My Name is Erik Porter and I Make Mistakes and I'm prooooud of it!
If you read my blog at all, you know that my attitude towards blogging is very lax and whimsical. I make spelling mistakes. I make coding mistakes. I talk about controversial coding debates. I talk about something that totally ends up not being necessary. You get the idea.
Deep inside, I am in constant turmoil (with just about everything I do) about how much or how little I should censor, clean-up and perfect a blog entry before posting it. The perfectionist in me keeps nagging, saying “Your entries are a reflection of you. If you look like an idiot, people will think you don't know how to program very well. Your blog is like a living resume.” My pragmatic self usually wins, however.
I do very much agree with everyone that talks about blogging as a permanent version of your thoughts. Anything you blog about will be there for the rest of your life. Even when sites go down, good ol' Google is there with the “cash“ (as in, cache, since my jokes are never very funny). So it probably is a very good idea not to make crazy claims (my favorite is, “nobody would ever want that“) or just being a jerk because you don't agree with someone or think they're dumb (deal with your issues somewhere else ;)).
That said, one big problem I see with the idea of blogs being “your living resume“ is that they don't necessarily really emit your true intelligence. Anyone can take the time to do research, read other blogs, come up with witty blurbs and whatever else to make a fantastic and super intelligent looking blog entry, but what does that say about the person. The first reaction that comes to mind is, “wow, this person really knows their stuff. I'll bet they're super smart and I would bow down to them if I ever met them.“ For some bloggers this is an absolutely correct assumption, but not necessarily true.
The way I see it, is that looking things up, putting a “paper“ together with everything spelled correctly, talking about facts you've learned from different sources, etc doesn't say jack about you! It's like a really good resume. It could be the best resume (the real one :P) in the world, but it doesn't mean you're going to get the job. A good recruiter can “find“ the real you. A resume is a “foot in the door“ from my perspective. Blogging is the same thing.
To contradict myself though, having a great blog can also help you. See my inner struggle? *sigh*
So what do I have to say about blogging? Well, I really think the best thing you can do is just share what's in your head. I think the best entries I read are the ones with “the little gems“. The tips and tricks that I never knew existed or a new idea for something I never thought of. Everything on my blog that I write is 100% brain dump. I do not proofread anything (ok, sometimes I spell check) and I do not try to rework it so it “sounds“ better. True, this may make me look less intelligent than other people, but what you're getting here is 100% me and I'm proud of that. Nothing makes me go “blah“ more than meeting up with a blogger (if I've met you and you blog, don't cry yourself to sleep tonight because I'm probably not talking about you ;)) or just overhearing a conversation from a blogger I know and admire to hear that s/he doesn't meet up to my expectations from the impression I get reading their “work“.
This brings up the idea of why we blog. Is it to build on our ego? “I couldn't make it as a rock star, but I can certainly become famous in the blogosphere.“ Is it to help others? Save the world? Is it because we're bored? Is it because most of us are introverts and don't take much of an opportunity to share “our cool stuff we make“ with others and have a much broader audience here? I wish I could say that I'm just working on becoming the coding version of Mother Teresa, but I'd be lying to myself. I really think it's a little bit of it all. Don't even tell yourself you don't enjoy reading compliments about your work from people you admire or just someone who you helped! ;)
There are two main reasons why I blog:
- I enjoy helping others. I love to see that some of my entries have been found sooo many times through a Google search. Gives me warm fuzzy feelings! :P
- I love to learn. Being a college dropout you'd probably immediately think I'm lazy and hate learning. That's 100% not the case. I love it. College just wasn't my “style“ of learning, but really do enjoy it. I try to learn as much as I can every day.
Blogging is a great learning tool from both perspectives. Just being corrected by someone on my blog for something I said that wasn't correct is the ultimate learning experience. I know I'll never make those mistakes again. Watching people make mistakes is also a great way to learn. Thinking to yourself, man, I'll never make his/her mistake!
My name is Erik Porter and I make mistakes and I'm proud of it!