Luck = [Doing Things] x [Telling People]

Introduction

I attended a great workshop about writing, "How to Write a Technical Blog" by Mike Coutermarsh through Program Equity's educational program. It inspired me to write a blog about my programming journey. I hope I can keep writing after this my very first post.

Why writing is important for a developer

Most people think that people who are good at programming are better software developers, but is that always true? Unless you build an application on your own, you always need to communicate with other developers. Collaborating with other developers involves lots of written communication like messaging, pull requests, code reviews, project plans, and so on. Developers don't spend much time on writing coding, as many people think. Improving writing skills is crucial to be successful as a developer.

As I started contributing to open source projects actively, I realized more about how important writing skills are. Communication always happens in texts in open-source projects. One time I had difficulty explaining why I chose this solution to fix a bug. I thought I explained it clearly but the maintainer didn't get my point. Since then, I've been more mindful of writing pull requests telling how I solve problems.

People don't know what you are doing

I believe I typed this formula from one of Mike's slides during the workshop: Luck = [Doing Things] x [Telling people]. This made me start writing. Many developers are good at getting things done. How about telling people part? Unless you tell people what you are doing, people will not know. Why don't you use the power of writing? You are good at writing already through lots of documentation works as a developer. You don't know what kind of opportunities your writing brings in.

Conclusion

The workshop inspired me to start writing a blog, which felt daunting at first, to be honest. I hope someone feels the same and starts blogging about your programming journey.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

Future Writing Ideas

• about my volunteering experience as a developer
• about how I solve difficult issues
• about educational programs I participated