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Engineers Should Blog

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Re: Engineers Should Blog

#101

Post by rayalez »

jasonthevillain wrote: post #96
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.

Bad writing hasn't ever hurt anybody.

I say - write as well as you can and as much as you can, and don't worry about quality. And if putting it online helps to motivate you - go ahead, use every tool you need to keep moving forward, because that is what matters, this is the only thing that matters.

There's been so many times when I was not sure whether my post was worth publishing, and then have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. And then there's been plenty of times I've written something I'm really proud of, and nobody cared.

So don't worry about the drawer, and don't worry how good your writing is, or "whether you should be a writer". All that's gonna do is make you insecure and stand in your way.

Just put yourself out there, even if you're feeling uncertain. Writing always has positive value, to you and to people around. Worst case scenario - nobody will read it, so by putting it in the drawer, you're guaranteeing the worst case scenario.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#102

Post by mememachine »

rayalez wrote: post #101
jasonthevillain wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Bad writing hasn't ever hurt anybody. I say - write as well as you can and as much as you can, and don't worry about quality. And if putting it online helps to motivate you - go ahead, use every tool you need to keep moving forward, because that is what matters, this is the only thing that matters. There's been so many times when I was not sure whether my post was worth publishing, and then have received overwhelming…

No, what makes you insecure is pretending youre a writer, when you know you arent. Thats why writers are perpetually insecure, in a nutshell. The advice youre giving is bad advice, as in, literally bad for you.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#103

Post by rayalez »

mememachine wrote: post #102
rayalez wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad writing hasn't ever hurt anybody. I say - write as well as you can and as much as you can, and don't worry about quality. And if putting it online helps to motivate you - go ahead, use every tool you need to keep moving forward, because that is what matters, this is the only thing that matters. There's been so many times when I was not sure whether my post was worth publishing, and then have received overwhelming…

No, what makes you insecure is pretending youre a writer, when you know you arent. Thats why writers are perpetually insecure, in a nutshell. The advice youre giving is bad advice, as in, literally bad for you.

This is nonsense. What does entitle someone to be called "a writer" other than, you know, writing things? If you're writing - you're a writer. If you've practiced enough to develop good skill - you're a good writer. If you've found a way to make money with it - you're a professional writer.

Writing is never bad for you. It's like saying that you shouldn't be pretending to be a programmer, when you know you arent. What the fuck does that even mean?

First you aren't a writer/programmer. Then you pretend to be a writer/programmer, by attempting to do what writers/programmers do. Then, if you keep doing it long enough, you become one.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#104

Post by mememachine »

rayalez wrote: post #103
mememachine wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, what makes you insecure is pretending youre a writer, when you know you arent. Thats why writers are perpetually insecure, in a nutshell. The advice youre giving is bad advice, as in, literally bad for you.

This is nonsense. What does entitle someone to be called "a writer" other than, you know, writing things? If you're writing - you're a writer. If you've practiced enough to develop good skill - you're a good writer. If you've found a way to make money with it - you're a professional writer. Writing is never bad for you. It's like saying that you shouldn't be pretending to be a programmer, when you know you arent. Wha…

Yes, you can become a good writer, but dont pretend you are one.

And yes, writing can be bad for you. You sound like someone whos very attached to the idea that writing is good, but maybe lacking in reasons.

Writing, like everything, takes work. For a lot of people its a complete waste of time.

To me, most writing has no value.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#105

Post by cookiecaper »

thr0waway1239 wrote: post #95
patrick_haply wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 o…

People have been practicing privately and only occasionally getting checkpoints of public feedback across all kinds of skillsets for centuries. It's silly to act like we don't know how to practice in private.

Yes, you need a good guide, good general principles so that you're not practicing in the wrong direction. And yes, you need occasional "recitals" where you test audience reactions. But 99% of the work involved in developing any skill is just raw, rote repetition that most audiences are not only not interested in, but actively avoid.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#106

Post by vbernat »

jasonthevillain wrote: post #96
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.

On the other hand, publishing publicly will force you to fix every little detail.

For example, the most popular article on my blog is about the TCP "time wait" state on Linux. I knew for years how it worked and wanted for people to stop blindly use some sysctls. Therefore, I thought, what's best than a blog post to spread some awareness on this? But, for every sentence, I had to be sure that this was true. So, I checked, I tested. It took me a lot of time. I would never have done that if this was just for my drawer. My drawer never sets random sysctls and my drawer doesn't know better than me, nor it would shame me for telling incorrect stuff.

It's like publishing as an open source project: you have to be more rigorous in what you publish. There is some balance to find.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#108

Post by mdpopescu »

noobermin wrote: post #51
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…

Do you want people who have a happening social media presence over productive and competent people? It rocks to have both, but one should be prioritized over the other. The moment soft-skills are more important than actually being able to deliver is the moment the game becomes politics.

Unfortunately, this is already the case. People do judge books by their cover.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#109

Post by watwut »

PretzelFisch wrote: post #4
xiphias wrote: post #3

When I read ,,the only thing you need is an editor'', I thought how cool it would be if what I write would be reviewed by some people before going public...it would make me less shy about it. Then I realized he means a text editor (though he's an editor himself)

That's my biggest problem, how do you improve your written communication without an editor? You can do the same thing over and over and call it practice, but without a reviewer how will you magically improve this skill?

Wait a month or so and then read it. You will see your own writing with fresh eyes.

Side note: not every reviewer is a good one.

Re: Engineers Should Blog

#110

Post by thr0waway1239 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #105
thr0waway1239 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

People have been practicing privately and only occasionally getting checkpoints of public feedback across all kinds of skillsets for centuries. It's silly to act like we don't know how to practice in private. Yes, you need a good guide, good general principles so that you're not practicing in the wrong direction. And yes, you need occasional "recitals" where you test audience reactions. But 99% of the work involved i…

>> People have been practicing privately and only occasionally getting checkpoints of public feedback across all kinds of skillsets for centuries. It's silly to act like we don't know how to practice in private.

Fair enough. I can see why my comment came across as if I said there were no other options.

But my point is to use resources at your disposal. One of the amazing resource at our disposal today is the ability to cost-effectively publish a half-baked idea on our website knowing that a) that could still be useful for a small section of people and b) its mistakes could be corrected by another small section of people who know the topic in greater detail and c) all this happens in such a way that everyone is, quite literally, "on the same page".

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