I sometimes feel like blogging in the developer world has become something that you copy from the great masters of the craft. Many famous devs blog about the craft. Same in the tech entrepreneur bubble.
i remember times when blogging was as casual as having an instagram account. Then there were times were you would blog stuff that could potentially be helpful to others. Like a problem with configuring our linux audio device that ou were finall able to fix.
For all these topics there are now established communities. The blogosphere is now divided into company blogs (for SEO, maybe also to tell a story or amuse people), and peesonal blogs. And of these personal blogs, some try to copy their role models in writing and thinking (a good way to become inauthentic and lose touch with yourself) and a minority manages to write whatever comes to their mind, no matter how awesome it reads and how many people will like the idea that is transported.
Why blog if nobody reads it?
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Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#272I blog because once a post of mine made the front page of HN and you guys crashed my VPS with traffic for 2 days straight - including my work site hosted on the same server. I will cherish that moment of excitement and terror for the rest of my days
It was our pleasure!
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#273I've been wanting to blog, but I never do it. One of the reasons (excuses) is that I don't know where to blog. Is it better to host your own page, use some newsletter service such as substack, or just open a blog in any blogging plaform?
I think the best thing is to just start. As you're not blogging, there is no one that knows what you need, you probably don't even know. But after you have started with whatever is easiest right now you might discover the things that you want from your blogging tool. Maybe you're happy, maybe you'll play around a bit. One very important thing for me is to stop the tool from distracting myself from writing. I write si…
Thanks for the advice! You are probably right.
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#274If trying to solve a problem and errors keep occurring, how does one capture the errors (and inputs that caused the error) in order to blog about later without disrupting the flow of problem solving?
For example, I was writing a terraform script and I kept getting errors. I would change one thing, run plan and apply, get another error, rinse and repeat until I fixed it. I would like to keep a record of all these errors so that I can document it for my future self or colleagues, but I don't want to disrupt the process of trying to fix my problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#275A lot of the comments here are about blogging to nobody (which I do) but I wanted to share how much I love reading people's personal blogs. I follow a bunch of developers (surprise surprise) and read mostly technical blogs, I've found a lot of developers mix writing blog posts about their personal and family life alongside technical posts. As I've been reading I've found those are some of my favourite posts, as someo…
> I follow a bunch of developers (surprise surprise) and read mostly technical blogs
As a follow-up, how do you go about discovering the people you keep up with if they are not personal acquaintances?
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#276Writing 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…
I could swear this post and your comment were something I already read word for word a few days ago
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#277Blogging is like mediation. It's primarily good for yourself. It's just a bonus if others like it.
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#278I assume nobody reads my blog.
I don't check the stats, the pages are small enough that even if it got busy I'd hardly notice. I write primarily to explore ideas I've had or that I've read from others, or where I feel my thinking lacks clarity and I want to gain that clarity. It's also a place where I experiment a little, taking more chances and risking more failure that I would otherwise in a professional environment. Occasionally I'll find reason to point someone int he direction of a post because it touches on a topic or is otherwise an example of some particular type of thinking, like tearing a page out of a personal diary to show someone.
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#279For me blogging acts as a function to learn about something. If I want to understand a particular subject (albeit a small one), I’ll write about it. Do some research on the matter, think over what I am trying to answer, and at the end I always feel more knowledgeable about that particular subject point. Another factor is that it improves my writing, which in turns helps expression which too is very valuable. Sure not many people read it, but honestly putting on some music and just tapping away on something interesting is quite therapeutic.
Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?
#280I would put it as simply as You write your blog for yourself, learning a lot in the process. If others read it, it's a bonus.