to get good rates - forget about raising rates. And when Elance merged to Upwork - it just made it harder to filter out good clients (I had some respect for the former Elance). Most buyer's have this perspective - "You are from India, your cost must be cheap!". Add to that rated courses on Udemy that underline "Get your work done at 1/10th the cost" (that I subscribed too) and similar stuff on YouTube.

Blogging helps. Mine is a pretty small one. But I got quite a few leads from my blog and at one point I was heavily overloaded with requests that would give me acceptable rates. I stopped writing for 6-8 months and the leads stopped coming in. Also, these days video-bloggers(good ones) get to take much of the leads.

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