Why do I bother writing down my experiences, opinions, and things I’ve learned? Here’s some thoughts:
Share Knowledge
It always bugs me when there is “common knowledge” that isn’t available online. When you know something and its not available online, you’re forcing everyone else to relearn it the hard way. Sharing it with others just seems socially responsible.
And actually, sometimes the person I’m sharing the knowledge with is “future me”, as I easily forget.
Remember and Preserve
In addition to sharing what I’ve learned on my blog, I share my experiences. Most people won’t care and that’s fine. But I want to remember them. And I’d like my posterity to be able to hear about them. Now that I’m approaching 8 years out of college, I’m realizing those memories have faded a lot more than I anticipated. So writing down my currently fresh memories will help prevent those from fading too.
Solidify My Own Ideas
Sometimes I write my ideas and opinions in my blog. I’m not usually a super opinionated person, but when I write them down and think them through, they start to take shape.
For example, while I wrote about the history of WordPress, I realized software freedom is actually a topic I care quite a bit about.
Get a Reality Check
But sometimes my ideas are out-to-lunch, and someone leaves a comment saying so. And that’s helpful. For instance, I once wrote about how you “can’t open a pull request (a request to change software) and run”, but someone pointed out that’s actually fine. Their rationale was because sometimes a pull requests intent isn’t to change the software, but just to document and give feedback on how you’ve used it. That was something I hadn’t considered before, and probably wouldn’t have had I not written the post.
Endorphins Rush of Occasional Approval
Lastly, I should admit I’ve started to get an endorphin rush to see how many people read, like, or share my posts. This is, of course, a bad reason to do it, but I think it’s important to be honest. You need to be aware of a problem like this before you can try to fix it.
My feelings of self-worth should, of course, but unrelated to how many people approve of what I share. But I’m human, and the habit is hard to kick. Besides, I think a lot more of us have this problem than we acknowledge.
Eat My Own Dog Food
I work for a company that makes WordPress plugins, Event Espresso, so it makes sense for me to actually use WordPress. This way I get exposed to a lot of its features (and deficiencies, and bugs). Being a WordPress developer without using it seems like being a mechanic who doesn’t drive.
How about you?
What benefits do you get from blogging? Or maybe what problems do you see with it?
Ps: no, the picture of me and Alf has pretty well nothing to do with the post topic. That’s actually pretty common nowadays. And this is my blog and I can do what I want on it.
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Hi, Mike – You have listed great reasons to blog. Although I was unaware of it when I began blogging, my biggest benefit to writing online has been ‘Connection’ and ‘Community.’ These features are what have kept me motivated and inspired to continue to blog.
Thanks for sharing your experience Donna. I suppose you could alternatively use Facebook or Instagram to get those benefits, but I suppose they’d be more “closed-door”. Your posts would be quite limited to just users of those platforms, whereas in blogging potentially anyone online could participate.