* All posts have worked to consolidate knowledge and help me think.
* Since you're just trying to build a public notebook, what are you trying to lower the bar to? Your own writing motivation or something else? If the former, just write to the length/cadence/themes you're interested in and don't write what you're not interested in.
* Maybe I'd go back and tell pretty-much-teenage-me to stop being so cringe because this stuff will still be there 20 years later.
I've had a blog for almost 20 years. Nowadays, it's the best record I have of what I'm interested in and working on. It has recipes I send to my friends, context for strangers. It's a beacon that attracts similar people, a call for them to reach out.
And it works! I get emails about my posts. I helped people travel along the same routes, and fixed people's technical issues.
Another blog of mine turned into a lifestyle business. I have met countless friends and two lovers through it.
So yeah, do your thing, put it online. Start simple, migrate as needed. I love static sites because they're low maintenance. Hugo and a theme would be good.
Learning to hit publish even when you're full of doubt is the cure for self-doubt. Stop letting doubt rule your life and do the things you want to do!
> Any practical format that lowers the bar (length, cadence, themes)?
My recommendation, short posts at least once a week revolving around a single topic
> If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
I would not have built my own blog from scratch, I would just use one of the many fine options out there. Be realistic, you likely will not get many readers, at least not for a while. The value of blogging is what you learn about writing and the topic you write about it.
The most interesting blogs I read are the people that don't really care and are just creating things they find interesting.
I'm not. I'm well aware of the bleak prospects. But I'm not the one who told people that they should try to publish.
>What made it worth it for you?
If by "worth it" you mean a measurable ROI, then nothing. If we expand it to more abstract concepts, then spinning up my own HUGO theme and writing about what I like is fun, so self actualization is what I get from it.
>What kinds of posts actually worked (for learning, career, network, opportunities)?
None, probably less than 100 people have read it, I only share it in friend groups, but it feels nice when those friends read it and give me feedback.
>Any practical format that lowers the bar (length, cadence, themes)?
What do you mean by "lowers the bar"? The length of my posts can be pretty variable, cadence is "whenever" and the blog can go months without an update, and themes are also pretty varied, sometimes I talk about some piece of fiction I like, other times it gets more technical, and sometimes too I just recount the process of making something and the insights it gave me.
>If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
There's not much to change when blogging has not changed my life in any significant regard, I'm just glad I started.
When everything else is a computer, be a human.
If you want to have your content discovered online, I'd say you might be in for some trouble, although I don't think AI is the cause, only an accelerator on that. Blogs for readers learning are probably in decline, you're unlikely to get any outreach based on your posts for networking.
However if, like me, the writing process is the point – you're trying to clarify your thoughts, learn something new yourself, or have a document you can share with colleagues when they ask you to explain your opinions, I think blogging is valuable. While you won't get direct outreach, you can share it on your CV or send it to recruiters and you might get noticed when applying for jobs.
LLMs are likely more attentive readers than most human beings and in a way a blog might achieve even greater reach by virtue of being read by an LLM and incorporated into its "understanding of the world." (Or whatever is the right metaphor.)
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ken-cheng-991849b6_ai-will-ne...
For me, the main motivation is that I enjoy reading other people's blogs, and hopefully my posts give someone ekse a similar enjoyment
I had a few attempts to lower the bar (tags for low effort, short and shitpost so far), but it feels like a crutch and hasn't worked long term for me.
I've really enjoyed writing recurring posts. For example, each December, I write up lists of the most interesting books and papers I've read during the year. These usually generate a decent amount of interest and are something I look forward to writing each year.
> If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
I wish I would have started earlier. Writing a blog has kept my writing skills sharp.
My personal blocker is that I have a bunch of unrelated hobby topics and don't want to maintain multiple blogs. Someone interested in landscaping and woodwork might not be interested in programming..
I write whatever comes to mind, organize my travel photos, record my daily step count, and manage my bookmarks.
if you don't expect anyone to read it from the start, then you won't be disappointed, and you won't have to doubt whether what you've written is meaningful or mature enough, or whether it's embarrassing to show your imperfect self.
It won't be, because I assume from the beginning that no one will read it. But I still want to write, because as a freelancer who works from home all year round, I say a few words a day. I need a place to express myself, a channel for my emotions.
Argue in the comments.
Write more, with your improved ideas. Get better at arguing.
Get better at understanding arguments.
Get better at understanding generally.
Essentially: Exercise your brain, and use that to make yourself a better person.
Too many to list such as jobs, recognition in the community, but the best ones are some sort of a personal satisfaction without the need to say anything aloud. The other two things I will always remember are (i) my cousin once accompanied me to a conference where I spoke, and after seeing the people lined/gathered around to talk, “What the heck are you, what do you do!” and (ii) recently, my daughter, “Papa, I searched you on Google and you are kinda Internet-famous, you are everything if I search your name.”
> What kinds of posts actually worked (for learning, career, network, opportunities)?
Two ways to look at it, (i) I don't care, I will just write or (ii) focus on a topic/community/vertical and keep writing about it, even if someone has written about it, write your own opinion. Watch for topic upticks in that vertical/interest and write about it, even if it means adding something to the ones that is already written. @simonw does it best https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/
> Any practical format that lowers the bar (length, cadence, themes)?
Make it open-ended. When you want and inspired, keep writing perhaps a long-form article or just stay short like @kepano https://stephango.com/style
> If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
Stay simple, minimal, comments optional/avoid. Separate content from your styles. Keep all of your content which you can just walk-out from a platform/service/framework if need be. https://brajeshwar.com/2021/brajeshwar.com-2021/
Also with the shoveling of it down the people's throats, more people want authentic human experiences.
I don’t do it often anymore (lack of time) but used to be a somewhat active blogger. It helped with my own understanding of the topics I wrote about.
Today's AI is built on human-made content, and if we want "more" AI then we will need more human-made stuff. So it's a moot point. Unless you are OK with AI causing a plateau in human progress, don't let it get in the way of you (a human) from making progress.
That said, I cannot really comment on your first or third blockers. I have the exact same problems.
If you don't mind it, go for it.
---
I am curious on how people can output so much content, did they work on their blog while at the office or during working hours for remote work?
Writing is cathartic, but you already know this.
I have a small personal blog myself.
Opportunities. You don't need many readers, you just need the right readers. I'm a big believer in making your own luck - putting things in place that make luck more likely to strike. Having a collection of writing online that people might stumble onto is very effective way of doing that.
> What kinds of posts actually worked (for learning, career, network, opportunities)?
I've written a bunch about this in the past. TLDR version:
- Stuff I've learned: TIL style posts that describe something I've learned recently
- Stuff I've found: links to things that are useful, with an explanation of why they are useful
- Stuff I've built: descriptions of projects I've completed
What to blog about: https://simonwillison.net/2022/Nov/6/what-to-blog-about/
My approach to running a link blog: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/
> Any practical format that lowers the bar (length, cadence, themes)?
TILs are an incredibly liberating format. You don't need to be describing something that's never been written about before - just something that's new to you today.
> If you were starting today, what would you do differently
I'd use static publishing on GitHub Pages on myname.github.io so I don't even need to run any web hosting or buy a domain name.
How do you “solve” the discoverability problem? Asking you because I know your blog has become very popular!
I'm the wrong person to ask about discoverability because I've been blogging for 22 years and I've accumulated 100,000+ followers on Twitter, 39,000 on Bluesky etc.
It's worth offering an email subscribe mechanism. I didn't do that for the first ~20 years - I offered just an RSS feed - but when I added the Substack newsletter option it become clear I should have been gathering email addresses from a lot earlier on!
Despite having a substantial audience visiting my site now I still think the best way to get traffic to an article is to tell people about it elsewhere. I follow the POSSE principle: publish on own site, syndicate elsewhere: https://indieweb.org/POSSE
Honestly though quality is much more important than quantity. Join communities of like-minded individuals and make sure that a small number of engaged people get to see your stuff. Opportunities from that are likely to be more valuable than if you have a much larger audience who aren't as closely aligned with what you're publishing.
This one is demonstrably false. Your personal written style is what's important. Also, you have hands-on experience, which is also demonstrably more than any "AI" has. I urge you to ignore this kind of doubt or consideration.
- What kinds of posts actually worked (for learning, career, network, opportunities)?
For learning, "book report" type posts, just to solidify what I've read in my mind, maybe drive a little experimentation to ensure I've concluded correctly. I've decided not to collect any metrics so that I don't follow from behind, so that I don't end up doing clickbait. Career and network opportunities have not arisen from my blog.
My "public notebook" posts get more traffic, and I've referred back to them, but for me, these are mostly Linux sysadmin topics. I'd wager these are most valuable to people that find them for very specific problems, like seeing LLDP info from inside a WiFi access point or fixing GRUB problems on particular hardware.
- Any practical format that lowers the bar (length, cadence, themes)?
I have not discovered anything for this, alas. I use Hugo, I have a couple of little shell scripts to do monthly counts of finished vs draft articles. I try to stay at or above 5 posts a month. I'm not sure that helps lower the bar, which I interpret as "provide motivation to post".
What would I do differently? Start a blog years before I actually did so.
I'm happy to correspond, my email is in my HN profile.
And I still get a steady trickle of grateful comments/emails in response to a tossed-off post about getting Linux scanner drivers working, many of which are genuinely moving to read.
Re blockers:
- Novelty: I routinely search for very niche, "boring" information, and am disappointed by how few in-depth blogposts I find.
- “AI can explain most topics better than I can”. I doubt it! I rarely find current AI as valuable as a good blog post. It tends to be shallow and regress to the mean, and b/c of hallucinations it's untrustworthy, so a lot of time is wasted fact-checking.
- Fear of shipping: if it isn't relevant, nobody will read it (unless you're already famous)
Re questions:
- What made it worth it for you?
Clarifying my thoughts, connecting with strangers who think about the same things, the leverage "having a platform" produces (it opens a lot of doors), and gaining prestige in certain niches.
- What kinds of posts actually worked (for learning, career, network, opportunities)?
I don't think this is simple to answer until the heat death of the universe. Traffic stats is a very poor estimator of value delivered. Which posts I am most proud of, and how much traffic they got, are weakly correlated.
- Any practical format that lowers the bar (length, cadence, themes)?
Things that you are obsessed with. It's a tonne of work writing a good post, and sometimes you publish it and nobody cares, so it has to be intrinsically rewarding.
- If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
I don't know! Probably put less effort into trying to appear intelligent/impressive, which rarely works anyway.
These are my off-the-top thoughts based on over a decade of blogging.
Writing a blog entry to simply clarify your own thinking makes it worth it.
It’s still worth blogging in the age of AI
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43166761
Blogging in 2025: Screaming into the Void
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46156379
Write the post you wish you'd found
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43154666
Ask HN: Is maintaining a personal blog still worth it?
1) AI absolutely makes new blogs hard to get any traffic, unless you are already famous somewhere else
2) That said it’s still worth writing even if it’s just for yourself
There is no money in blogs if there ever was. The money moved away to social media a long time ago. Leave the blogs to human people talking to each other and showing off their gardens and pets and hobbies.
Realistically if you start now, you’re years away from a devoted readership and that’s fine. You’ll gain from publishing and if you’re diligent, you’ll gain from watching your writing improve.
For me, I like writing and can’t get paid enough in publishing or as a writer to do it professionally. So it’s worth it for me because I have a lot of fun writing. I spent a good part of my life hunting for eyeballs and now I’m content just writing whether anyone reads it or not.
I’m not sure that I’d recommend any particular theme, cadence or style for a new blogger. And I definitely wouldn’t recommend a style of post. Rather those sorts of things will come organically as you get used to writing and start building a community. When you’re getting started, just focus on writing, trying to build habits and learning how to edit yourself. Most writers will struggle with one of the three on their way to developing a voice so if you’re going through hell you’re likely on the right path.
If I were starting today, I’d focus less on hunting eyeballs and more on writing for the joy of it. I’d also spend a lot more time writing about subjects that I’m not interested in because that’s really good practice. And finally, I wouldn’t worry so much about writer’s block - it happens, it sucks but it goes away when you stop worrying about it.
On the subject of writer’s block, if it’s something you struggle with I have a great exercise for you. When you’re stuck, interview yourself about the finished piece you’re stuck on. Pretend it’s done and interview yourself. I would have started doing that twenty five years ago and I’d be a far better writer now because of it.
Finally, keep everything you write and read it regularly but there’s nothing wrong with pruning your blog regularly. If things you wrote two years ago are embarrassing today that means you’re a better writer. Go with that.
Writing in public is performance art. Some people are naturally performance artists and need to perform to satisfy some internal urge. If you're not one of them, don't let anyone else convince you that you need to be one. It's ok to not blog. The idea that everyone should have a blog is completely unjustified.
I read another comment that said you should write blog posts at least once a week. That sounds a lot like a job. An unpaid job at that. Forget this silly peer pressure.
Between diary and blog, a blog is the better option, because it has all the advantages of a diary, but also the potential upside of publicity (if you want it).
How much publicity have you received? Be careful what you wish for. It's crucial to note that publicity brings a number of potential downsides. For example, close to home, Hacker News commenters will totally trash you, whether you deserve it or not.
> “Nobody needs this” / “It’s not original”
We need it more than ever. Who cares if it's not original, AI slop isn't original either.
> “AI can explain most topics better than I can”
Don't write tutorials.
> A bit of fear: shipping something that feels naive or low-signal
Life is about overcoming your fears.