I myself would really like to have a blog again, like I used to have. Sometimes write a post or write about some software I am trying to write. However, I do not have a blog. Not, because I could not easily make one. I could indeed easily create one. I wrote multiple blog software thingies myself in the past. I do not have a blog, because of laws, where I live. There is a law, that you must put your contact informati…
Why don't I have a blog?
71–80 of 107 posts
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#72Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#73I myself would really like to have a blog again, like I used to have. Sometimes write a post or write about some software I am trying to write. However, I do not have a blog. Not, because I could not easily make one. I could indeed easily create one. I wrote multiple blog software thingies myself in the past. I do not have a blog, because of laws, where I live. There is a law, that you must put your contact informati…
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#74> 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.
https://libquotes.com/bill-gates/quote/lbs9p7l
>"My favourite is when you're a solopreneur working in your own repos and still asking yourself "who wrote this shit?!" -rozenmd
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29874627
>"Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. Code for readability." -John Woods
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.lang.c++/c/rYCO5yn4lXw/m/oI...
To summarize: Some day you might discover that you need to maintain your own code you wrote a long time ago, and you've turned into a violent psychopath who can remember your own address.
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#75I think you have plenty of interesting things to say. I'm in the same boat as you are, but I think if you put yourself out there you'd be surprised how much interest there is in the things you write. I had a blog post featured in a Ruby newsletter because I shared it on Reddit: https://blog.ty-porter.dev/
Thanks for sharing. I know the answer for the following question may differ for the individual, but how long (or how many posts) did it take to find your “stride” so to speak?
Most of my posts go almost completely unread -- that's fine by me.
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#76I completely empathize, and it's why I held off on it for so long. But recently I quit my job and decided to start in order to keep myself accountable. I've been pleasantly surprised by what I've gotten out of it so far and wrote down my thoughts here: https://arunkprasad.com/log/why-i-blog/
I do not understand the concept of self-accountability. If I say I'm going to do something for myself and not do it then what? If it is the self "shame" (for lack of a better word) for not performing/completing the goal/task I set for myself it will have to go to the end of the line of "self shame"; a very long line with many far more shameful things I've done/haven't done/started-and-not-completed through out my 51+…
Blogging daily enforces some measure of discipline on my time. Then I build the habit of putting serious effort into something every day, even in the absence of a job. The fact that it's intrinsic is also quite empowering. And if I want to be satisfied with what I write, I need to push myself and write about things that are difficult for me, i.e. new or complex ideas. Especially since I'm using this time to reflect, that means thinking about my values, my work habits, and my long-term career goals. When I look at my cumulative posts I can see that I've done some creative and satisfying. And these posts are also artifacts I can share with others, so there's a social element too.
In the absence of that, especially with my new glut of free time, I could see myself falling into the trap of not really doing anything. Maybe not immediately, but over time. And while that's certainly not a bad place to be, it's not where I want to go. So there's a protective element to this too; if I break the routine, I'll know immediately that something has gone astray.
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#77> 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…
Exactly this. The act of writing it down (whatever "it" is - code, prose, marketing materials, technical documents, mind maps, whatever) is inseparable from the process by which it was invented. If you value the end product, you have to value the process as a forcing function for clear thinking.
But that doesn't mean you have to publish a blog! There are other ways to transfer knowledge. Personally, most of my writing efforts have gone from blogging to markdown files in github repos.
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I’m confused, is this not a blog post? It is, but AFAICT the entire blog is just this post. > I also find it’s a lot of work to do the research and all, time I maybe rather spend on building things I found it useful to set a timer and write about small things, e.g. through this post [1] about blocking websites with /etc/hosts. It took about 20 minutes and I can share it with my interested friends. If I were a littl…
> It is, but AFAICT the entire blog is just this post. A solid start! I'm looking forward to the next one. > I found it useful to set a timer and write about small things I should try that. I do enjoy the deep dive into a topic, but then I will never finish/publish something. Also quite perfectionistic which doesn't help, but your strategy sounds interesting, will give that a go. I like your short story format btw, i…
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#79Now, there are too many contents online (both good and bad), and I always felt "someone must have written about it somewhere."
A few years back, I began to write again but this time, I write for myself, family, and friends. I no longer care about who reads or visits my blog(s). I have no analytics, no comments, no nothing.
Not as frequent as 15+ years ago but now I write our family stories, collect and document things I'm inspired by, aspire to be, etc on our blog(s). I'm even writing my memoir so I can read it later in life. This is a fun one, trying to remember early/younger years friends. Write about the adventures with the friends who have died, organizing search effort for friends whom I have lost touch and then finding them in places where Internet is still a luxury. If you just sit still for a while, you began to realize your life is an adventure.
I also write a lot on physical pen/paper too. I have one special paper notebook dedicated to my daughters. It is not hidden but is usually around my desk, and I write as and when I feel like or prompted by incidents. I want it to be written in my handwriting for them to read, now and in the future.
Re: Why don't I have a blog?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's interesting. I have heard a lot about posters from academics over the years. Is there some huge virtual corkboard for academics somewhere or where do these posters go and what are they for? (If you get a second for HN comments :-))
They're typically just easy ways to submit early work, work in progress, etc to a conference with relatively little commitment. I'm in the biomedical informatics world generally, and for my conferences it's a one-page abstract that describes your work, if accepted after peer review (which, there's a 90% acceptance rate) you then make a poster with more details about what you did and then stand by it for about an hour…