TLDR:
- my goals for this blog:
- keep track and share coding thoughts, ideas and learnings
- improve technical writing skills
- posts would be shitty first (and second) drafts that will be improved/iterated on
- feedback is encouraged (email: hello@aci.codes)
Blog goals
I like coding/programming/software development/software engineering (I’m not sure what you want to call it). I think I’m good at it, and I can always do better by learning. I have some thoughts on software development. And probably have written some of them down somewhere (Twitter or a company’s confluence page). The goal of this blog is to have a space for me to keep track of those thoughts/ ideas/learnings/references. Writing things down also helps me remember them more. This blog is mainly for me to remember what I learned and maybe something to look back on from time to time.
As a software developer, my day-to-day isn’t just about coding. One big part of software development is communicating, not just with the computer but with people too. Similar to what I think to most developers, I do struggle with it. I find it hard dealing with the blank page and starting a document. Maybe by practicing writing my thoughts down, I would be more comfortable and less likely to procrastinate documentation. And maybe with more practice (and hopefully feedback from other people), I can improve my technical writing skills.
Shitty first draft
I struggle with looking at a blank page and not knowing how to start things. In the same way, I want to create good quality code. I expect a certain level of quality in my posts. But, I do know I can’t be great at the start, especially with blogging. And so, the way I will approach this is with the idea of a shitty first draft. Similar to coding, where we iterate on code and make it better as we know more. The shitty first draft will be the foundation of this blog. The posts I would write (including this one) will probably be not that great at the start (and it’s ok), and I can continue working on and improving them.
The shitty first draft will be the foundation of this blog. The posts I would write (including this one) will probably be not that great at the start (and it’s ok), and I can continue working on and improving them.
Blog tech stack
This blog is generated using Jekyll and is stored in this repository. I like that writing posts would have the same workflow as coding, where I can continue to update/improve blog posts as commits. The underlying architecture of the blog (having it hosted in git) has ease of iteration/improvement as one of its main features. Using git also allows to keep a history of the post, and diffs can be available of the past revisions.
(I don’t know much about web development, and so if there are issues in the blog feel free to reach out and let me know) (I also forgot what I used to host and so I’m typing this here as a note for future angela to check Netlify)
Feedback
During my student days, English (especially grammar) was my worst subject. I tend to ramble a lot in writing and have trouble with rules on tenses and punctuation. When it comes to code, there’s the compiler that tells me whenever I broke some of them. When it comes to writing, I would probably read them and have a sense of whether it feels right or not. (Probably not the best way) English language aside, there’s also a lot of room for improvement in technical writing. Have I achieved my goal of communicating my ideas in a way that’s easily understood?
In saying that, it would be great and a massive favor if I can get some feedback on my posts. I’m still trying to figure out if I want a comment section. So, for now, feel free to email me at: hello@aci.codes or send me a message on Twitter.
I don’t know how to end this post (this can be your first point of feedback) and so see you later on my next post, I guess :)