Teochew Thunder: Year Three (Part 2/2)

As with previous years, some of my posts garnered more... attention than others. The trends have been a little strange, to be honest. On the bright side, readership has gone up. Not phenomenally, but noticeably.

What can I say? Fuck yeah.

These trends!

TeochewThunder's content

Tech News - 2017 has been undeniably the Year of the Trump. The politics of USA be damned, the ramifications of his Presidency has shaken the world - all the way to the tech industry, which in principle, should be free of such things. But no, the ongoing war between the Left and the Right has been fought on many levels, much of it on Social Media. Consequently, it's spawned a few posts ruminating on this phenomenon, such as The Misinformation Age, Shopify Stands Steady and more recently, James and the Giant Echo Chamber and A Storm Without A Cloud. Even posts that don't have anything to directly to do with US politics, have references to it peppered here and there. Everywhere I go, there's no escape from Trump, his critics and US politics. Even in tech forums, where I visit to obtain some illumination on code issues, there are the assclowns apologizing for having inflicted Trump on the world. It's bad enough that I have to contend with posts tirelessly raging about Trump or Clinton on my Facebook or Quora feed (thank God I don't have a Twitter account... yet) but on tech forums? Come on, you idiots. Find a safe space and park your buttery asses there. Don't bring that shit into tech!

Ironically, one of the pieces that got the most views was not about the US, but about Singapore. I'm not sure what made Singapore's cyber-defense initiative so interesting, but there you go. Coming a close second was No-show Nodevember, in which I provided my thoughts on Douglas Crockford's exclusion from Nodevember. Again, I'm not sure I understand why this particular piece would hold so much more interest to my readers. Food for thought, eh?

Reviews - This year was also a year of many firsts, at least where Reviews are concerned. The first ever Fiction Review. The first ever non-gaming App Review. The first multi-part review of any kind, namely a Fiction Review and Film Review of The Millennium Series. My repertoire is expanding!

In fact, this year has been pretty heavy on the reviews. Hope no one's complaining!

Web Tutorials - Compared to last year's offerings, this year's web tutorials are a lot less complex, and more varied in nature. Less of the HTML/CSS/JavaScript special effects jazz and more on other platforms, security, and so on. Because variety is the spice of life, and I do like to play with new stuff. It keeps things fun. Also, even the average web developer does not need to know only HTML/CSS and JavaScript. A whole lot of separate components goes into the building of a website or web application. And knowledge of these things, if not expertise, is key.

I like to think the quality of my JavaScript has improved somewhat. Not that most people would notice because traditionally, to my chagrin, web tutorials don't get as many eyeballs as the rest. I work pretty hard on those, dammit!

Miscellaneous content - A fluff piece I wrote on my friend's wedding in the Apple Store was an instant hit despite it basically being rehashed information from a variety of news sites. Other than that, it's mostly very technical stuff that keeps me riveted but bores the living shit out of everyone else.

Some stuff, like Cracking the QBasic Color Code, is not exactly current. I wrote that post ages ago, but never found the time to release it until now. That's also because I have a certain limit I like to observe in blog posts - maximum nine per month. And even that is pushing it. Sometimes tech news gets in the way, and takes priority. So that blog post kept getting pushed into my backlog until last month. Hey, it's not like anybody cares - it's QBasic!

One standout though, is this piece which I wrote last month, a few thoughts on my experience in Singapore Polytechnic. I didn't think it was all that impressive, but someone shared it and the hits started coming. At the time of this writing, it's my most-viewed blogpost to date. I kid you not.

All this writing is hard work.

General writing style

Call it fatigue, but I think the quality of my signature puns has deteriorated. Some days it feels like I'm trying just a little too hard.

I'm also trying to write fewer words. Communicate more with less. It's an ongoing struggle with me because I really tend to pile it on when trying to bring the point across.

Thankfully, my practice of publishing content at least a week after writing it, has worked favorably. There are times when I get carried away trying to present all sides of an issue, or adequately express how strongly I feel about any given issue, and the words chosen are less than ideal. Taking a week to review said content goes a long way in increasing the clarity of the message, reducing clutter and getting the focus just right. Hopefully, I've done better since last year.

That's it!

This concludes the year end report for TeochewThunder. See you again next October. There will be a break for the rest of this month, and posting will resume in November.

Word, yo.
T___T

Teochew Thunder: Year Three (Part 1/2)

Three years.

Three years from the day I finally stopped farting around and just did it - started this blog, set up my website, put myself out there. And every time I put up an anniversary post, I have to thank, of course, Catherine Ling of Caremburu, who got me started on this path. It was then or never. No point waiting till I had enough tech cred. That was how I got tech cred.

Take the plunge!

I wish I could declare it's succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, but let's be real here. This is one tech blog out of millions of tech blogs out there, and it's not even a particularly good one. I'm nobody. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. And that's a good thing because that means nobody cares about what I have to say. In this day and age, caring leads to witch hunts and the end of your private life as you know it.

No, success takes many forms, and in my case, this blog succeeded not once, but twice.

The first time was back in 2016, when the owner of a software startup hired me - after viewing my posts, GitHub account and other things I had shared online.

The second time was earlier this year, when a major tech company interviewed me and commented on my blog during the interview. And then hired me.

In both cases, one could argue that I'd passed the technical interview and was therefore qualified, and my crappy little blog had nothing to do with it at all. Anyone who says that obviously does not understand the industry. Passing a technical interview is the minimum requirement. What a hiring manager looks for is that little extra. Love for your craft. Enthusiasm. And for a web developer, nothing screams enthusiasm like a tech blog, buying your own domain name and a lovingly maintained repository filled with all the code you write after work hours.

Coding after hours.

You see, when hiring a developer at my level, what an employer looks for is return on investment. Let's define quality of a developer as the knowledge he possesses (x) against the entirety of technical knowledge that exists out there right now (y). Someone who loves his work is only going to get better, no matter how much he sucked when you first hired him. Conversely, if you hire someone who checks all the right boxes but fails to convince you that he loves his work enough to keep improving, his value will inevitably go down the moment you hire him. x will be at a standstill, while y is only going to increase.

Also, one could say that in this day and age, not having an online presence is weird. That goes doubly if you're a tech. Triply if you're a web tech.

It's not about the quality of the content. My posts don't boast any stunning insights about the web industry or tech news. They do, however, tell the prospective employer that I bother to keep myself informed. I think about the things I read, and I care enough to formulate an opinion and put it out there. Same for my code. It's not the greatest code in the world. You could take a look and declare that your dog could write better code. Again, it's not about the quality. It's about the amount of love you put into it.

No, I put myself out there, and in an industry where many developers can't even be bothered, that puts me ahead of the pack - a pack that includes developers three times more experienced and proficient than I am. I could be drinking myself silly at a pub after hours. I could be binge-watching TV. Engaging in internet flame wars. Or any other enjoyable but arguably time-wasting activity. Instead, I'm doing this.

Well, that goes for my yearly exercise in defending the existence of this blog...

Next

Let's analyze the greatest hits of 2017!