Why Blog?

Whenever I sit down (or more accurately, lay down on my oversized beanbag) and attempt to come up with topics to write for this blog, my immediate thought is that I don't have anything remarkable to write about. I haven't built applications that are used by millions of users, nor have I scaled said applications to get the most out of their hardware. I can't imagine inspiring other people like some great engineering bloggers have inspired me through very clever and enlightening anecdotes. They have a verifiable pedigree, experience, and social presence. You can't help but admire them and take their word for it. I'm talking about individuals such as Uncle Bob, Jeff Atwood, and Rachel By The Bay.

I've been reflecting on this a bit, and I've come to the conclusion that there are, for the purpose of this article, two categories of blogs. The first is what I described above; it's full of new information, presented in a way that's very alluring and tickles a specific part of the brain. I come out of those blogs learning something new, and wondering how I can apply my newfound knowledge on my job. These are the blogs you can name drop during standup and everyone starts nodding.

Then there's the second category of blogs. These blogs are more instructional, and teach a specific topic or tool. These are the blogs that teach you "how to run Docker on Mac" or "how to setup a PersistentVolumeClaim in Kubernetes." They also contain new information, but it is usually expected information. You anticipate this information, because you likely googled "how do I run Docker on my Mac?". Chances are, you weren't scrolling through Medium and stumbled upon a Docker tutorial and decided to check it out.

There's nothing wrong with the second type of blogs. I use them all the time, but when I compare myself with the authors of the first category, I feel like I come short. How can I possibly provide that same inspiration when I haven't done anything (as) remarkable?

I can't say I have come up with an answer to that question. However, I may have a hypothesis that can allow me to have a healthier relationship with writing: maybe it is all relative. Maybe Rachel's stories are so interesting to me because I'm at a particular stage in my career. If this is true, then this means that there are many other engineers who are at an earlier stage in their careers where my stories can be equally interesting and mind-blowing.

Just because I know something today doesn't mean that everyone already does. My experiences and stories may not be as interesting to me, having lived through them already, but they may interesting to others. If I'm lucky, at least one person learns the same lesson I did.