I play Diplomacy. That's already a lot of text (i.e. negotiations) to write.
Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#22Like most writing (including code) I think running a blog requires a fair amount of hubris. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but ...
I used to be very optimistic ("global village", etc) about the Internet, newsgroups, blogs, but now it seems that most of the time, communication drives people into irreconcilable factions. Too many people bring limited reading comprehension skills with them, and end up violently agreeing with each other or creating conflict for absolutely no reason. Most discussions seem to descend all too quickly into name-calling ("fanboy", etc) and I personally fail to see the value in it.
The best blogs start with some simple questions: do I have anything of value to contribute? Am I an interesting person who has achieved something noteworthy? Do I have unique insights or am I just recycling the zeitgeist? For most bloggers, I suspect the answer to all those questions is "no", and (although they can keep going if they like) there's precious little reason to actually read them.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#2399.9% 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 write it mostly for myself and to polish my English ..."
I use my blog to 'try' and polish my ideas.
Funny things happen when you write them down. The ideas that sound great in your head suddenly appear trivial, less substantial. That's why working on them in blog format is a good idea. You get to throw ideas around for others to read, comment. Shred. Some work, others get shot down or in the process you find better ones. The ones that work can attract comment. This is where you can make improvements or just kill them.
Ideas can be polished far easier under the wear of others scrutiny.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#24Posting your thoughts here is a virtual blog.
And you have company.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#25You know, given the context, I'm going to throw out a spurious analogy: Maybe writing a blog bears some small resemblance to doing a startup. It takes more time than is reasonable, in the average case nobody else really notices, and once in a while it will propel a (partially-random) someone to fame and fortune. In other words, it's only really worth it for the sense of personal satisfaction it will give you. Maybe i…
>It takes more time than is reasonable
True. For me at least I spent somewhere between 5-8 hours on each 500-800 word post. This seems to be pretty standard among top bloggers from what I've read. Most people decide to hit the back button in less than five seconds, so your first couple paragraphs especially have to be almost unreasonably well written and polished.
>in the average case nobody else really notices
If your blog is good then people notice surprisingly fast. You'd think that guys like Scoble wouldn't start reading your blog until you had 10,000 RSS subscribers. But in reality it's the guys like Scoble who spend eight hours a day reading blogs who are the first to find and link to your blog. There are some strange forces at play that I haven't quite figured out, but for whatever reason your first 250 RSS subscribers are pretty much guaranteed to be (on average) more intelligent and successful than you.
>once in a while it will propel a (partially-random) someone to fame and fortune.
While it's pretty difficult to get people to recognize your name, it's also really easy to get people to recognize one of your ideas. Getting on the front page of Hacker News isn't that hard if you are writing good stuff. Whether you make the front page of Reddit and Digg is mostly random these days, but if you consistently write good stuff then it will happen a bunch of times, you just can't really predict when.
I'm definitely going to start updating my blog again eventually. But I'd much rather post nothing than post stuff that isn't insightful. For some reason bloggers who write frequently gain a disproportionate share of RSS subscribers. This is really unfortunate and in many ways represents a huge failing of RSS. But because your first few RSS subscribers are going to be the most important for your career, it seems worth it to stick with only posting insightful stuff even if you occasionally have nothing to say for weeks on end.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#26Most of the entertaining things I could write would be bad for my general reputation, so I don't write them.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#27No time for promotion.
But I do post every once and a while.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#2899.9% 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…
Why should anyone be interested in your personal happenings? On the other hand, if you have some perspective to contribute about Rails development, the value proposition to the reader is much clearer. Daniel
Because a personal weblog probably should be most interesting to friends and family, people close to the writer.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#29I would rather be outside, away from my computer, participating in the community that's around me. nothing beats human contact.
Re: Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
#30I see my blog as a resume, portfolio and a networking activity rolled into one. Resumes and portfolio do not tell others how you think, or what interests you nearly as well as a blog. And a blog is social and sharable, so it helps you make new contacts.