1) Blogging is like going to the gym except for writing: if I stopped, I'd end up an overworked, pudgy Japanese salaryman with no writing ability in English.
2) Blogging makes people say nice things about my ideas and that has always given me the warm fuzzies.
3) My decision to start a business 3.5 years ago was heavily influenced by accounts of success I had read from other people, and I wanted to leave similar encouragement.
4) My blog (or rather, a half-dozen handpicked articles from it) makes a far better case for hiring me than my resume or publicly available source code does.
I came here to say these exact things. Well done, and good luck!
Actually, I'd add a fifth item that is related to item 1:
5. Writing about things helps me clarify my ideas and stop hand-waving over important details. So writing makes me a better writer, and it also makes me a better thinker.
In my opinion, having a blog is as much about learning as it is about sharing information with other people. There's just something about putting your thoughts into words that helps you crystalize certain ideas that float around in your head.
For instance, if you read most of Paul Graham's essays, you'll notice that they probably serve more to teach him than to actually share things.
Plus, having people read your thoughts serves as a good way to gauge whether you're on the right track or not. If there's something wrong with your idea, believe me someone will let you know. This is why I sometimes submit articles to HN: to get an idea if what I'm writing is of any interest to hackers.
No. I don't have a blog because my perfectionism keeps me from even starting to write. I feel like if what I write isn't extraordinary, I have no business putting it out there at all.
How can you ever start writing something that's extraordinary if you never start writing at all? Do you really think Mark Twain started out writing Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer? It is a skill that requires effort to become good at.
This is basically EXACTLY how I feel. I sometimes think about starting a blog, to showcase things I've worked on, or interesting things I've read about, or new things I've learned, but I often think that it wouldn't be original enough to warrant doing. The thing is, you don't know until you try...
1) I'm interested in the field of Computer Science (CS) and I like to write articles about various things I encounter and learn in this field. I'm also interested in other fields, but since I studied CS and work in this field, it's the one in which I'm "up to the mark". Well, that doesn't mean that I won't be writing articles about topics from other fields.
2) I love it when interesting discussions start around the subject an article of mine is addressing. For me, this point is one of the most rewarding things I get from blogging, since you can learn quite a lot of new things thanks to it.
3) I love to write tutorials, with the hope that somebody can benefit from them (hopefully in a good way :) I'm always happy when I read a comment from a user, whom a tutorial has helped in some way.
4) Since I read quite a lot of articles online, I use my blog also to post linkings to such interesting articles. I think the one or the other linking is appreciated by the few readers I have :)
5) It helps me to improve my language skills, since I decided to write the articles in English rather than in German. IMHO it's a good exercise.
I've been running it since 2002, and every job I've had since then has come about as a result of connections made through blog related activity. It's an incredibly powerful professional tool.
Yes. Because I decided that I don't have to be "a blogger." To elucidate: I like the idea of having readers and having an audience, but the standard format of most blogs frustrated me. I realized that what I want is to put up good writing and good content. Most blogs stick to a targeted audience in the hope of garnering recurring readership, and will try to do this whether or not they have anything worthwhile to say. I don't want to be an "expert," and have no interest in doing "regular updates" or "news." That makes blogging a chore.
But I can make a very comprehensive, "perennial" blog post on some topic. And rather than setting out to stick to the one topic, I can just let it get filtered by other sites. The resulting site essentially describes all my best work.
Actually, the fact that people take the time to write long, detailed posts about various programming topics matters a lot. At least it does to me, and I think I can pretty safely make the assumption that it matters to a few other newbie programmers too.
Unlike technical documentation, which answers the "what?" and "how?" questions, I find that blog writers (the good ones) often answer the "why?" question implicit in the information I'm trying to find, in addition to the other two. This is invaluable when I'm trying to understand what's going on, or when I don't know what questions I should be asking.
For me it's about community. Physicists, Biologists, Medical Doctors all have professional journals. But for programmers and tech entrepreneurs there are the blogs. I think we all have to realize that blogs, and places like HN, are the conscience of the tech movement and I personally feel there's a duty in saying something if it's not being said elsewhere.
Look for example at Anthropomorphic Global Warming. Whether you believe in it or not you have to admit some of the stuff that's come out recently should never have been allowed to happen. Stuff like alternative opinions (see Richard Lindzen of MIT for example) being kept out of the science journals. The reason that sort of thing happens in a community is because rational scientists don't stand up to their community and say "This is wrong. I don't agree with this guy but we should hear him out". The fact that many in the climatology community didn't do that has set back our understanding of the phenomenon by years if not decades
To me blogging is a way to stand up to my community when I feel mistakes are being made or the community is going down the wrong path. That's why I do it.
I update it when I feel there is something to say, not out of a need to keep it current for activity's sake.
I write for two reasons:
Firstly, to get my ideas from my head into written form for personal reflection upon either a concept, experience or reaction to piece of relevant content. Secondly as a means of sharing my own experience(s) with others who might be looking for a different perspective based on someone else's background.
I have also found that my technical blog has gained me several acquaintances, a few good friends, and considerable work. While my CV is rather lengthy due to my fifteen years in the industry, I have found that my blog posts offer far better insight into my thinking processes. As such, my best and brightest works situations transpired from those companies which found me via my writings.
Yes -- two of them, one of which I chiefly write and one of which I contribute to. The former is about books (which I like reading) and writing (which I like doing), and it's at http://jseliger.com . Now I'm one of the perhaps ill-advised souls in English grad school, so some of the material on it might eventually make it into papers. Occasionally I find other interesting book people too, which is an added bonus.
The other blog, Grant Writing Confidential (http://blog.seliger.com), is about my family's business, and it serves a couple of purposes: 1) it signals to clients that we actually know what we're talking about, 2) it brings in search engine traffic we'd other wise not get, and c) we get a chance to write about our work, which virtually no one else understands.
So in both cases, I write for a mixture of business and pleasure.
I have a personal blog [1] and am the editor and a regular contributor to a public policy blog [2].
I blog because: I love to write; I enjoy and learn a lot from the dialogue that blogging enables; I think regular writing exposed to the scrutiny of others makes me a better writer; I love to read what other people have written and want to contribute my share; I like knowing that something I wrote was valuable to someone else; I'm a bit narcissistic; it's a very effective method of structured procrastination [3]; and it has led to a few employment opportunities.
1) To practice writing;
2) To develop stray ideas that keep floating around in my head inconclusively;
3) To reminisce about 8 bit hardware and software.
Two, although I will never, ever call them 'blogs' because the word sounds like something smelly and disgusting that clogs up the pipes in your house and must be removed by an experienced professional.
http://journal.dedasys.com - to talk about the occasional tech related thing I've done that other people might find interesting. I don't write much, because I don't think I really do all that much that is worthy of communicating to the world at large.
Yes. I have a personal blog that is 1) for me to remember all the things that I have done and 2) to share with friends and family and anyone else who might benefit from what I have learned.
Also, this reminds me of a post from Paul Buchheit's blog awhile back: "By sharing more of our own thoughts and lives with the world, we contribute to the global pool of "how to live", and over time we also get contributions back from the world. Think of it as "open source living"."
I write a lot, but I don't blog. The people I write for don't use RSS feeds or routinely scan a large number of sites, and I'm not prolific enough on any one topic to give anyone incentive to follow my blog, since I don't have any friends that share more than one or two of my interests.
When I write about food and recipes, I send an email to three or four people I know will be interested. When I write about a backpacking or travel destination, it's an email to a different handful of people. When I write about exercise, I put it on a private blog where I record my food, exercise, and weight every day. When I write about software, I usually throw it away, though I often find an opportunity to recycle the thoughts and language in a discussion online or in person. When I write about a book, I share what I've learned by talking to a friend who would be interested. Et cetera.
I've thought about putting everything on a blog and just sending links to people when there's an entry they'd be interested in, but writing a blog that has no consistent readership and constantly bugging people to read it just feels pathetic for some reason.
[+] [-] patio11|16 years ago|reply
1) Blogging is like going to the gym except for writing: if I stopped, I'd end up an overworked, pudgy Japanese salaryman with no writing ability in English.
2) Blogging makes people say nice things about my ideas and that has always given me the warm fuzzies.
3) My decision to start a business 3.5 years ago was heavily influenced by accounts of success I had read from other people, and I wanted to leave similar encouragement.
4) My blog (or rather, a half-dozen handpicked articles from it) makes a far better case for hiring me than my resume or publicly available source code does.
[+] [-] raganwald|16 years ago|reply
Actually, I'd add a fifth item that is related to item 1:
5. Writing about things helps me clarify my ideas and stop hand-waving over important details. So writing makes me a better writer, and it also makes me a better thinker.
[+] [-] j_baker|16 years ago|reply
In my opinion, having a blog is as much about learning as it is about sharing information with other people. There's just something about putting your thoughts into words that helps you crystalize certain ideas that float around in your head.
For instance, if you read most of Paul Graham's essays, you'll notice that they probably serve more to teach him than to actually share things.
Plus, having people read your thoughts serves as a good way to gauge whether you're on the right track or not. If there's something wrong with your idea, believe me someone will let you know. This is why I sometimes submit articles to HN: to get an idea if what I'm writing is of any interest to hackers.
[+] [-] jriddycuz|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kaizyn|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Davertron|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] artagnon|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giu|16 years ago|reply
1) I'm interested in the field of Computer Science (CS) and I like to write articles about various things I encounter and learn in this field. I'm also interested in other fields, but since I studied CS and work in this field, it's the one in which I'm "up to the mark". Well, that doesn't mean that I won't be writing articles about topics from other fields.
2) I love it when interesting discussions start around the subject an article of mine is addressing. For me, this point is one of the most rewarding things I get from blogging, since you can learn quite a lot of new things thanks to it.
3) I love to write tutorials, with the hope that somebody can benefit from them (hopefully in a good way :) I'm always happy when I read a comment from a user, whom a tutorial has helped in some way.
4) Since I read quite a lot of articles online, I use my blog also to post linkings to such interesting articles. I think the one or the other linking is appreciated by the few readers I have :)
5) It helps me to improve my language skills, since I decided to write the articles in English rather than in German. IMHO it's a good exercise.
[+] [-] simonw|16 years ago|reply
I've been running it since 2002, and every job I've had since then has come about as a result of connections made through blog related activity. It's an incredibly powerful professional tool.
[+] [-] chipsy|16 years ago|reply
But I can make a very comprehensive, "perennial" blog post on some topic. And rather than setting out to stick to the one topic, I can just let it get filtered by other sites. The resulting site essentially describes all my best work.
[+] [-] jgrahamc|16 years ago|reply
2. To promote my book. I hope readers of my blog will be tempted to buy The Geek Atlas.
3. To quote Alain de Botton: "Authors write things down so as to have to think of them less."
4. It helps me practice writing.
[+] [-] _3ex7|16 years ago|reply
>3. To quote Alain de Botton: "Authors write things down so as to have to think of them less."
This is what I do when I have a lot on my mind. It is a nice exercise to flush everything out and get closure.
Also, can I get a review copy of your book? Ill write a review on O'Reilly .. No? ok didnt think so ...
[+] [-] dan_sim|16 years ago|reply
1) Noise. I have opinions about things but they are just adding more noise. The only place I write is here... and I know I shouldn't...
2) Blogging is writing about doing instead of doing (I think Jeff Atwood said that).
3) Bloggers will do anything for self-promotion and it makes me sick.
4) What a blogger writes just doesn't matter.
[+] [-] gacba|16 years ago|reply
If that was true, you wouldn't have quoted Jeff Atwood.
[+] [-] archon|16 years ago|reply
Actually, the fact that people take the time to write long, detailed posts about various programming topics matters a lot. At least it does to me, and I think I can pretty safely make the assumption that it matters to a few other newbie programmers too.
Unlike technical documentation, which answers the "what?" and "how?" questions, I find that blog writers (the good ones) often answer the "why?" question implicit in the information I'm trying to find, in addition to the other two. This is invaluable when I'm trying to understand what's going on, or when I don't know what questions I should be asking.
[+] [-] TomOfTTB|16 years ago|reply
For me it's about community. Physicists, Biologists, Medical Doctors all have professional journals. But for programmers and tech entrepreneurs there are the blogs. I think we all have to realize that blogs, and places like HN, are the conscience of the tech movement and I personally feel there's a duty in saying something if it's not being said elsewhere.
Look for example at Anthropomorphic Global Warming. Whether you believe in it or not you have to admit some of the stuff that's come out recently should never have been allowed to happen. Stuff like alternative opinions (see Richard Lindzen of MIT for example) being kept out of the science journals. The reason that sort of thing happens in a community is because rational scientists don't stand up to their community and say "This is wrong. I don't agree with this guy but we should hear him out". The fact that many in the climatology community didn't do that has set back our understanding of the phenomenon by years if not decades
To me blogging is a way to stand up to my community when I feel mistakes are being made or the community is going down the wrong path. That's why I do it.
[+] [-] dangrossman|16 years ago|reply
1) It attracts interesting people to contact me and offer work/projects/partnerships.
2) I like having a written history of the evolution of my business.
3) There are people interested in checking in on what I'm up to every once in a while that don't use social networks.
[+] [-] eelinow|16 years ago|reply
I update it when I feel there is something to say, not out of a need to keep it current for activity's sake.
I write for two reasons: Firstly, to get my ideas from my head into written form for personal reflection upon either a concept, experience or reaction to piece of relevant content. Secondly as a means of sharing my own experience(s) with others who might be looking for a different perspective based on someone else's background. I have also found that my technical blog has gained me several acquaintances, a few good friends, and considerable work. While my CV is rather lengthy due to my fifteen years in the industry, I have found that my blog posts offer far better insight into my thinking processes. As such, my best and brightest works situations transpired from those companies which found me via my writings.
[+] [-] jseliger|16 years ago|reply
The other blog, Grant Writing Confidential (http://blog.seliger.com), is about my family's business, and it serves a couple of purposes: 1) it signals to clients that we actually know what we're talking about, 2) it brings in search engine traffic we'd other wise not get, and c) we get a chance to write about our work, which virtually no one else understands.
So in both cases, I write for a mixture of business and pleasure.
[+] [-] RyanMcGreal|16 years ago|reply
I blog because: I love to write; I enjoy and learn a lot from the dialogue that blogging enables; I think regular writing exposed to the scrutiny of others makes me a better writer; I love to read what other people have written and want to contribute my share; I like knowing that something I wrote was valuable to someone else; I'm a bit narcissistic; it's a very effective method of structured procrastination [3]; and it has led to a few employment opportunities.
[1] http://quandyfactory.com
[2] http://raisethehammer.org
[3] http://quandyfactory.com/blog/1/
[+] [-] forinti|16 years ago|reply
1) To practice writing; 2) To develop stray ideas that keep floating around in my head inconclusively; 3) To reminisce about 8 bit hardware and software.
[+] [-] synnik|16 years ago|reply
1) To write. Whether or not I am good at it or anyone reads it, I enjoy the act of writing.
2) To record a bit of who I am, not for the internet, but for my kids, just in case I get hit by a bus before they grow up.
[+] [-] davidw|16 years ago|reply
http://journal.dedasys.com - to talk about the occasional tech related thing I've done that other people might find interesting. I don't write much, because I don't think I really do all that much that is worthy of communicating to the world at large.
http://padovachronicles.welton.it - for the occasional anecdote about life in Italy.
[+] [-] tim_church|16 years ago|reply
Also, this reminds me of a post from Paul Buchheit's blog awhile back: "By sharing more of our own thoughts and lives with the world, we contribute to the global pool of "how to live", and over time we also get contributions back from the world. Think of it as "open source living"."
http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009/11/open-as-in-water-fl...
[+] [-] fadmmatt|16 years ago|reply
I do research in programming languages, but until yesterday, I never posted much about my research area.
I use my blog to post on topics related to courses I teach. (Mostly advanced compilers and static analysis.)
I also post on new ideas from others that I don't have time to do original research in, but that I find useful or interesting.
I'm also using my blog to recruit students for our Ph.D. program. It worked pretty well for that this year.
[1] http://matt.might.net/articles/
[+] [-] oscardelben|16 years ago|reply
I'm also practicing English a lot, and I'm improving my writings skills every day.
It's also an opportunity for me to learn new things and compare them with like minded people.
I write mainly in 2 blogs, http://oscardelben.com, and http://www.freestylemind.com/
[+] [-] dkarl|16 years ago|reply
When I write about food and recipes, I send an email to three or four people I know will be interested. When I write about a backpacking or travel destination, it's an email to a different handful of people. When I write about exercise, I put it on a private blog where I record my food, exercise, and weight every day. When I write about software, I usually throw it away, though I often find an opportunity to recycle the thoughts and language in a discussion online or in person. When I write about a book, I share what I've learned by talking to a friend who would be interested. Et cetera.
I've thought about putting everything on a blog and just sending links to people when there's an entry they'd be interested in, but writing a blog that has no consistent readership and constantly bugging people to read it just feels pathetic for some reason.