Ask HN: What's stopping you from blogging?

I’m not sure how to build a website :P

I feel like I have nothing to teach - the blogs I like to read explain things but anything I know is better explained elsewhere. This is the curse of the internet.

I thought about it for some time (nothing serious), but can see few obvious stoppers.

First, cheap blogging is something I do not like, and producing quality content takes time. An example of cheap blogging is “I npm installed foobaz, passed it a low-effort options object copied from SO answer and voila”. Sometimes I struggle even with HN comments, heh. “Half” of them never get posted.

Second, my views on programming (my primary interest in life) are not mainstream and a little bitter, sometimes not a little. I know this from trying to expess them here on HN from time to time. I’m afraid that publishing that would bring nothing but a sense of worse isolation at my own expense. I’m a pretty negative critic, and I don’t get where people like n-gate take energy to continue their public work (I’m not a HN hater, just a random example out of top of my head).

Basically anything technical I do is work related. I don't want to share that out of fear of violating some company policy.

There are some interesting stories, bug fixes, tech stacks etc but exposing them always risks the company's reputation and it's not worth the hassle to self censor.

I don't know if publishing will ever suit me. I write all the time and cringe looking back. Not because my writing has improved to some point where last week's essay embarrasses me, but because last week's opinions no longer fit me, and it would be too tiring to constantly rebut myself.

But perhaps this is the wrong perspective. Maybe I should write as I donate old clothing. It was once dear, but no longer suits my needs; passed along freely hoping that another might find it useful.

It's a curse of writing to an unknown audience for me. I have no problem with blogging but stepping back to write a good draft for that 'first time reader' is just is extra effort. I write constantly for myself to myself and I just don't see value spending that extra time to provide context. I also have the advantage of writing to myself and being able to grep for anything I am looking for or better structure the file layout in a way that is more meaningful for me. A blog doesn't really improve upon this amazingly

Most of what I write is in reply to someone else and writing those replies in a different location doesn't seem appropriate. Especially if I don't allow comments to host replies (which I surely wouldn't).

Additionally, I rarely have unique opinions, and I am loathe to relitigate some topics. Think things like the debate over legal abortion: literally every argument has already been made for and against, I cannot possibly write anything of value on the subject.

Finally, I'm wrong often enough that I'm concerned some of the technical content I write could lead people down the wrong path, wasting hours or days of their time.

I enjoy writing, but honestly don't have opinions worth sharing in one specific domain that would keep people engaged constantly nor consistently. I have too many interests to focus on one narrow domain. One day it could be something tech related, another day music related, finance related, sports related, etc. If I was just to blog about one topic constantly, I'd run out of ideas quickly and probably stop writing altogether.

Plus, as others have said - any opinion I have is probably also held by someone who already has a consistent readership and is a lot more eloquent and engaging than I could ever dream of being.

Nothing. Daniel Meissler (Unstructured Learning) convinced me it was a good idea. I followed his outline, choosing to use Hugo rather than WordPress because I ran a WordPress honeypot for a while and WP draws a lot of attention.

I've been blogging more or less constantly for at least 10 years. In my experience, the times when I don't blog much are either because there's something in my life that makes it difficult (holidays, life drama, too much work, etc) or because the technology I'm using at the time puts too much friction into getting the thing published.

I blog from time to time. Currently these things are stopping me: a) Researching a topic takes lots of time. Writing and rewriting also takes time, and currently I don’t prioritize it. b) For the time being I feel that it’s more fun to do stuff than to write about stuff. Doesn’t need to stay that way forever though.

A lack of readers. Very few people read blogs nowadays.

> I started writing, publicly but to myself, primarily so I could remember how to do technical processes that I didn't repeat very often.

I have note taking for that. That way I don't have to spend energy on polishing my writing and I don't have to worry about accidentally leaking something that's sensitive.

I have a blog since 2003, and I started thinking what is the point. It helps me to go back sometimes and review my thinking then. But then, we move forward. This website with my personal words wasn't creating a lot of future value for myself.

For others, I realized that market has moved on. There was market for self-publishing for masses, then came micro self-publishing, and now quick videos, edits and nano publishing with using advanced technology in visual media, which wasn't possible earlier.

And if those do not create future value, they might faze out too.

For me, it's because I don't know where to start and what to write about (maybe i'm overthinking it). I created a github pages website two years ago but never put anything on it. Maybe I can't just write!

Writing blog posts has been in my back-of-the-mind TO-DO list for a while now. I just never seem to have time for it. Or rather, there are a million things I end up prioritizing over blogging. One of these days, when I'm less busy, I'll start writing some blog posts. I definitely have some ideas for posts that I think could be interesting.

Total lack of free time.

I actually just started to blog (somewhat) consistently. Right now I'm posting something about once a month. It's very early days still.

The catalyst for me was deciding that I was going to publish writings exclusively about my interest in literature. Philosophy, books reviews, interesting ideas, etc. This helped me to focus. Before, I was vague about what I would blog about.

It's an exercise in thinking out loud about an interest of mine and organizing my thoughts. I know most people don't read blogs. It's for me.

I've wanted to blog for years but never did. There were a few reasons. I was unreasonably concerned with originality. You have to accept that you're probably not going to write something that's never been said before. That's fine. It's about exercising your cognitive muscles and expressing yourself.

I also thought that everything I published had to be philosophically profound. I set the bar way too high. Now, if I think something is cool or interesting, regardless of how niche it is, that's reason enough to blog about it. Who cares!

You have to free yourself from that sort of stuff. It does nothing but hinder your natural impulse to do something creative.

I run a discord for devs interested in (hacking on) software internals. We started a #writing-and-drafts channel recently to encourage folks to share drafts and get excited about writing. You (not just OP) are welcome to join!

discord.multiprocess.io

Afraid people will read my blog.

I enjoy blogging but it is like a journal. It helps me think. A private journal might work but I tend to ramble on in private journal.

A blog makes me want to write a bit more concise. But I am afraid my friends will find it and may make fun of me.

I still write but not as openly as I want to.

I have absolutely no interest in sharing most of my thinking with a group of strangers.

I built my blog(& personal site) this year.

The thing that stopped me from blogging consistently was the notion that blogs are showcase of your expertise.

When i realized everyone is unique and have unique perspective, all the procrastination was gone and my mind was filled with things i could write about.

False notion of " showcasing expertise" changed to " sharing unique perspectives"

I have multiple first drafts that i am working on now.

Also this helped: https://guzey.com/personal/why-have-a-blog/

My blog: www.mnsh.me/blog

The embarrassment of reading it years later

i dont want to waste my energy speaking to the void

I've spent the last several years looking for the perfect blogging tool. As soon as I find one....

/s