181–190 of 373 posts
I generally blog about things that took a week+ of research and I want to save some other poor bastard the pain of what I had to piece together. This is especially useful because link-rot means that resources I was able to uncover might not be available in the future. A few years ago I did a massive amount of research into internals of old unixes for data recovery and maintenance of said systems in the modern era(mac…
Other things I get out of blogging, in addition to Andy's points: * I can link people to my carefully considered thoughts on a subject instead of needing to write something up each time. * While most people don't read what I write, some do, and I've had good conversations and friendships come out of it. * It makes me a better writer. In my professional life I can write things much faster and better than if I wasn't a…
Adding one more point:
I am often writing stuff anyways on various open-group or closed-group social media, which is where the interactions are (at least for my case). The blog however becomes a way to collect all those in a single place and where I have more control.
One important aspect I learned about blogging is that a post effectively "ships" a side project, deeming it complete. A blog post allows me to move onto the next thing. It is closure of sorts (glouw.com if anyone is interested in the style).
In the moment, writing a blog is a nice way to indicate to myself that something is done. But the process of writing the blog forces me to find some lessons and takeaways, and that makes my next project better.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A dark pattern on your self hosted blogging website is to backdate blog posts and make yourself seem very good at predicting future trends. There is no reason why you have to write a blog over a long period of time, you could quickly pump out several blog posts and link to them to establish credibility quickly.
Links submitted to Reddit or HN then a bit work as proofs of the publication date since one cannot backdate timestamps on Reddit and HN. Hmm but you can still rewrite the content a bit
Publish a blog so an LLM can use it and make money for someone already wealthy.
You laugh, but Chat-GPT "Deep Research" cites my technical blog very frequently. With attribution, no less. Within the next ~2 years, I expect that most of the people who read my blog will find it via LLM.
This helped me realize how powerful the legacy of wikipedia is/will be. When I first started editing (2006), people still didn't trust open source encyclopediae. Same thing with bitcoin, just a few years later.
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> Anyone can generate a big portfolio of projects these days(be it graphics, video, software, writing etc) but blog posts from 2023 and before are proof and undeniable. I always read blogs if people include them in resumes. It’s really cool when an applicant has a blog with unique and interesting content, but I can’t remember this happening without us already having been very impressed by the candidate’s resume. More…
Maybe it’s different in embedded, but as a mech e: any moderately complex hardware project will likely cost orders of magnitude more than a software project to prototype and manufacture. Off the self electronic parts have become much cheaper, but if you need more than some plastic, 3D parts it’s still expensive.
Electronic projects are extraordinarily cheap right now. I’ve built moderately complex PCBs for less than the price of a nice dinner.
Writing on a blog is a very inexpensive way to establish your credibility about different subjects. This pays off later down the line when you can link people to things you've written in the past. Credibility is a very valuable commodity. It's worth investing in ways to build more of it. Don't assume people will stumble across your content (though they will eventually via Google). Actively send links to people who yo…
Several of my posts received 100k+ views, one with 1M+, typically exploring minor technical hacks. A couple posts resulted in minor sales of bespoke hardware adapters, which was a nice "side hustle" for a few years. None of this would ever had made me rich, but it was a neat introduction to information sharing.
My resumé still lists several articles written about my blogposts, in publications including Wired, Hack-A-Day, &c... although the links obviously haven't worked for over a decade.
I've recently registered a new domain for my next blog attempt, which will mostly just be a record of things I find interesting on that particular day. If you ever read Whole Earth Catalogue, my hope is for my own modern-day version of the excellent WEC-inspired https://kk.org/cooltools/ [not me/mine].
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Anyone can generate a big portfolio of projects these days(be it graphics, video, software, writing etc) but blog posts from 2023 and before are proof and undeniable. I always read blogs if people include them in resumes. It’s really cool when an applicant has a blog with unique and interesting content, but I can’t remember this happening without us already having been very impressed by the candidate’s resume. More…
> is that because they’re an expert creating tutorials for beginners, or because they are a beginner and these entry-level projects represent their skill level? You can tell by reading one of them though, right? For a subject I'm an expert at, I can tell the difference between an expert talking about the basics, and a beginner doing the same.
But in my experience reading a lot of applicants’ blogs, it’s rare to even find a recent post. The most common scenario I see is that the most recent posts are 3-10 years old. Even if you can get enough information out of their blog, you’re getting at best a snapshot of where they were a long time ago. The truth is that often people blog the most when they are beginners in a subject.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the ideal optimal blog that people imagine writing is an extreme rarity. I’ve seen so many people start blogs with high ambitions but then the farthest they get is a couple posts that are now so old that it barely corresponds to their current resume level of skills.
So you’re left doing a lot of guessing and extrapolating.
My take on the matter is here: https://jonpauluritis.com/articles/say-something-that-will-s...
If you're going to write - surprise people and be useful. Write for yourself, but also write for others. It will force you to select ideas that have substance.
Anyway, Great read. Saving this to share for others.