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Ali Taha Shakir
Ali Taha Shakir

Posted on • Originally published at alitahashakir.dev

Should developers write blogs?

This post is a humble suggestion rather than a discussion on why you should start to write a blog as soon as possible?

Writing a blog is not a one day job, it is a commitment that you keep working on.

When I made the decision to start blogging, among other things my primary inclination was to give back to the awesome community which has given me so much. I am here, because many people knowing or unknowingly have helped me, and I am hoping that I and my content can help others in the same manner.

Furthermore, writing is unavoidable, as a developer I have to produce some type of content in written form regularly. It could be a brief for a project, product release notes, or a simple git commit messages. Since easy to understand and concise technical writing takes practice, it made sense to make proactive effort to practice it. Writing a blog is a perfect opportunity to get some practice.

There are many reasons for how blogging is helpful . In no particular order here are a few:

Blogs become my online notes

I started my career as designer then transitioned into development. As I started to learn JavaScript I realized that my brain was not wired as a developer and it was hard for me to process and retain information and concepts that I have learned.

Writing a blog post about a particular topic made me learn about it more extensively than just watching a tutorial, and everything that I have learned, I have noted it in my blog post which I can refer to whenever I need a refresher on that topic.

Giving back to community

While learning, I found the most useful resource usually were the articles written by other developers who worked through the steps on how to use something. While technology is always changing and evolving, if you have something to share, then share it even if you think it's obscure or might not be useful, there's always someone else who is working on something similar.

Even if you are a new developer with little experience, write what you have learned from your experience, perhaps it's useful to another developer with less (or even more) experience following their own skills development path.

It looks professional and validates your knowledge

In tech world, developer of any experience or education can fall prey to developer impostor syndrome, despite external evidence proving otherwise. Writing blogs about what you know is an easy way to bring your knowledge to everyone. It validates your knowledge to you and others.

The topics you choose to write about, make it easy for potential employers and clients to appraise you. They can better determine the depth of knowledge you have, and how you can be helpful to them.

Conclusion

Above, I have stated a few reasons on why you should start blogging. I am sure other people have their own interesting reason on why you started blogging and I would love to hear them.

Thanks for Reading.

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Top comments (4)

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raphael_jambalos profile image
Raphael Jambalos

Hi Ali! I agree with you on your blogging reasons. I personally blog as a final step in my research. When I'm able to write about it in a way that forces me to be organized enough for other people to understand my thoughts, I consider my research sufficient.

My blog also helped me land my 2nd job, as a Senior Cloud Developer. One look at my blog and they saw the depth of the topics that I write about. Plus points for those blog posts that have a lot of likes and comments.

An unexpected positive side effect that I got was when someone actually commented on my blog posts, and not just an ordinary comment but something that tells me that they have actually read it. A few people actually message me about my Docker tutorials and I helped them to have it up and running. This helps me sustain writing blog posts because I know I'm not writing to a wall, where no one listens.

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alitahashakir profile image
Ali Taha Shakir

Hi Raphael, you are so right! its a great feeling when someone read your content and interacts with you about it.

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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Totally agree blogging really opens up the door to new opportunities. You also meet new people, and create great content. And all of this is motivation to post more.

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alitahashakir profile image
Ali Taha Shakir

Absolutely!