Regular Blogging …. apparently a must! But …

Following the advice of many people (notably Penelope Trunk , Steve Yegge), one (I) must maintain and update a personal blog in order to success in the work place/job market. In You should write blogs, Steve lists 4 reasons why many don’t blog. I mostly identify with:

Reason #3: Nobody will read my blog.

and its simple, I got nothing interesting to talk about.

Here I am, a 24 years old software engineering Grad, freelancing on a game project. Technical issues? I’m still not experienced for that, and there are million of blogs for that and will do it 10-20 times better. Work place issues? I work from home and don’t get out much (so that kills talking about local events). And don’t say about working from home. Freelance Switch, Anti 9 to 5 Guide, Location Independent  all do a fine job at that. Drawing? again, million other artists got that covered. Video games … covered. Daily life tips and tricks? …covered (I love you lifeHacker!). Anime …covered. Oh coffee! I can … nope, covered.

That leaves me with the last thing, a blog that points to other blogs entries and talk about them (I know, highly original). I’m not bashing the people that do it, some of them give you a very interesting read, even without reading the blog they are pointing to. But again, there isn’t a single topic that I can devote a blog to (or make it worthy of following/subscribing to), nor can I give thoughtful insights on other peoples blogs.

But, I can try.

What comes to mind is that I can pull a Seinfeld and make it a blog ‘about nothing’. Just daily (weekly … every 10 days) ramblings that may seem interesting to someone. If I can build a crowed, write interesting stuff and get that great programming job in the process, great! If not, then at least I’ll have a log of what I liked and disliked in a certain period of my life (in case I had amnesia or early Alzheimer’s). Or I can read my blog 10 years from now and laugh/cry saying “What a noob!”

Noticing that I wrote 2 paragraphs with almost one ‘I’ per sentence, here is ‘my’ other problem with blogging from Steve’s list:

Reason #4: Blogging is narcissistic.

As much as ‘I’ love to stand out in anything ‘I’ do, ‘I’ hate portraying that ‘I”m narcissistic or even hint it (looking at all the ‘I’s, apparently I’m not doing a good job in that).

But I’ll risk it, just in case one day

When it comes down to it, I’m asking you to write blogs because I know you’ve got really interesting things to say, even if you don’t think they’re that interesting. Your life is interesting, and your opinions of technology, Amazon, and life in general matter to me, and to others. I bet you’ve got a lot you could teach me, even if you don’t think you do. Heck, I was in my mid-twenties when I realized I had a gross conceptual misunderstanding about the reason it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The stuff I think I know is an invisible speck compared to the superset of what all people know today. Do me a favor and save me the effort of tracking you down in the hall and asking you to enlighten me.

Besides, I’m not ready to hear what you have to say yet. When I am ready, it’ll be in your blog

— Steve Yegge

I’m blogging for you Steve (narcissism overload!!).

Thanks for reading, have a nice day!