[biznickman]

I've attempted to build automated news systems in the past and have done so successfully a couple of times. However this is completely misleading as the work is not in publishing but instead is in the actual discovery, curation, and writing of content.

I don't know where the joke is from but if there is one about how engineers set up a blog it would go like this.

Normal person:

Goes to Medium, Wordpress, or somewhere else, starts writing and clicks publish.

Developer:

1. Set up ReactJS for the front end

2. Set up a build system for automated deployments

3. Sets up MongoDB to store the articles they'll be writing

4. Sets up the backend to serve up the various articles

5. Builds an integration for Wordpress that enables Wordpress to pull and push (make sure both ways) to the MongoDB system that's storing the newsletters

6. Sets up all the integrations required for SEO

7. Sets up the integration testing framework

8. Write an article

9. Clicks publish

[satvikpendem]

This is because an engineer's interest is not in the actual writing, but the creation of such a blog. To such engineers, I'd say that this is fine, but don't delude yourself into thinking that these are necessary steps to writing when there are much simpler ways, such as Medium or Wordpress as you say.

[rlayton2]

Agree. I think I've made nearly as many personal blog sites as I have actual blog posts.

[jesterson]

To be more precise, it's a typical law of the instrument - for man with a hammer every problem looks like a sticking nail. Applicable to pretty much every area of human knowledge resulting things to be more complicated than they have to.

[juandazapata]

Grey beard: 1. Opens emacs 2. Writes the post in org-mode 3. Exports to html 4. rsyncs with a remote server

[arminiusreturns]

This or asciidoc, and I literally just git to my server with post-receive hooks that push to the public webserver dir. No sftp or rsync required.

[bigiain]

> with post-receive hooks that push to the public webserver dir

Setting that up is just a different version of doing points 2 through 7 in the grandparent post's list...

(Though your direct parent post also left out the 30 years of "getting emacs set up just the way I like it"...)

[quickthrower2]

You modern hipster

[julianeon]

This kind of indirectly brings up a point I think more devs should think about:

Look at how much work it took you to get to 8 & 9.

Is it worth throwing away hours of work and getting 1/10 the engagement you could've gotten, in a rush to cross off 9? Of course not.

Thinking about your blog topics - what's going to engage your audience, what's going to bring it in front of more viewers - should be something you think deeply about.

Just consider elevating it beyond "what do I find interesting in this moment, at this second." Think - hard - with some Google research to back it up, and yes, maybe some tedious cross-checking of similar articles - What would people like to read, and what would get you a good return on the time you've sunk into this?

It's sad to spend 5 hours on something 4 people read, when 6 hours could've easily made it 200.

[Kye]

I think it depends on the writer. The more time I spend working on a piece of writing, the fewer people see it.

[nicbou]

All of this is fun. Sometimes I feel like writing, and sometimes I feel like messing with the website or the server it runs on. These tasks scratch different itches.

In either case, I have all the time in the world. I'm not maximizing for engagement. I'm just having fun, and I'm learning something along the way.

People make chairs with expensive tools in expensive workshops. They could just drive out and buy one, but they're not trying to disrupt the sitting industry. They just enjoy the process of making chairs.

[haecceity]

Lazy developer:

1. Write article in notepad

2. Create blog repo in github

3. Create issue and paste article

[atom_arranger]

Article Title: How I Setup My Personal Website

https://www.theolognion.com/programmer-starts-a-blog-doesnt-...

[redis_mlc]

Thanks for linking to that - the whole site is accurate, yet very funny.

[DailyHN]

In defense of the devblogger, build-a-blog is like "hello world" for every web framework.

[funcDropShadow]

Well, but static articles shouldn't need a web framework in the first place.

[k__]

This is how I tried to start all the time and failed.

01.2017 I simply signed up for dev.to and started writing.

Best decision ever.

[jl6]

You nailed it, and even included all the security steps they go through.

[xwdv]

Sometimes 8 & 9 are optional.

[brightball]

That’s half the fun. :)