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Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

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Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#381

Post by simonw »

grep_name wrote: post #378
simonw wrote: post #88

Here are some reasons to start a personal blog: 1. It's a great way to learn. Teaching something to someone else has always been the best learning tool, and writing about something with an audience in mind is an effective way to capture some of that value. 2. It can be a big boost in job hunting. As a hiring manager two of the most important questions I have about a potential candidate are: Can they code? Can they co…

> If a candidate has a blog with just two articles on it that hasn't been updated in five years Oh hey, that's me! This post might actually encourage me to get back on top of things. Not only do I have two articles (more recent than 5 years though), one of them has a glaring error that is somewhat foundational to what it's supposed to be about. I have to fix that, as well as my broken RSS feed, and get my git link re…

I know the cure for 68 blog drafts!

You have to lower your standards.

I make a point of hitting "publish" when I'm still not entirely happy with what I've written, because I know that the alternative is a folder full of drafts and nothing published at all.

Nobody who reads your stuff will ever know how good it could have been if you kept on polishing it.

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#382

Post by zelphirkalt »

komali2 wrote: post #371
zelphirkalt wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About point 2: I have yet to have a job interview, in which the interviewer has even taken a look at my website. Well, actually I don't know that, of course, but what I want to say is, that none so far showed any sign or indication of having taken a look, and as a consequence also no sign or indication of knowing anything about any of my showcased projects. In 95% of the cases it was just that they want to do their o…

Depends on the company type. Seems like FAANG and companies trying to act like FAANG just follow a strict formulaic process and your portfolio or blog is kinda irrelevant there. For startups and small companies I think it makes a huge difference. At one job I was told explicitly I was hired mostly because the hiring manager liked my website - I wasn't the only one that passed the interview process and so my website w…

> At one job I was told explicitly I was hired mostly because the hiring manager liked my website - I wasn't the only one that passed the interview process and so my website was why I was chosen. He liked how minimalist it was.

I intentionally made my website very minimalistic, using only HTML and CSS. Also fully responsive using modern CSS layouts and even made everything composable, avoiding media queries for specific widths. Kind of an experiment, but very minimalistic. So what you write makes me think: "If only someone took a look at my website and had that mindset!!"

Well, I will keep my website, maybe one day it will amount to something.

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#383

Post by bccdee »

bluebarbet wrote: post #362
bccdee wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is not primary content In a forum, the discussion IS primary content. That's the problem: Reddit has shifted away from being a discussion forum toward an endless-scroll content feed. > Here we're all nobodies to everyone else. For my part I try to remember that fact - and get to the point. Kind of an odd turn of logic. If being a nobody devalues your anecdotes or tangents, then it equally devalues your point.…

My point is that the primary content at the top of the page has a byline . It's already vouched for , somewhat, by the reputation of the domain, or publication, or author. We have an idea of whether to spend our time investigating further. By contrast my rando comment (or yours) has nothing to recommend it but some opaque username. That's why I (and I'm betting most people) will scroll right past the "autistic weirdo…

If I see a wall of text, I just read the first couple lines. It's usually not hard to tell whether it interests you or not.

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#384

Post by zelphirkalt »

rustystump wrote: post #341
zelphirkalt wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About point 2: I have yet to have a job interview, in which the interviewer has even taken a look at my website. Well, actually I don't know that, of course, but what I want to say is, that none so far showed any sign or indication of having taken a look, and as a consequence also no sign or indication of knowing anything about any of my showcased projects. In 95% of the cases it was just that they want to do their o…

You likely are interviewing at big companies. I have worked across the industry and the smaller the team the more they look at my website work etc. some even asked about game reviews on my blog during the interview. However, even at big companies it can be useful depending on context but you have to bring it up in relation to why you are a fit for the job. Genuine enthusiasm goes a long way especially in the dry corp…

Actually, no, I applied at small to medium sized companies and also some startups. But these days they are thinking they must use the same processes as the big players, it seems.

I would actually prefer working in a startup again, where I can still influence technical implementation and guide things into good paths, compared to working as a tiny cog in a huge machinery of a big company. Of course, a lot depends on the team. It might be possible to be part of a great team in a big company, that is in charge of some aspect of the whole, and having more influence over how things are done there.

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#385

Post by soiltype »

wiether wrote: post #193
soiltype wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to be harsh, but honest question - What's the purpose of using AI to create toy software that already exists (eg. YouTube downloader)? Normally the purpose would be to learn how to create that type of software, but that's presumably being skipped. Similarly... what's the point of blogging if you're not writing it yourself? This post is very long, but seems to basically just be riffing on the title over and…

See Simon's comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46011877

Yes that's exactly what I had in mind asking these questions.

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#386

Post by soiltype »

jclarkcom wrote: post #298
soiltype wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to be harsh, but honest question - What's the purpose of using AI to create toy software that already exists (eg. YouTube downloader)? Normally the purpose would be to learn how to create that type of software, but that's presumably being skipped. Similarly... what's the point of blogging if you're not writing it yourself? This post is very long, but seems to basically just be riffing on the title over and…

For me, it is about learning about what AI can and can’t do, how to progressively prompt, how to avoid problem, etc. once you understand that you can build more things quickly. I gained a pretty good understanding of what it can/cant do, how many prompt it will take to get there, and which model(s) are capable.

But then we've come back to the central point. The purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts, essentially. Why not write about what you've learned?

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#387

Post by jclarkcom »

soiltype wrote: post #386
jclarkcom wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it is about learning about what AI can and can’t do, how to progressively prompt, how to avoid problem, etc. once you understand that you can build more things quickly. I gained a pretty good understanding of what it can/cant do, how many prompt it will take to get there, and which model(s) are capable.

But then we've come back to the central point. The purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts, essentially. Why not write about what you've learned?

> the purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts

I don't get this comment. People can create content for any number of reasons and those reason will vary widely by the author. I like to use it to share something interesting to me that is too long for a Linkedin post.

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#388

Post by [deleted] »

jclarkcom wrote: post #387
soiltype wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then we've come back to the central point. The purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts, essentially. Why not write about what you've learned?

> the purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts I don't get this comment. People can create content for any number of reasons and those reason will vary widely by the author. I like to use it to share something interesting to me that is too long for a Linkedin post.

[deleted]

Re: Personal blogs are back, should niche blogs be next?

#389

Post by soiltype »

jclarkcom wrote: post #387
soiltype wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then we've come back to the central point. The purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts, essentially. Why not write about what you've learned?

> the purpose of blogging is to organize your own thoughts I don't get this comment. People can create content for any number of reasons and those reason will vary widely by the author. I like to use it to share something interesting to me that is too long for a Linkedin post.

Well actually you're right that blogs can have different purposes, however I think we're talking about basically the same purpose here, in "sharing something interesting to me", and what I meant is that I wasn't seeing how AI writing is actually doing that. But I'll leave you be, I'm not here to harass you and I think I've gotten the answers I was looking for.
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