Why don't I have a blog? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#81

Post by Lamad123 » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:25 AM UTC

klodolph wrote: post #26

> 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…

I discover how much I don't know that I think I know when I try to write it down.

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#82

Post by Lamad123 » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:34 AM UTC

commandlinefan wrote: post #8

> 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.

But sometimes official documentation can be cryptic like man pages and some Python documentation. Those g4gs and others usually have easy to understand examples and some extra explanation you don't in get official documentation.

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#83

Post by Lamad123 » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:45 AM UTC

markshead wrote: post #17

ianmf wrote: post #9

> 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.

Circular reference? Joking aside, you write for yourself first when you write a blog. You learn better when writing about something and you see the gaps in your understanding when you try to explain something to others.

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#84

Post by imgabe » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:46 AM UTC

I have a blog but I write on it very infrequently. I definitely would like to write more.

I think the blog format is a little limiting - the idea that it is serially published on a regular schedule, ideally sticks to one topic.

I think what I really want is more like the old style "homepage", where you'd have a collection of links to different random projects you wanted to share. Like here's my catalog of the best 1970s rock albums, over here is a tutorial on how I built my own automated plant watering system, and so on in that fashion.

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#85

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:47 AM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #54

Karsteski wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found baeldung to be quite helpful actually. What do you not like about it? I understand what you mean though, I don't like the garbage programming-related articles from a lot of these sites you've listed. Even I as a newb developer have seen very poor advice or wrong info on w3schools, for example.

w3schools has come a long way since the days of w3fools. What incorrect info. do you see on w3schools currently ? I find it to be a decent source these days.

[deleted]

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#86

Post by Lamad123 » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

klodolph wrote: post #26

> 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…

The author is also complaining that blog posts are n-copies of something original. This whole programming and cs business is all like that. How many of us read academic papers that first described this algorithm or that technique? Most of us never do. We are consuming copies of copies of copies and it just works!! A blog post by a beginner on something might more approachable to other beginner who might find the expert's explanation intimidating, maybe because the expert that just assumed his audience knows so much.

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#87

Post by hffftz » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 2:53 AM UTC

torstenvl wrote: post #6

I have a blog. Almost nobody reads it. That's okay! I treat it like a public notebook. When I find something interesting, I write a quick blog post. When I have to muddle through a technical issue that requires piecing together multiple other sources on the Internet, I write a blog post to summarize. I've written blog posts on getting Walmart security videos to play (Verint codec is a bitch), decoding Marine Corps br…

Same... but I also use the cheap VPS for other purposes (like file sharing)... well worth the $10/year

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#88

Post by rdtwo » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 3:08 AM UTC

yesenadam wrote: post #72

Just yesterday I was walking in the park with a friend, a singer, who was saying that these days she has nothing to sing, no-one to sing for...I said, gee that sounds like a song, and we started writing it. "I've got nothing to sing, no-one to sing for" etc. It went on about how her friends betrayed her and her man hasn't yet appeared. Then today I read this! The blog version.

Isn’t that material for a good song right there

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#89

Post by Lamad123 » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 3:41 AM UTC

> I don't have anything interesting to say

Imagine all you can read about Networking is RFCs, because nobody has anything interesting to add because it's all in those cryptic (some of them at least) RFCs!

Re: Why don't I have a blog?

#90

Post by ramkarthikk » Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 3:56 AM UTC

If this writing is what the author brings to the table, I think they are more than capable of writing a useful blog. And with more writing, it will only get better.

> It feels as if I should have great things to say about... stuff... and yet I don't. Every opinion I have is a copy of a copy of a copy of the first 5 top-level comments on a reddit-slash-hacker-news comment section.

Almost everything that's said or written is a copy of a copy of a copy. But as a reader, your 5th level copy might be the first time I'm encountering that particular idea. If only one person says something, the chances of me finding it are negligible. If a thousand people say the same thing, it significantly increases the chances of me finding it.