Why Blog?

With the new year, it is good to re-evaluate certain habits to see if they still offer value, and one habit a I would like to re-evaluate here is why I blog:
- Organize my thoughts and opinions
- Solidify my knowledge
- Bookmark my learning (virtual breadcrumb)
- Validate my ideas
- Provide others with valuable lessons
- Connect with the community

A lot of developers are intimidated by the idea of blogging due to different reasons, such as:
- Do not have enough value to contribute
- Cannot write well enough to impress (I am not Bob Martin or David Heinemeier Hansson)
- Very time consuming

Actually though, everybody brings a different perspective and in a way, it is selfish to hold back on sharing your experience when others could have benefited from the lessons you learned.

About writing well, it is a learn-able skill, and in the Internet age where expressions like BTW and IMHO are common, it really does not matter as long as you get the idea across.

Finally, regarding time spent, you can always limit the size of your blog posts or break longer blog posts into multiple parts, which as a side effect builds up more anticipation for your blog posts.

I did not start blogging by writing an amazing article on software architecture or anything like that. I simply mentioned a good science fiction read, and here is my first blog post to prove it: http://andymaleh.blogspot.com/2006/11/plunge-into-blogging-world.html

Now if you have never blogged before, go write your first blog post now! It only takes 15 minutes or less and puts on you on a great path for sharing, organizing, and expanding your knowledge.