Comment by kkdai

Comment by kkdai 9 days ago

I’ve been writing a technical blog for over 20 years, and I believe that each blog post helps me think more deeply, examining every source and related code carefully. This process has been incredibly valuable to me, and even in the LLM era of 2024, I still enjoy blogging. Often, the primary user of my blog is myself; I go back to my past entries to help guide further research and exploration.

I once heard a senior developer say, 'I’m not shy to admit that after I finish a blog post, I’m at ease to forget about it—because I know I can always look it up again.

jffhn 9 days ago

>each blog post helps me think more deeply

The most on point quote I know about this idea: "I don't write to say what I think, but to know what I think." (E. Berl)

Writing can help to become less confused, but being confused can incite to write a lot (J. Joubert: "The supremely false mind is the one that never senses when it goes astray.").

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bryanrasmussen 9 days ago

Although this is related to technical writing it is also similar to one of the ideas in "A theory as to why Art is created" https://medium.com/luminasticity/a-theory-as-to-why-art-is-c...
>the creation exists afterwards, and is thus available as a form of mnemonic for the creator. They can revisit and re-experience that sensation of creation that would otherwise have been transitory.
Other parts suggest that the literary writer writes to sharpen and go deeper into the experience of thinking, to extend it.
The two ideas seem related.

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workflowing 8 days ago

Yes, avoid pronouns. Right to remove them.

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elric 9 days ago

I often write blog posts only to never publish them because they served their purpose (and I'm too lazy to edit them until they make for a nice read).

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simonw 9 days ago

My number one productivity tip for blogging is to lower your standards. Don't hold onto a piece until you think it's good enough - always publish when you know that there are improvements you could still make.
The alternative is a folder full of drafts and never publishing anything at all.
With the exception of egregious errors none of your readers will ever know how much better your piece of writing could have been.

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- syndicatedjelly 7 days ago
  
  I don’t think the original comment you’re replying to was about productivity. I agree with the original comment - 99% of what I write is for the purpose of making sense of things. They aren’t for external consumption, and never will be. Writing for oneself is entirely different than writing for others
  
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Expurple 8 days ago

This is kinda similar to never open-sourcing some useful proof-of-concept software, because of the percieved need to polish, test and document it

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- elric 7 days ago
  
  Also the perceived need of (not) being useful. I don't feel the need to have all my stuff out there. That's as true for many of my unpublished blog posts as it is for many of my unreleased projects.
  The world doesn't need another sudoku solver, and I don't think mine is any better than the thousands already out there. The same is true for my unpublished rants or my unpublished howtos.
  
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kstrauser 9 days ago

That tracks for me. My most read blog posts were howtos I wrote for my own future documentation.

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