The original post was published on my blog on June 20, 2023, long before I realized it might be interesting to the dev.to community.
Hello!
Until this year, I had never published a blog post on the internet. However, in the past month, I have published 10 of them and shared them on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Mastodon, the only three social/professional networks I use. This is not my usual approach, and you may wonder why I'm doing it. The reasons are multifaceted, so let me explain and hopefully encourage others like me to start writing as well.
Exiting comfort zone
Writing down my thoughts and sharing them with a broader audience, beyond my close friends and colleagues, has been challenging. It felt uncomfortable and scary at first, as I feared being judged or criticized, especially when expressing myself in a non-native language.
It's tempting to stay in the comfort zone and play it safe. However, throughout life, I have discovered that the most effective way to grow as a person or professional is by stepping out of that comfort zone, embracing the discomfort, and ultimately leveling up.
Moreover, the reality is that the vast majority of people simply don't care about what you write or whether you write at all. They are busy with their own lives. So the risk of negative consequences for sharing your thoughts is incredibly low. On the other hand, by not sharing, you're missing out on the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals.
Organizing thoughts
I often find my mind filled with various ideas and thoughts, racing ahead faster than my ability to express them, particularly when I'm excited about something. This can lead to important points being skipped or lost in conversations. This doesn’t happen when I write.
When I write, I can organize my thoughts more efficiently. It allows me to validate my ideas and filter out unnecessary noise. While it takes time to put my thoughts into writing, the end result is a more concise and clear message.
In fact, at my day job, I jokingly refer to it as "proof of work" when I encourage colleagues to describe their ideas in writing, whether in pull requests or design documents. Having a written document doesn't guarantee the idea is good, but it ensures that the person has taken the mental exercise of understanding their idea before sharing it with others. This practice saves time for everyone involved, as flaws and discrepancies become more evident when ideas are written down.
Learning how to write
As I mentioned earlier, I didn't write much in the past, and my writing skills left much to be desired — and they still do. However, at a certain stage in one's career or personal growth, good writing skills become essential for advancement. No matter how proficient you are as an engineer, designer, or any other technical specialist, the leverage and reach of your technical abilities are inherently limited. Similarly, the value you can create alone has its limits. By combining technical skills with soft skills, including efficient and clear writing, you can gain more influence and respect from others and become truly unstoppable 🙂
Fortunately, writing skills can be learned through regular practice. There's no magic formula — just practice, learn, and evolve. That's why I'm writing: to learn how to write!
Getting feedback
Lastly, I write publicly to share my thoughts and ideas to receive feedback. In this series of posts, I have sought feedback on Secutils.dev and indie-hacking in general. As I mentioned earlier, I understand that the majority of readers may not have an interest in what I write, and that's perfectly fine. I don't expect extensive feedback from everyone. However, I truly value the feedback from those who resonate with the ideas I share to the extent that they invest their own time in reaching out to me via DM, email, or comment!
Here's a fun fact: Take a look at the screenshot of the number of visitors to my blog over time, with a few observations. It's interesting to see that the posts I put quite a bit of effort into, particularly the ones about technology, operations, or finances, didn't attract many readers. It seems like those articles didn't quite capture their attention.
However, the easiest post for me to write, which essentially offered a "something for nothing" scheme — "Running a micro-SaaS for less than 1€ a month" — attracted a larger audience. Interestingly, the posts with the fewest readers provided the most valuable feedback. I believe this is because the readers who were willing to invest their time in reading and digesting non-trivial information also had a lot to share on the topic.
 blog statistics](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsecutils.dev%2Fdocs%2Fimg%2Fblog%2F2023-06-20_readers_stat.png)
That wraps up today's post, thanks for taking the time to read it!
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Thank you for being a part of the community!
Top comments (7)
I started here on Dev community more than a year ago, and I learned a lot by writing and sharing the things I'm learning, also my writing skills have evolved drastically, and I wrote a similar post to yours, more than a month ago, I'd love it if you read it and give me your opinion on it 🌟
Here's the link: dev.to/rasheedmozaffar/why-you-sho...
Hey @rasheedmozaffar, great post! I also noticed that you publish exclusively on dev.to. I think it'd be great if you had your own blog that dev.to posts can reference through canonical links. Your posts contribute to building your personal brand, and it's a good idea to have your own platform for them. By the way, since you're a C# engineer (I was one too, many years ago!), I'm sure you're familiar with Scott Hanselman. Check out his blog post on this topic at hanselman.com/blog/your-words-are-...
Thank you so much for the feedback, I truly appreciate it 🙏
I believe you're right about having a personal blogging website 💯 I've taken the idea into consideration and soon I'll start building my own space on the web as I read Scott's blog post and it's sufficiently convincing and convenient to have a personal blog.
Hey, I really resonate with this post, I've recently started writing. Nice insight!
That's great! Good luck, and don't forget to share your experience after a few posts. I'm sure tons of people, like you and me, will appreciate your personal experience.
Great post, thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the feedback, Calvin!