I have recently (as of 7.5 minutes ago) decided to try the 100DaysToOffload challenge for 2022. The only requirement, publish 100 posts on a personal blogging platform within the year. Like many software engineers I have started countless personal sites, but have alway shad difficulty committing to the blogging aspect. Perhaps foremost, this portion always seemed relatively unimportant, and therefore has been secondary to actually writing code.
However, with deeper insight there is unbounded benefit for both personal and community growth. First, similar to my PhD track, it offers a platform to address one of my inefficiencies. I tend to be quieter, not from lack of knowledge or communication skills, but for whatever reason I dislike contentious real-time discussions. This is undoubtedly a hindrance for my lofty ambitions, where effective communication is paramount to career advancement. I hope to periodically spur stimulating discussion and in doing so branch out a bit. Second, this may open opportunities to deepen my knowledge-base. Exploring relatively unknown topics is a fantastic way to learn. Along the lines of the Dunning-Kruger effect, often the further you dive the more you discover you don’t know anything. Finally, though the aforementioned reasoning is admittedly selfish, perhaps most importantly is the opportunity to contribute to the greater community. How often is “Google It” thrown around? Posts hereof may be that which is Googled for.
As far as content, I foresee this transitioning from this meta blog post about blogging to being a blend of (1) technical tutorials covering software engineering principles, distributed systems design, early-stage projects, etc (2) my experiences post-academia working in a tech startup, and (3) any variant of semi-coherent ramblings I deem fit. Strap on in, this could get fun.
1 day(s) offloaded in the 100DaysToOffload challenge.