I attended the RxJS Live conference these last year. One night I had dinner with a group of people and during the conversation, a couple of them asked strategies about blogging and putting out technical content.
As we talked, they asked me a very pointed question: What if you write something that has already been talked about…already been done?
I knew immediately that the problem here was a misconception about the value and delivery of educational material.
To hold back bringing material to the community because someone else may have said that same thing means that you haven't noticed the value you're truly getting from the material you're consuming yourself.
What YOU have to say is unique and different from the stuff anyone else has to say. Even if you're talking about the same subject. You're going to approach the subject differently. You're going to cover a different amount of material than anyone else. You're going to give different examples. You're going to CONNECT with the audience in a different way than anyone else has.
This has a lot to do with understanding that the content you deliver cannot be easily separated from the person who delivers the content. It's not a computer algorithm who writes your blog, makes your video, etc…it's you. You are a person. That will come through in the content you create. It will have your fingerprints, your personality all over it. It's your creation. Just like a child carries your DNA, your work is a product of who you are, the journeys you've been on, the trials you've conquered, and the things you've learned.
Think back to the teachers in school who taught you the most. Undoubtedly they will be the teachers with whom you identified the most. For me, it was a history teacher who had a collection of World War II history items, like a katana from a Japanese commander, a toe tag from a US soldier, and a helmet with a bullet hole in it. His personality, his energy, his passion, created a passion in me. He connected with me in a way no other teacher had before.
That is what you do as you deliver material to others. You transmit your passion and energy and love for the knowledge to others.
Never fear to say something because "someone else has said it". The only thing that matters is that you haven't said it….yet.
So say it.
What are you thinking about doing to share knowledge with others? What's holding you back from sharing your knowledge?
Happy Coding!
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Top comments (1)
Thanks for the encouragement. I've been meaning to start a blog for over a year now. Life keeps dropping hints that I need to blog, like getting interviewed for technical articles and finding sponsorship for maker projects out of nowhere, but I've still been resisting because I worry about what my perfect first article should be. The sooner I get to writing instead of overthinking, the faster I will feel some relief.
I've also given myself permission to use a template, as overengineering the site itself has been a blocker in the past for me. I haven't found front-end development to be exciting as of late, so I am not going to force myself to do every aspect of this project from the ground up. I can always refactor the site and even relaunch with a complete layout revamp, but all of these options require a blog to begin with!