Why You Should Start Blogging as a Newbie Programmer
Don't you like to boost your motivation of Learning and becoming a better Programmer? This is my tested way, that can make learning FUN.
The struggle is real. Everyone who has touched code is, or has been there. It’s difficult for the newbie programmer to find motivation, or the right sources for learning, or to figure out what the hell to do. Having a mentor helps, but let’s be real, who starts learning programming with a mentor? I’ve been in this business for a while and I still haven’t found any.
So the question is:
What Should You do as a New Programmer?
What should you do to motivate yourself in learning and looking for jobs? After all it can be frustrating to the point of giving up. We all have, at one point, fixated on something and given up after a while. How will you make sure, history won’t repeat itself? That you don’t give up the coding?
I’m not here to instruct you with a to-do list. But I’m going to share a trick that has helped me a lot. And it will help you as well.
BLOG IT OUT
Simple as that. Blog your journey. Use the gamification of likes and viewers to your advantage. This helps you in many ways:
You Learn by Sharing: By sharing what you learned, and trying to make it as digestible as possible, you make sure that you have learned the subject by heart. You know the ins and outs of it. You know the gaps in your knowledge. You figure out there is a question you have about this subject but haven’t really thought about it yet. By sharing, you detect those gaps and you fill them.
Gamification: Use the power of likes and comments and followers and views and all that to your advantage. After all, learning is a challenging endeavor, it’s not easy, it can be griding at times. But when you share what you learn, the clapping of the audience boosts your dopamine. You are REWARED for learning it and sharing it. It motivates you and pushes you forward in times that you would have given up otherwise.
The Community: By building an audience of people who follow what you are learning, you build a community around you. A community of like-minded people. Some of them may be experts in your field who could give you advice and help you. Some of them may be fellow learners just like you, who can give you tips on what subjects to learn and how to learn them. Nothing beats a team of the same goal, not even frustration.
Landing Your 1st Job: Sounds exotic, right? By building a blog and sharing what you know, you have a documented proof that you’re not a b*s**. It could be possible that someone, through your blog presents you a career opportunity. Maybe using the community I mentioned before, you become pals with Mr.X who works in Y company. At the very least, it’s possible that when you apply for a job and you mention the blog, the recruiter checks it out and is impressed by your writings. As far as it’s good, there’s no harm in it.
Money: The last reason is definitely not the least. It’s the driving force of human race, money! Now let me be honest with you, you will struggle at first to find an audience, so money may be a long-reach at the beginning. But after some time, as you consistently share your findings, you will slowly but surely come to a point to be able to monetize your blog. How you can monetize your content is a big topic, not that I’m an expert. But by doing so, you are growing a platform for you to build your personal brand and make a buck out of it.
Writing Helps You Think
Writing triggers that hidden voice in your head, the creative voice that doesn’t stop talking after waking up. By writing, you practice a sense of teaching, or maybe learning, or maybe both at the same time. In fact, I’m hearing that voice right now!
If you want to learn something, then teach it first.
There is a wisdom in this saying. Teach what you learn to figure out how good you have learned it. In fact, if you learn something with that voice (the one I mentioned above) in your head, you will learn differently. With more curiosity, clearer intent, and more attention.
When I was just at the start of my career I did this. I started posting on my LinkedIn. Short posts about something I learned in Python or Numpy. I was reading a book back then called Fluent Python, 2nd Edition and to commit myself to reading it, I would share interesting bits I learned. That was enough motivation for me. I believe this was effective in growing my network in LinkedIn. Now I’m doing it with this Blog, and I’m hoping I’m able to ignite some passion in you, about what I learn!
Conclusion
It can be tough at the beginning if you don’t have writing experience (like me right now!). When starting your blog or social media account, writing content may feel like talking to a blank wall, nobody is there to listen (like me right now :D).
So my advice, and by advice I mean what I think will work for me too but I’m not really sure, is to forget about followers and money and all that. Think about it as a learning tool to test the depth of your learning. Use the opportunity to your benefit, otherwise it would become an unpaying job, and you don’t want that.
This is me, I’m not a beginner programmer, but this is the reason I started this blog. And in the future, it may not exits, maybe I give up on it. But I have come to the conclusion that sharing 1) makes the learning much more fun and 2) makes it much more deep. And so I’m giving it a ride. I am consistently learning things, as should you. I will post about my field of work:
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Machine Learning
Data Science
Why I study a Master’s degree
Programming and Cool Stuff About It
My Journey through all mentioned above
It’s a rather exciting challenge for me to see if I can pull it off. I will not bend backwards to make you like me though. I’ll be me, in my own tone and my own way, because I don’t want to be a second-hand version of everyone else. But I promise to myself, and you, to not be boring :D And please tell me when I am. So, if you’re ready for the ride, Subscribe to be in touch with me ;)