I pretty much get everything I would get out of blogging by posting on news.yc. Unless your blog has upmod/downmod arrows, it's hard to beat the feedback here.
Technocrati rank is kind of like karma isn't it?
Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
41–45 of 45 posts
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#42I used to hate the idea of having a blog because every other blog I read strikes me as "This person is really full of themselves, and not that important."
Yet there were things I wanted to talk about, including things I'd invented.
So I struck a compromise: I treat my blog like a newspaper about things, and not me. Which is good, since I'm more boring than even the most boring newspaper.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#43I do write a blog. As tx observed earlier 99.9% of blogs are crap, including mine. Nonetheless I think it has been a worthwhile use of time, and I'll continue doing it for a while. Written communication skills are very important, an "essay" style of blog can exercise those skills whether anyone reads what I write or not.
The discipline of having to write it all down does certainly sharpen ones thoughts, and comments often supply links to other material on the topic. In my case commenters also point out ghastly errors I've made, but thats probably just me.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#4499.9% of blogs are crap, including mine. I write it mostly for myself and to polish my English (not my native tongue). I don't believe one should be looking for "advantages" when deciding to start a blog. I hate to see what blogs are turning into: they aren't personal anymore and look more like expanded resumes. Blogs used to be just that: a personal diary of what's going on. And silly things like "Rails Blog" or "Ja…
"I hate to see what blogs are turning into: they aren't personal anymore and look more like expanded resumes. "
Why are you restricting blog's definition to only personal diary. Things evolve. Whoever said initially that it's a personal diary didn't know that it can evolve to any extent.
What's wrong in writing your learnings or insights on any professional or niche topic? What's wrong if I spent lots of time in learning some Java hack and sharing it with community so that they don't have to invest same amount of time that I have invested?
I think your view-point is extreme. There are always handful bloggers who write great analysis of particular topic genuinely. It's totally in reader's control to decide what to read and what to pass.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#45I write a blog that I take fairly seriously and maintain well. As others have said, it's a huge commitment. At the moment I've been dealing with final exams and now vacation, but usually I spend 4 hours/day on my blog. Not that I post every day or multiple times per day, it's just keeping up with the news that might be involved in a later post, building something to write about, reviewing something, etc.
Few people can succeed with a blog that merely parrots back information that came from elsewhere. I would suggest spending those 4 hours a day actually doing something that you can write about. Browsing news for 4 hours a day isn't really research, more likely to be procrastination. Daniel
when i said 4hrs/day I didn't mean reading stuff.. I meant actually writing stuff or working on things that I would write about