The fear of blogging about technical topics…

I rarely blog about technical topics, despite my main trade of being a developer. The prospect has always scared me, and from others that I’ve talked to I’m not the only one.

The irrational thoughts that tend to go through my head are:

  • What right to I have to blog about technical stuff?!
  • Major case of Imposter Syndrome
  • What do I know that the internet doesn’t already?!
  • Will people judge me about what knowledge I do have?
  • What if  I’m wrong?!

Wonder if anyone else finds this too?

Well, we have to embrace whats scary to grow. So I have set myself a target of at least one technical blog a month.

These are my mantras to help me feel more confident about it

  • We are all always learning. There will always be people that know more about something than you, but there will always be people who know less. Things that I find useful when I am learning WILL be useful for other people who are learning.
  • If I had to hunt about on the internet for half an hour to find out how to do something,  if I can give an example that might save someone  haf an hour of googling, then I have made a tiny difference.
  • I must embrace feedback! If people leave comments, and share other ways that I could do things better, I should embrace and learn from these.
  • I am not ever pretending to know everything… these are just things that have helped me and I hope they might help others.
  • I can put things down here, so I can remember them for next time.

Here goes!

I’d love to hear any thoughts if you feel the same about technical blogging, or even better if you used to, and how you got over it.

Responses

  1. Barry O'Reilly Avatar
    Barry O’Reilly

    Looking forward to reading your posts Anne

    Reply
  2. Barry O'Reilly Avatar
    Barry O’Reilly

    Reblogged this on Barry O'Reilly.

    Reply
  3. Sheeri K. Cabral Avatar
    Sheeri K. Cabral

    And sometimes, you say stuff that is wrong, or not quite right. For example:

    http://www.sheeri.org/working-smarter-not-harder-set-and-enum/
    That was one of my first posts….read all the comments, and then read my follow-up post:
    http://www.sheeri.org/wouldnt-you-know-it/

    Being wrong isn’t the worst thing in the world.

    Reply
  4. Joe Homs Avatar
    Joe Homs

    Former TWer here.

    Realize that clients pay hundreds of dollars per hour for what you have in that head of yours.

    If you were past all of those issues and could blog freely about technical topics or not, how would you feel?

    Whatever the answer, feel those good feelings now. You’ve already overcome the solution, now it’s time to feel good.

    While you’re feeling good, think about that old tiny issue you used to have now.

    As it gets better and easier, you’ll look back on this and realize that you had the ability to do it all along.

    Need help? Email me and I’ll talk with you personally. You have my email from this post.

    Reply
  5. Mohanraj Nataraj (@MohanrajNataraj) Avatar
    Mohanraj Nataraj (@MohanrajNataraj)

    This post increase a bit of confident. Good job anne.

    Reply
  6. vanessaformicola Avatar
    vanessaformicola

    You are speaking for all the people with great skills but with the intellectual modesty of knowing that there is always more to learn and which fear the brutality of the large public of the web.

    I have wanted to write a blog for a very long time and I have always been blocked by exactly the same fears you have expressed.
    We should all remember that the more you know the more you feel ignorant and that only smart people are concerned about being wrong.

    I believe that once again by admitting your fears you are pushing others to overcome their own.

    I am looking forward to your posts and maybe I will try myself.

    Reply
  7. On “The fear of blogging about technical topics” at Mark Needham

    […] My former colleague Anne Simmons recently wrote an interesting post in which she describes some of the reasons that she finds herself not wanting to write about technical topics.. […]

    Reply

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