Why starting a blog?
Project inspired from Hashnode Bootcamp - September 2021
Last week I started participating on the Technical Writing Bootcamp offered by Hashnode. As homework from the bootcamp, we were assigned to create our first blog.
I wanted to use this occasion to do my first entry, some brainstorming and set goals for the future.
Why to start a blog in the first place?🤔 (motivation and start)
Something that surprised me in the past, was the fact that good documentation does impact our progress and learning. Sometimes, documentation is underestimated, or we might be surprised by an index with more than 50 entries😦. But... I must say it marks a great difference in projects and studies once we get a grasp on it. I would be happy to contribute to it, because I find it inspiring. :)
In a few words, I wish to do technical writing because I want to explain how things work precisely, to allow others to have a faster learning and efficiency.
I believe this statement answer why I'm starting to blog and what motivates me. None less, I would like to expand on that:
Other reasons to start blogging? 📔 (Goals)
To show commitment in my career
Having recently started my career, I wish to show my commitment to future employers or connections, and often, words are not enough. I wish this to become a piece of evidence of my efforts to improve and my continuous learning.
I currently ignore which path I wish to follow
I ended community school recently, and wish to register for university. None less, I must say that I am not sure which specialty in IT to follow: data analysis, programming, machine learning, AI, writing, nanotechnologies. There are a lot of branches from where to chose from!
That is one of the reasons why I chose this career: there are a lot of positions that are open if I ever wish to change of path.
None less, in many cases, specialty is more recognized than generalization. As programmers, we can learn 10 languages, but if we cannot show our experience with them, we are in disadvantage compared to another person having 10 years+ experience in a single language. The same goes with other technologies and careers.
That is why I want to decide: which branch should I specialize on???
Up to now, I assisted to several workshops about data science, programming, web design and more to find an answer. I also realized something else:
- What if other people are in the same position than me? 🤷♀️
I think that, perhaps I can share with you events and resources that I find to help you in your search. Even, we could help each other trough this network.
I am not sure if I will be able to reach many of you, but even if it's one, I wish you the best for your career!
I want to type faster ✏️
As simple as that. I want to improve my WPS.
I want to keep motivated while learning about new technologies
I am currently deepening my knowledge on programming languages and Tech in general. I must say that it is easy to lose motivation when we are learning alone, so I prefer to share my learning to keep following my goals.
Participate actively in a community
I wish to give back the helpful knowledge I received trough communities like StackOverFlow, GitHub and more. For beginners, help is much more accessible thanks to all the tech communities out there!
Possible Obstacles to blogging
I'm not very good in English! (perfectionism)
Personally, I started learning English as a kid trough television, since English is the main language in Canada, alongside French. Where I leave, French is the most spoken language, so I never got to use English fluently.
After attending community school, I HAD to learn English yes or yes, since my courses and books were in that language. Overall, it was a good experience filled of little misinterpretations and using Google translate on a week- err daily basis.
I think I got better now, but when it comes to technical and professional writing, I feel my quality might not keep up compared to standards. None less, one cannot get better just waiting to get better. I hope that blogging will help me improve.
Explaining is not my main strength
Personally, I am not the best spokesperson I know. Sometimes I don't choose the right words, or I doubt about my own knowledge, which can bring more confusion than good.
I believe explaining is an essential skill, no matter which work you do. Even in a everyday conversation, explanations are useful to share our point of view and to communicate.
I am planning to improve that by breaking explanations in sections, by titles, as in an index book. To keep ideas organized and room to improve them trough revision.
Any current ideas for blogs?
Right now I was reading about React.js and Javascript. I think these will make good subjects for a first blog series.
If not... I wanted to learn more about old programming languages as COBOL and RPG. I am very curious to learn how they were used, and how they could work with the limited resources of the time😮 (compared to today). These programming languages are not popular but perhaps it can interest some of you!😃
I want to have another series meanwhile, talking about technology events, webinars and interviews of interest for starters and intermediates like me.
Conclusion
I must say that I was inspired by Chris Bongers' talk during the bootcamp. He briefly talked about problems that might arise as a blogger and specifically about consistency.
In a few words, he said that consistency should be present in both the frequency of an activity as well than the effort put in said activity. An example could be: learning a new recipe each three days, and always with the same effort and motivation.
I must say that it encourages me, to create my own schedule, since I would stop worrying about last minute tasks, which may result lacking on quality.
Any current ideas of good habits for blogging?
- At first sight, I think that reading about the chosen blog subject is a MUST.
- Keeping up with consistency.
- Keeping up with quality.
- Follow the SMART guideline.
- Accept constructive criticism.
As final words, thank you for the reading. I hope you enjoyed this first entry!