Init weblog

I’m by no means a writer, but I want to help people, and pass on what I learn. Putting thoughts down for others helps to structure my own understanding such that I can explain things better.

I predict what I write will be largely technical, focusing on software development and particular technologies, but I may diverge into the personal every now and then. I intend on tagging appropriately to help guide readers.

Helping others

I believe there is a unique joy that comes from helping others. Life is not meant to be lived purely for selfish gain, but more-so for the benefit of others.

My target audience is: people I’m currently trying to share particular knowledge with, or perhaps thinking about myself 5 years ago. The idea is to point people in the right direction, and separate the noise from the signal of knowledge.

Teaching to learn

Teaching is a great form of learning, requiring the teacher to understand concepts well in order to communicate them in language appropriate to the audience.

Wikipedia: Learning by Teaching

I hope to be corrected if I’m attempting to teach things that are not accurate.

Keeping it timeless

Technology is moving so fast that blog posts get out of date super quick. I see this looking back at posts from a couple of years ago.

I’m hoping to improve the longevity of posts by being smart about what I exclude from posts: dates, technologies. I will sometimes want to focus on particular technologies - in which case it is important to date / version, as I know the frustration of reading some outdated instructions.

I hope to create some concise, timeless morsels of knowledge. Something similar to Martin Fowler’s bliki concept:

Like a wiki, however, each entry is a wikiWord as I try to organize the bliki through named concepts. I write the entries to be things that are valid for a long time, and most bliki posts are just as valid now as when I wrote them.

So I’ll want to be making edits to posts also as I revise content. Writing entire posts to revise previous content is also an option.

Pointing to further resources

There’s usually more detail on a topic already talked about by someone else, so I should make every effort to link to such resources for the benefit of the reader. But I’ll need to think carefully about the longevity of those links. A broken-link scanning tool will help!

Some bloggers I admire: