Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?

Long story short. I was 18... graduated high school and knew it all. I was going to get a good job, work my way up the ladder, get paid well, and live happily ever after with the girl of my dreams, wherever she was. Yeah... it didn't end up like that at all.

I hated my job. I wondered why I did it. For the paycheck. Until one day, after 3 years of service with the company, I asked my boss for a raise. He gave me a penny. That day changed my life. I decided to go to college. During my time at college, I studied while I was a security officer on his payroll. I did my job but now I was getting paid to educate myself.

Eventually, I'd move on from that job, work others, live in another country, live in another state, go to college in another state, volunteer in different parts of the world, etc. I had stories to tell about my life, and how all these situations, including the bad ones, helped improve my life, such as working for a tyrant boss -- who helped unleash a hidden talent I had for programming. I will forever not like the man, but what he taught me, helped me stay focused and start a business.

Anyways, I eventually became a web designer. I went to school for psychology, which is what I wanted to practice, but I had student loans and no one was hiring, so I applied across the boards of Craigslist, and got a hit for a programming job, hence working for the tyrant boss above, but I was still fascinated with this question: why are some people so passionate about work while others just do their jobs? So I sought to figure it out and even landed my dream job, though it came with a lot of stipulation... almost like selling your soul to the devil.

I couldn't pursue what I studied in college, which was a cross between social psych and IO psych... so I created the website, which keeps me connected to my passion and continues to improve my skills in web technology. The website has been a compliment to my life. If I had pursued my original goals, I wouldn't be making as much as I am making in my field right now. So I keep doing what I do because that pays the bill, but the site keeps me connected.

It is 7 years old... millions of visitors from all over the world, and many people understood its mission and have kept it going.. i opened it up for anyone to "confess" .. no way I could have written over 2500 articles, helped evolve it to what it is today.. which is a lot of information about what we're all doing at work, both professional and personal articles.

So the premise is: Tell me your story of what it is like to go to work as you, why you are there, why you keep going back, etc. I am fasinated with jobs and careers and how people make money. It has since evolved into much more, but that was the start.

Life happens... and you just go the direction you feel is the best for you. Sometimes you'll make mistakes and have regrets, but it's best you do something, then nothing at all. Live for today, hope for tomorrow, reflect on what you really want in your life.

Read more about my start here which explains the whole job situation: https://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/the-opportunity/

https://sidthinks.com

I am not very good at the English language, neither a good writer, but try to keep writing anyway.

It's been active for 18 years, I was 16 when I started it and now I'm trying to write three or four times a week about several topics, mostly what comes to mind at the moment.

My blog covers topics that are rarely covered or looked at by MSM in the Caribbean. For example, I've been collecting and compiling murder rates and fuel prices - going back a few years - for one island (and slowly branching out to another). I've also looked at the number of KFC's per capita across the region, and also compared prices for a Zinger sandwhich across the Caribbean in USD Dollars (something similar to the Big Mac Index, helpful for PPP analysis but not conclusive as its just one item).

Recently, I've been looking at COVID-19 in the Caribbean and have a few articles up (doctors per capita, tracking confirmed cases via: https://covid19.caribbeansignal.com)

Be safe!

I'm a software engineer from Israel. I'm mainly a Pythonista, but I also dabble in C++ and Embedded Linux. I write about code, technology and my personal life - from a programmer's perspective.

Highlights:

Knowledge Debt https://amir.rachum.com/blog/2016/09/15/knowledge-debt/

Shared Libraries: Understanding Dynamic Loading https://amir.rachum.com/blog/2016/09/17/shared-libraries/

Python Entry Points Explained https://amir.rachum.com/blog/2017/07/28/python-entry-points/

1- Spanish and English posts about: development, systems design (I love distributed ones), team management, startups and projects (my own and others sold to clients)

2- You can find there things that you can't see in any other place

3- A weekly roundup with technology news (in English)

My elevator pitch: I'm curious about many different topics and have had some unconventional experiences, and I share them through writing. A reader would hopefully learn many interesting things along the way.

For example, my most recent post was a photo-essay showing what lockdown life is like in NYC, America's coronavirus epicenter: https://www.gautamnarula.com/new-york-in-the-time-of-coronav...

My most popular post (hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a million views) is a step-by-step guide to rapidly improving at chess: www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast

Here's a preview from a book I wrote about my friendship with a well-known death row inmate: https://www.gautamnarula.com/remain-free-preview-ii-death-ro...

A surprisingly popular one was the post I wrote as a sophomore in college on creating a multiplayer Elo-based rating system. This post actually got me a great job several years later! www.gautamnarula.com/rating/

Another post about meeting a surfer who helped me rethink what was important to me: https://www.gautamnarula.com/what-javier-taught-me/

I mostly write about Rust.

Why should you read it? Several reasons. The first is that this is where I write things that I'm passionate about! If you have ever been interested in ham radio, electronics or just in general geekiest saying there's a good chance that I've written about it. I document my projects well and don't assume knowledge when I explain things. I also own my failures and explain them in full. Lastly, I make a point to smash through the myths, mysteries and flat out misinformation regarding whatever I'm writing about. I show how normal people can do whatever they set their minds to!

Disclaimer: this comment written at the end of a very long day on very little sleep. My blog is better than that. Usually.

I also have a '10 Minute Guide' book series -- the most recent one being '10 Minute Guide to Mental Fitness'.

I am a Performance Engineer and I mainly write about : - Tools/profilers required for monitoring Performance of code. - Basic concepts for Performance tuning of the code. - Interesting resources that I come across in the field of CS.

I write for one of the main segments of the HN audience: The INTJ personality type.

If you...

- Tend to focus on contingency planning and anticipating future moves / events

- See yourself as a strategist

- Have something of a critic's mindset

- Tend to Google for, save, or bookmark the next knowledge nugget, software package, or life hack

- Benefit from studying anti-patterns, sometimes more than studying patterns

- Are open to learning and experimental flexibility in the name of discovering a world of new hacks and perspectives...

...Then it might be worth your time. I'm on a bit of a blog break due to COVID-19 efforts at work but it's been pretty consistently active for years now.

Recently I wrote about A/B testing topics (lots of Monte Carlo simulations).

Before that Deep Learning stuff.

This is my personal blog where I pen down my thoughts on Containers, DNS, bits of Devops etc. I've been a self learner since the time I started programming and I feel penning down thoughts and reaching to a wider audience makes me learn those concepts even better.

If you enjoy understanding concepts using an ELI5 approach, consider checking out my blog :)

I share my thoughts on Tech and CS. I am a CS undergraduate.

Honestly I don't have much worth reading on my blog. But I see a lot of posts about the "best way to store knowledge" - org-mode, roam, zettelkasten, markdown etc.

My blog isn't worth reading because that's exactly what I use it for. If you're looking for a way to [1] take notes, [2] keep track of links you enjoyed reading, or [3] save links to things you want to learn about in the future, then I recommend doing it in your blog.

At the end of your life you'll be able to look back at your own personal wikipedia of knowledge.

Posts (maybe) worth reading:

* Design tips for developers: https://paul.copplest.one/blog/design.html (was fairly controversial when I posted it previously)

* My previous company's tech stack: https://paul.copplest.one/blog/nimbus-tech-2019-04.html#tech...

Also a currently-unmaintained site: https://mentalmodels.co

Fast and static, lately I am writing about my CTF journey.

It has a few good pieces about transitioning from corporate dev to freelance/consulting, as well as Clojure.

I’ve heard other people have read it to learn more about Clojure, and to help guide them away from corporate dread. Importantly, I have my contact information there and in my HN bio and I’m always down to talk to people from the internet!

It lacks the 10,000 word, fun war stories from more veteran engineers, sadly.

I write about stuff you would find very boring. Do not read it.

You probably should not read it. I don't have a topic but write all over the place from software engineering to fan fiction. The good articles were on the HN frontpage. That should suffice for most here.

I'm writing about high-performance node-link graph and geospatial visualizations. Although I started just recently, I have more drafted posts already. Follow me if you are interested in these topics!