From Tech Docs to Blog Posts: How Writing Can Transform Your Career

Writing online is presented as a forcing function for learning and clearer thinking. The author says that posting regularly changes note-taking from information dumping to reading-first writing, because the goal becomes making the reading easy and reflecting more on the material.

The post also connects writing with fear reduction and faster iteration. Sharing thoughts, making proposals, and writing at work all benefit from exposing yourself to the process long enough, and from aiming each post, message, or section at a clear outcome.

Reading notes

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• Writing online pushes you to learn by making the reading easier and forcing more reflection on what you read.
• Before writing online, notes were mainly a dump of information; after that, the process became reading-first.
• Sharing thoughts publicly is intimidating, and making a technical proposal to a team is scary.
• Repeated exposure to these situations is presented as the way to lose fear.
• Regular posting online lets you iterate faster than waiting for chances at work.
• Missing some weeks does not erase progress, since busy periods are part of life.
• If you expose a side project, writing, or anything else online, that exposure helps keep you doing it.
• A newsletter is described as a form of social media, just longer.
• Readers want a single, clear learning from a post.
• People see you as a better communicator when they get an outcome from reading you.
• The same approach should be used for email, Slack messages, and technical documents.
• For technical documents, each section should have a clear outcome.
• Ideas and topics should not be mixed together.
• Questions can work if the text answers them, and storytelling or humor can also catch attention.
• At work, it helps to signal who the text is for so readers know whether it applies to them.