My Upcoming Course

I created this site during a particularly bad time, a time I was stuck in a dead-end job where I got no promotions and below inflation pay rises for 10 freaking years. I couldn’t quit because the company had sponsored my visa.  

I built this blog originally to learn Python and get out of my dead end job.

The nice thing was, my blog had a lot of other surprising side effects:

1. Many employers had heard of me—by the time I went into the interview I had a clear advantage over the other candidates.

2. I had many of the FAANG (or MANGA or whatever they are calling themselves) reach out to me for job interviews.

3. Recruiters find me thru my blog and reach out to me all the time

My blog had other benefits too: I know where newbies are struggling and I’ve written/created several books/courses which have helped me financially and got me known by more people.

I see many programmers struggling in their careers like I was a few years ago—asking how they can get better. Or people want to change their domains, move from web to systems programming, for example, but don’t know how. A blog can help with all of this.

And so a blog is a great thing. I think everyone should have one.

So why don’t more people blog? Some excuses I’ve heard:

* I don’t know what to write about

* No one will care what I think, there are so many experts around

* I don’t know how to start (tech-wise or just plain overwhelm)

I will address point 2 above—Nathan Barry (of ConvertKit) said You don’t teach because you are an expert, you become an expert by teaching

Most of my blog is stuff I’m learning myself—Godot, new libraries, Go language. Heck, my first book Python for Engineers, which has been my most successful and has a few courses built around it—was written when I was actually learning Python. My books/courses have been successful because I understand how beginners struggle even with basic things, and how much arrogance and rudeness they have to deal with (RTFM, Did you google it,or my most hated, Just do X, where X doesn’t solve the problem).

If you want to be a successful blogger, you have to write in a way people can understand. You have to write about what people care about.

The good news is, these things can be taught. I'm putting a course together I’m calling Blogging for Hackers, in which I will go over

* How to get started, never let tech issues stop you again

* How to generate enough ideas so you have enough ideas for months

* How to promote without feeling sleazy

* Dealing with Haters (and boy will you get haters—mainly armchair generals who feel it's their duty to correct everyone).

The course is still in development, most likely will be out 2023.

To know when it's out, sign up below (note this is different from the standard sign up I have for this website– I'm keeping the email lists separate as this might move to a new site).

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