I always encourage developers to write a technical blog. I’ve already convinced some of them to start blogging… yeah!
Why is it that you explain your problem to other person (or even to a rubber duck) and you find the solution yourself as you describe the problem? The brain works differently when you think without talking loudly, than when you talk or write.
There are different learning levels for techniques:
- You discover there is something new you want to learn.
- You start reading how others use the technique but don’t understand what they are doing. It’s confusing at first.
- You start reading how others apply the technique and you understand what they do, but you can’t do it yourself.
- You are able to start doing it by yourself.
- You explain what you know to others and then new doubts and thoughts pop up, and you get a deeper knowledge.
- You teach people on the technique and that gets you closer to the master level. The more you teach the more you learn.
- You eventually become a master.
Write a blog
Just do it for yourself, write notes that can be helpful for you in the future. Explain what you learn. It might help others and it will definitely help you, just for the sake of learning. Don’t worry too much about your writing style, you are not writing a book and it is your blog, don’t let the wording stop you from your willingness to share. In my case, every time I write in English, I learn more English also, so it is not only technical stuff that I learn. However, I prefer to write it even feeling that I am making some grammar mistakes, rather than keeping the draft for months, waiting for the perfect moment to polish my writing to come off. I try to deliver frequently and learn from my mistakes. All I know is reading my post when I finish it to fix the mistakes I notice.
Talk to others
Don’t miss the opportunity to expose what you learn in your local community. Talk to others and present papers for conferences. But if you decide to talk in a conference, prepare your pitch upfront. Prepare your slides and your talk very well before doing it. The more you practice your pitch the more you will learn and the better it will be for the audience. Don’t be afraid when talking for a big audience, nobody is better or worse than you, you deserve all the respect, and so your audience.
Teach what you know
If you don’t want to feel uncomfortable as the questions come in, you better know what you are talking about. This means you have to prepare the classes very well, and that will help you to know the technique really well. Teaching is a great motivation to learn. If you don’t have experience as a teacher, my advise is to teach your friends or colleagues in your local community for free, until you reach the point where others confirm you they are taking value from your lessons.
I hope to inspire more developers to, at least, start a weblog 🙂