A friend and I were instant messaging the other day and he asked me why I started this blog. I never got a chance to reply to him directly so I figured I jot some thoughts down here. I know there are still a lot of people that think blogging is a waste of time. They could be right. I suppose it all depends on how you look at it. Some have blogs simply as diaries and others as journalists. Some have blogs to teach and others to learn. Some just want to publish their thoughts on a variety of subjects and that is likely the camp I fall into. I blog because there are some things I want to capture in writing and share with others. Do with it as you will. Hopefully, my posts will have some value from time to time.
If you ask around Gestalt’s Joplin, MO office who is the one nagging the developers the most to blog, it’s me. Guilty as charged. I encourage the developers I work with to blog for two big reasons:
- Learning to write about what you know as a developer helps make you a better developer.
- The positive exposure you can get from blogging is good for your career and Gestalt as a whole.
Pretty simple reasons. The fact that I evangelize blogging throughout Gestalt’s Joplin office is another reason why I blog. It’s pretty hard to encourage others to do something you aren’t willing to do.
One of my favorite stories I love to share with people lately that shows one of the unexpected benefits of blogging goes like this: James Lorenzen, a senior developer in the Joplin office is helping an intern with a Maven question. James says, “Open up your browser and go to ‘chadthedeveloper.blogspot.com‘” Before he finishes, I start to laugh. “Chad The Developer” is Chad Sturtz’s blog. Chad happens to sit about 20 feet across the room from the intern. It’s funny on a variety of levels, not the least of which is the name of Chad’s blog. (I know, look who’s talking!)
A couple of other great examples of what blogging has done for some of the developers at Gestalt.
Jeff Black writes a post titled, “Source Control Tips for NetBeans Projects” and the NetBeans Community Docs Manager leaves a comment on Jeff’s blog asking him to add this entry to the NetBeans wiki. Chad Gallemore, one of the first Joplin office developers to start publicly blogging, has had people directed to his post covering how to create a JBI Binding Component deployment plug-in for NetBeans as one of the best resources on the subject.
What does any of this have to do with why I blog? It’s huge. Being able to point to the posts written by some of the many smart people I work with at Gestalt is one of the things I most enjoy about blogging. While I get my kicks out of writing here, I really do get most excited reading and linking to other Gestalt bloggers’ posts. I hope those at Gestalt that read this post decide to start up their own blog. I know you’re out there and I’d like nothing other than to see your posts show up in the “One Nice Big Gestalt Blogs RSS Feed” in my feed reader. Who knows, I might even link to you. 😉
P.S. Where else would I be able to share the rarely disappointing “EC Quotes“? I think that’s the #1 reason to blog. Who cares what I think, EC is always more entertaining!