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Blogging vs. Building (ryanhoover.me)
18 points by coloneltcb on Nov 12, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments


You can build an idea by building an app or a blog post discussing it. It's what you do next that makes the biggest difference. Are you going to continue down that road of a through or let someone else take a hold of it.

Really interesting and something I have been thinking about a lot. In more recent projects I have built a landing page and maybe a simple MVP to showcase/mockups/etc. but then blog to try and drive traffic to it or use as a discussion link.


Curious to hear what others think. Does there have to be a tradeoff between blogging and building?


I definitely view blogging as a major distraction, it’s a time sink, tedious, needs mental context shift, and is more of a long-tail investment, really tedious. Did I mention tedious? It does let you solidify the message or mental-model of your product, even if no-one even reads what you write, so I can see the value of it. So maybe if anything its just a chance to re-group and perhaps position yourself as an expert on xyz-topic if it aligns with strategy. It’s like starting at a gym, initially a horrible experience but then 6 months later you've got a new lump on your body which a doctor says is just a 'blogcep' (and a remarkably small one). Anyhow, like any chore it needs to fit into the routine somehow. Probably helps to be a people-person to begin with.


Definitely a time-sink. And I seriously question its value as a long-tail investment. Even if you use it to document processes or a tutorial, after a couple of years or so it's out of date.

But I think you hit on the right value for someone who's not in the business of blogging: writing out the idea. We can keep ideas in our head, even code things out, but the process of putting your ideas into a blog post is a great way to flesh it out.


I'm not sure. Sometimes I find that when I'm working on something, I get ideas on what to write about. Admittedly, most of my blog posts tend to be reminders to myself on how to fix certain problems I come across as opposed to long form essays.


Building your personal brand is very underrated!




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