During the past years I started multiple posts on various programming-related topics though I seldom managed to bring something close to a publishable form. The main reason seems to be the lack of time needed to put an idea into words, to look at it from different perspectives in form of a logical meaningful unit and, last but not the least, make it count. This is accentuated by the fact that each idea pulls another, and often there are so many things to say that it’s hard to find a delimitation between what to be included and what to be left out. In extremis one feels that something is missing.
Often is required a certain amount of research needed to validate or support the facts. The knowledge about SQL Server and other DBMS is relative – it can be only relative as long their internals are known only to a certain degree. The relativity is found also in the area of applicability, the usage of a solution over another lying in details. Readers want solid facts while all one can give is a dry “it depends”…
Unfortunately, for a blogger not found close to the source of knowledge, the content posted tends to be third or fourth-hand knowledge and, in one form or the other, just duplication of information. As long content isn’t copied and there’s some personal touch the duplication is not necessarily a bad thing. Duplication makes knowledge more likely to be found as the content is indexed by search engines, however it becomes more difficult to stand in the crowd. To bring something new one has to put existing knowledge into new contexts, to be creative, and this takes time as well.
Without access to a pool of readers and of knowledge for a lone blogger it’s hard to succeed, giving up being just a few posts or a few years away. Of course, life tends to take over. It’s also in human nature to be enthusiastic about an idea and renounce shortly with the first difficulties met. On the other side, often it’s hard to keep or to find the needed motivation, especially when there is little support coming from the blogging platforms, tools creators or content publishers. Not being able to monetize one’s effort makes blogging more of a hobby.
With small exceptions the investments made in blogging tools are below expectations. It’s frustrating when the tools or the integration between them stopped working and there’s no simple way to overcome this. Some aspects changed with time, however blogging seems to lose in contrast with other forms of media content.
Despite the lack of time and other difficulties I want to write and share my thoughts, my experience, make the time invested in learning and solving problems count. Blogging is also a way to externalize the implicit knowledge, of sharing, of questioning some of the ideas and practices, and ultimately of getting feedback. In this resides the personal value of blogging.
In the fight with time and words I found myself forced to limit the length of the posts on some random nontechnical topics to 600 words. This number is rooted in the university years, representing the proximate limit of a written assignment to include an acceptable quality and coverage, and involve a bearable amount of effort. 600 is not a perfect number as its leading digit though, for the time being will do.
The challenge is to find a context to express my thoughts and experience without being too boring, without skimming through ideas. Without carrying great expectations, it’s an attempt to change the status quo.
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