2024 Writing Strategy

2023 retro

  • A call with Ibra made me realise I didn’t spend as much time writing as I’d have liked.
    • This was based off 2 weeks of data though, so it may not be completely accurate.
  • Recurring themes:
  • Big topics I didn’t have time to explore, and felt a lot of guilt about:
    • DX
    • DDD
    • The idea with these was to dig out actionable insights around the topics.
  • Bias towards actionability: This was a big mood for 2023
  • Writers who operate by Will Larson sums up a bit of the magic I’ve got going on here. recommended read for sure.
  • My note taking after watching videos, & listening to podcasts could improve. My current process is to do the first watch without taking notes, unless there’s info needed immediately. then the content will sit in my “watched/listened” list until I’m writing on the topic. that’s when a second listen and note taking happens
    • I feel like lots of solid material slips through the cracks this way though
    • Non-text content is hard to index & ‘bump’ into, which limits the serendipity surface area😅

Playbooks

  • The idea of playbooks was pitched to me by Ibra. The intention is to take a topic/problem, and share actionable steps to address the pains.
  • Taking the form of prompts, resources, heuristics, suggested steps, things I’ve seen work for others. Basically anything I think could be helpful
  • It’s not necessarily things I know will work
  • I like addressing topics I find to be recurring in retros across the teams I’ve worked in.
  • Reminds me a lot of Brie & Julia Evan’s zines.
  • Another good example is Domain Driven Refactorings. I’m yet to dive into this site, I found it here.

Tools

  • Readwise reader’s highlights are a great place to use for sourcing. I just search for topics/keywords and get all the webpages & books I’ve highlighted around the topic.
  • I use too many apps for note taking. Apple for handwritten and personal notes, Notion for stuff I may want to share with a semi-private audience, Bear for first drafts and notes I can share while screencasting at work.
    • Bear captures writing for this site, goosebumps, and work notes
  • lol, recently added Linear to manage Goosebumps features & roadmap, this blog too

2024