First post! 🚀 Why I started this blog

I’m not an expert. Plenty of entry-level articles are already available online. Why would I repeat something that has been covered by other people? Why should I invest a lot of time in this activity?

When starting something new, usually a blocker present. It can be something internal like fear, worry, motivation, mindset, or can be something external like lack of resource. In my case, the internal blockers were strong. Internally I had a doubt, whether starting a tech blog is beneficial both for the Internet community and myself. Through this post, I would like to share my thinking process, how I converted from “Starting a blog? No, thank you.” to “Alright, here I come, my new tech blog.”

My Base Motivation #

Before covering the blockers, let me start with my initial motivations to start a tech blog. Initially I have two main drivers:

1. Increasing online presence

   Because I am switching career from System Administrator to Cloud/DevOps Engineer, showcasing my works/projects online can be one alternative to convince the recruiter that I indeed have the skills I wrote in resume.

2. Giving back

   Whenever I hit a technical problem, searching for help online is something natural. If a problem and solution are not recorded in the official documentation, the next action is to check forum or other people’s blog post. As far as I have been working in IT, I cannot count how many times other people’s blog post saved my time. Not only troubleshooting, I also learned a lot from some tutorial blog posts.

   In short, the Internet has taught and saved my time. I think giving back what I know to the Internet so it can save others’ time is meaningful.

The Blockers #

There are several points that made me doubt about starting a tech blog.

The first one has been introduced in the beginning. I am not an expert yet in the Cloud/DevOps field. So far I have been learning from the Internet, so the knowledge is already available online, published by others. As a non-expert, the topic I can post without repeating others is limited. The mindset of “reposting something online is a waste of time” is one of my biggest blocker in starting a tech blog.

Still related to the point above, as a non-expert with limited “original” post, I was afraid that nobody would find my blog to be valuable. If nobody would read my blog, why should I do blogging? This is the second blocker.

The third blocker is, I was afraid I cannot commit writing consistently for long term. Personally I don’t like the idea of not finishing something I have started.

The last blocker is the fact that writing is hard. I think I am not alone here. Hitting a dead end or not getting inspiration to write a beautiful and engaging article is a real fear.

The Counters #

If you notice, all blockers I told above are internal. It means they can can be overcame by changing my own mindset. Here I present several points as counter-argument to the blockers.

Accepting that everyone has to start somewhere, even starting as a tiny nobody, is the first step to walk pass through my blockers. Realizing that nobody starts big liberated my mind from the “I am only a beginner”-syndrome.

Another thing that I realized is that I should not aim for the number of blog viewers. Instead, I should aim for the consistency. This is especially true if one of my goal is to build online presence. Online credibility depends on (1) content quality, and (2) commitment in continuity. The trail of consistent blog post is more important than the view counts.

The third counter is the fact that writing can support my learning process. Articulating a concept using our own words in a structured manner challenges our brain to understand that concept deeper. In essence, writing is a thinking exercise. Even the topic I may cover in the tech blog is an entry-level, I can treat the writing as a tool to internalize that topic into my brain. There is a saying like this (this quote is often attributed to Albert Einstein, although it is debatable).

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Reading the quote above, I decided to treat writing tech blog as an exercise to test and strengthen my understanding in Cloud/DevOps concepts. Regardless of the difficulty of the Cloud/DevOps topic, writing a blog post will be beneficial for my learning journey.

Furthermore, the opportunity to learn is not only in the form of writing, but also in the form of building the blog itself. There are several options when choosing the platform to write tech blogs, for instance Medium, Dev.to, or Hashnode. Among the options I have, one that I chose is building the blog by myself, i.e. self-hosting. Building my own blog can provide me more exposure to the trend in web and blog technology. I will not talk too much about pro and cons when choosing each blog platform here because I’m going to write more extensive post separately later.

Finally, practice makes perfect. Even writing is hard and takes time, I believe I can get better if I practice it consistently. In my opinion, acquiring writing skill is a good investment in the long run.

My Decision and Hope Regarding This Blog #

If writing for the online community isn’t worth it, then at least I should do it for myself. The benefits and rewards far outweigh the challenges in the long run. Even if no one appreciates my blog posts now, my future self will. That’s why, in the end, I decided to start this blog.

My hope with this blog,

• I hope this can accellerate my learning process: Cloud/DevOps, web technology, writing.
• I hope some posts here can save other people’s time, even a bit.
• I hope I can be a better engineer.

For now, I aim to publish a post twice a month. By declaring this goal publicly, I hope to stay accountable and consistent.

Message for Hesitating Reader #

To wrap up this first blog post, I want to encourage readers who are hesitating to start a tech blog. If you are still unsure, why not just take the leap and say “Alright, here I come, my new tech blog”.

Unfortunately I cannot show you the result yet, at this early stage. Just believe that all of this hardwork will pay off in the future. The benefits and reward seem to outweigh the risks. If you think that writing the blog for others doesn’t feel worthwhile, then you can just do it for yourself instead.

As for me, here’s what I believe:

• Hard work will bear fruit someday.
• Practice makes perfect. It builds confidence as well.
• I want to grow in this Cloud/DevOps field – this blog is part of that journey 🚀.