Ask YC: How important do you think it is to have a blog?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=139374

by aagha • 18 years ago

13 20 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It seems like everyone and their mother is blogging. I'm getting ready to jump into the job market (sr. tech mgr.) and don't blog, but read a ton of them. Does the fact that I don't have a blog of my own hurt?

Alex3917• 18 years ago

People will tell you that you shouldn't have a Facebook account or a blog because it might hurt your future job prospects. The thing is, if I Google you and your name doesn't come up then you are, quite literally, a nobody. And who wants to hire a nobody?

mechanical_fish• 18 years ago

The problem is that, to speak in over-broad stereotypes, everyone under 25 grew up with blogs and agrees with you. Meanwhile, everyone over 40 thinks that you are a dangerous loose cannon who might blab the Vital Corporate Secrets all over the internet and embarrass your boss. This kind of creates a dilemma for those of us in our mid-thirties, who can see the future but who sometimes have to move in a world that's run by people who don't.

I think the ultimate answer is... it depends. I will say that, if you don't like to write blog posts, you probably should avoid starting a big, echoingly empty blog and just use something like Twitter, or a microblogging engine, or Facebook to establish your online presence. This is kind of why Facebook is there -- to allow folks to express themselves online without having to write entire paragraphs full of interesting and original prose. Not everyone is cut out to be a magazine writer.

The ultimate coward's answer is Linkedin, a site which basically caters to frightened 37-year-olds like me who know they need an online presence but are afraid to actually say anything.

I think having a blog is good for my own career, but unfortunately my blog is really lapsed right now because I find it much more entertaining to reply to posts on news.yc. :)

briztar• 18 years ago

Everybody may be blogging, but very few blogs are actually worth reading - many are just regurgitation.

I think it comes down to: Do you have something original and substantive to say? If you do, then blogging is a great forum for it. If not, then you'll be lost in the noise and it won't help.

serhei• 18 years ago

In some ways blogging makes the succeed/fail proposition read as "create original and substantive content or fail" (because people will otherwise be able to point to your crappy blog as a sign of general incompetence). And when you get into the habit of thinking up original and substantive ideas, some of your ideas will inevitably be about your main product/job..

jgrahamc• 18 years ago

I hate the regurgitation thing. The entire commenting on other people's comments about other people's original work is just such a massive circle jerk.

When decided to write my blog I made two rules (which I rarely break): no linking to other blogs just to stroke my ego with an opinion post, no personal experience posts (i.e. today I went to the Taj Mahal and...)

davidw2• 18 years ago

I think some personal experiences are interesting, if they're somewhat unique. People seem to appreciate some of my writing about living in Italy, and even more importantly, I've made some good friends after people have contacted me to say hi and get information. I don't mix that up with the technical/business blog, though, which is on another domain entirely.

dkasper• 18 years ago

People only have time to really read a few blogs regularly, thus, it is a rather hard niche to get into.

Reading blogs, however, is more important than writing. I actually got asked in a job interview recently who some of my favorite bloggers were. One I mentioned was joelonsoftware, after which the interviewer told me that their company uses Fogbugz, mainly because they too like Joel's blog. It was a definite good point in the interview :-)

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should only put stuff on the internet that you won't mind people reading years from now, because once it's out there it's out there.

nside• 18 years ago

When people will search for you online, you'd rather have them land on your blog, no? This is a great opportunity to market yourself. You don't have to blog to build an audience..

pchristensen3• 18 years ago

And it's not that hard, especially if you don't have a famous or extremely common name. I got to the top Google search result for my name in less than 3 months.

davidw2• 18 years ago

Another tip for accomplishing the same thing: being active on mailing lists and having a .signature with a link to your site. Open source projects are a great way to build up google points.

shafqat• 18 years ago

Depends on why you want to blog. If you are in the corporate world, and are trying to market yourself in the job market, not sure if a blog is essential. But if you are an entrepreneur and working on a startup, it is absolutely essential. Its the voice of your company and helps you connect with your community. We're just launching now, but have build a great community over the past few months just by starting our company blog early.

Either way, if you enjoy writing, just do it!

TrevorJ• 18 years ago

I'd say if you want to put the effort in to present yourself professionally, form coherent well thought-out posts and keep at it on a regular basis then it's a winner. I find having a anonymous blog on some social networking site where I can rant if I feel like it is nice too, of course if you were to get ridiculously famous somebody might figure it out :-)

jarnold• 18 years ago

Blogging for mortals is to show who you are, how you think. When someone is interested in you (interviewer), they will read backwards through your past blog posts until they get bored. That's it. Post every month or so when you have something interesting to say.

mattmaroon2• 18 years ago

There are few things in life I can recommend more highly than writing. PG wrote a great essay as to why that is, so I won't rehash it here.

Blogging is just like any other writing, except with the added caveat that you know people will read it. That makes it so much more motivational than, say, writing a diary, or working on a novel that you suspect you'll never complete.

It's changed my life in ways I can't even describe.

pchristensen3• 18 years ago

Matt, I feel the same way (and I enjoy your writing!). I don't know why people would downvote you for saying that.

mattmaroon2• 18 years ago

Yeah, I'm not sure either. Wasn't my most informative comment ever, as I didn't go into much detail, but wouldn't have guessed it would be downmodded.

I never can predict what people will like here.

cousin_it• 18 years ago

I blog in Russian, and have considered switching to English for a wider audience. A difficult choice.

Yukas• 18 years ago

Funny I've thought today about the same.

I've found that I better express my thoughts about project in my terrrrrible English.

I think it's because: 1. It's more natural to write about programming in English 2. My English constrain me. And this good =) 3. I need to write less symbols

parker• 18 years ago

This is actually a great question. I've been toying around with the idea of having a personal blog, but when I look around at most personal blogs, they've been updated like three times since the new year, just talked about some conference that I would have had to been at to enjoy, and really offered me nothing. After awhile, what's the point of even looking?

It's nice to put on a business card, but I question whether its mere presence actually makes a difference in selling you to the public. Unless it's regularly updated, it just looks budget...

pchristensen3• 18 years ago

Unless you take the effort to write regularly (doesn't have to be daily or weekly, just consistently) and write quality stuff there, don't bother. A crappy blog won't help and may reflect poorly on you. On the other hand, a well written blog with lots of quality posts can make a big difference.

Ask YC: How important do you think it is to have a blog?

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