31–40 of 107 posts
Rarely do people genuinely think, and operate, as if nothing they could articulate will be relevant to anyone else. It's literally the entire purpose of communication.
> I don't have anything interesting to say. It's hard to judge what other people would find interesting about what you have to say. Things you think are obvious are obvious and boring may be illuminating to others, and vice versa. Anyway, I don't think the author has really given blogging a fair shake. > On his blog, Aaron Swartz explains how writing things down will help him reflect better on his thoughts. The autho…
> They are your typical run-of-the-mill tutorials that replicate what's written on the official framework/language guide Yep, I'd like to permanently blacklist those idiotic baeldung, w3schools, tutorialspoint, and geeksforgeeks blogspam entries that SEO'ed themselves to the top of every google search I do for anything programming related.
There's an extension for Chrome and Firefox called "uBlacklist" that lets you do exactly this - you can maintain a list of domains that you never want to appear in the results of Google searches that you do.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was once looking for a solution to some technical problem, clicked on a promising web result, and found myself at my blog. I had posted a solution several years earlier but had forgotten about it.
I've done this, too. I've also run into comments I made on boards years, or even decades ago, and thought "there's a smart person," then realized I'd made the comment.
> They are your typical run-of-the-mill tutorials that replicate what's written on the official framework/language guide Yep, I'd like to permanently blacklist those idiotic baeldung, w3schools, tutorialspoint, and geeksforgeeks blogspam entries that SEO'ed themselves to the top of every google search I do for anything programming related.
The unintuitive truth about writing is that the writing happens before the sentences happen. Another way people make this point is by saying “writing is really just revising”.
I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that writing is the second step in a linear process, the first of which is “finding out what to say, or coming up with an idea or opinion”. No. Simply write. If you can’t think of anything, write “I have writer’s block” then write the next random sentence that comes to your head. If necessary, just write down an amusing string of random words. Follow it up with another. If possible use a pen and paper, and most of all, try to make it a ritualistic practice. Whether it’s once a day, once a week, or once a month the important thing is to just keep at it even if you have nothing to write, even if it’s an exercise in producing garbage.
For every great text out there there’s an ocean of miscellany that went into the trash bin or manifested as (e.g. hacker news comments). You’ll often come to something significant during the act of writing. The only thing you really need to master is getting into a state in which you don’t censor yourself, you’re comfortable with facing your deep buried demons, with your own ignorance, and your desires. Once you do that, the content will flow naturally. Then put your editor hat on and decide what to publish, what should remain private and what should be destroyed.
Thinking is conducted through material processes, like putting a pen to paper or staring at birds. Ever since Descartes, there’s an error people tend to make in divorcing thought/their mental life from their embodied existence—the two are not separable.
When it comes to writing, remember Nike’s motto.
As an illustration of this point, none of the sentences in this post were floating around in my head or formulated until I started typing it out. If you had asked me to dictate a response on this topic it would have been entirely different.
> I don't have anything interesting to say I don't agree with this part. I use my blog to keep a journal on technical issues that were hard to fix, or was hard to find web sources about the subject. One of my top post is about using PFSense router with Verizon FIOS. It usually receives 2-3 unique visitors a day. It is simple and not interesting, but it helps a few people, so I keep it online. https://ianmf.com
I was once looking for a solution to some technical problem, clicked on a promising web result, and found myself at my blog. I had posted a solution several years earlier but had forgotten about it.
It's always pleasant to say hello to yourself.
It may SEEM blog like though. There are articles with my opinions and lots of great info. They just aren't in a chronological order or dated.
I go in depth here: https://kolemcrae.com/notebook/notablog.html
Instead of "why I don't have a blog" maybe one should reframe it as "why do I have nothing to share"?
So if you are afraid that people will find it boring, then write for yourself. Writing for oneself means you want to be able to write in a way such that you will go back to your note to remind you of things you learned.
As you as said, pointing to the original is enough. If that is it, then just log those links and when you have time, go through them again! Once you will understand it is quite time consuming to review it, you may start writing!
Good thing about writing in public is that you will want to set a bar for yourself. Something like commitment! Setting this bar will slowly improve your thought process and it brings other positive effects!
> I don't have anything interesting to say I don't agree with this part. I use my blog to keep a journal on technical issues that were hard to fix, or was hard to find web sources about the subject. One of my top post is about using PFSense router with Verizon FIOS. It usually receives 2-3 unique visitors a day. It is simple and not interesting, but it helps a few people, so I keep it online. https://ianmf.com
I was once looking for a solution to some technical problem, clicked on a promising web result, and found myself at my blog. I had posted a solution several years earlier but had forgotten about it.