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What to blog about

simonwillison.net

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Re: What to blog about

#91

Post by quietbritishjim »

cafeinux wrote: post #49
quietbritishjim wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the truth is somewhere in between. If someone wants to write about what they've done for writing's sake, then fair enough to go the extra step of posting a blog about it. But there are plenty of blogs that seem to exist because the person first decided they wanted to have a blog and then came up with something to write about. Not SEO spam, more like résumé spam maybe? Those are still awful to wade through on…

I've always wanted to write a blog but never dared to do it because I feel like I have nothing of interest to add to what already exists. Now after reading that article, I feel like I could indeed start a blog, and there would be a good chance that it will be boring and/or low quality, at least at first, but it would be my content and I could be proud of it. If I hold myself to a high standard that makes me want to o…

That sounds great! Sorry I didn't mean to put off efforts like this (not that I have by the sound of it but you see what I mean).

Maybe it's not the motivation for the blog but how it's distributed that can cause problems? If someone writes a half-arsed article about what they've recently learnt about C++ references, for example, then posts it to /r/cpp where everybody already knows that stuff better than they do - that is annoying.

Re: What to blog about

#92

Post by bheadmaster »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #68

An addition that most posts, including this would benefit from: Be incredibly kind when judging other people for their projects . What goes around comes back around. IMO a lot of the problem is not in finding things to blog about, but the fact that the Internet hive mind will casually toss off incredibly unkind criticism about your projects. I remember https://harthur.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/771/ making the rounds a…

Internet is a harsh place. But I think after some time one can get used to it.

I used to be (and probably still am to some degree) very sensitive of criticism, both online and in the real world. However, after spending a fair amount of time hanging out in some fairly unmoderated online communities, I think I've developed a somewhat stoic attitude towards any input I get.

In unmoderated online communities, people just say what's on their mind. And sometimes they say hurtful things, and you try to engage them in discussion of why they think so, because you can't stand the thought of someone thinking bad about you. Often they refuse to discuss anyway, and just insult you more instead, leading to endless frustration. After some time you just accept that some people aren't even interested in a discussion, and it's pointless to even try to engage them. They just want to insult for the sake of insulting, and their words and opinions are (should be) meaningless to you. The right way to handle them is to just ignore them. Don't cast pears before swine, and all that jazz.

Re: What to blog about

#93

Post by bawolff »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #68

An addition that most posts, including this would benefit from: Be incredibly kind when judging other people for their projects . What goes around comes back around. IMO a lot of the problem is not in finding things to blog about, but the fact that the Internet hive mind will casually toss off incredibly unkind criticism about your projects. I remember https://harthur.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/771/ making the rounds a…

While it is true that this is a thing that happens which can be very demotivating, for me i think the more demotivating thing is the idea that i'll do all this work writing stuff down, and nobody will care.

And unfortunately nobody caring is by far the most likely outcome.

I usually tell myself that my blog post is first and foremost for myself to better reflect and understand what i learned. That it is an end in itself and still worthwhile even if nobody reads it. Nonetheless i still find this the most demotivating part of keeping a blog.

Re: What to blog about

#94

Post by 0xJRS »

theideaofcoffee wrote: post #3

In the words of the venerable AvE: "Make cool shit, put it on the internet." Have I been able to follow that? Not really, too many other things going on but I think the sentiment is nice.

keep your stick on the ice!

Re: What to blog about

#95

Post by TurkishPoptart »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #64
ar_lan wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve tried Zettelkasten for about a year now - it’s a massive time sink, and I’m not sure I’ve seen enough fruits to be worth it, to be honest. But I also don’t publish writing so maybe that’s my fault!

> But I also don’t publish writing so maybe that’s my fault! My understanding is that it's indeed 100% pointless if you don't use it with the specific goal to publish.

I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I didn't think it required publishing. Got any more info on this? I want to publish someday

Re: What to blog about

#96

Post by iLoveOncall »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #95
iLoveOncall wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I also don’t publish writing so maybe that’s my fault! My understanding is that it's indeed 100% pointless if you don't use it with the specific goal to publish.

I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I didn't think it required publishing. Got any more info on this? I want to publish someday

> I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes.

I think the whole point is that you're NOT organizing :D

You end up sequencing the notes under a main line of thought per topic, but the idea is that the connections between your notes help you discover new unforeseen connections.

> I didn't think it required publishing.

I don't think it requires it either, but it seems like it's a waste of effort if you don't want to publish the product of your "notes" at some point.

The method asks that you write the notes in a publishable state, so you need to invest time to write like this. This time improves the form of the content, but not the content itself, and if your goal is only to remember or learn, then it's the content that you care about, and a lower quality edit would also do the job.

---

It is "sold" as a general productivity method, highlighting the fact that Luhmann (the creator) published 50+ books and 600+ articles in his life. I believe it is a publishing productivity method.

I still think it must be beneficial, but the question is are you able to keep up with the effort required if you don't have this end goal of publishing your writings? I'm not sure I do.

When it comes to resources there are discussions about that on the subreddit. I can't find one I had in mind but this one covers that: https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/yc35nl/in_whi...

Re: What to blog about

#97

Post by ar_lan »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #96
TurkishPoptart wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I didn't think it required publishing. Got any more info on this? I want to publish someday

> I thought the whole point was that you're organizing your thoughts and ideas across connected notes. I think the whole point is that you're NOT organizing :D You end up sequencing the notes under a main line of thought per topic, but the idea is that the connections between your notes help you discover new unforeseen connections. > I didn't think it required publishing. I don't think it requires it either, but it s…

> I still think it must be beneficial, but the question is are you able to keep up with the effort required if you don't have this end goal of publishing your writings? I'm not sure I do.

This is the exact conclusion I came to. Honestly, a personal wiki seems better in this regard.

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