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Comment by kjksf | Hacker News Reader

Visibility and marketing of yourself to your future employers which might translate into better jobs for more money.

If you wrote amazing piece of code and nobody (except your coworkers) saw it, did it really happen? How would a potential future employer know?

By blogging about things you learn you establish yourself as someone who knows the stuff you blog about. It might lead to incoming job opportunities and helps when you submit your resume.

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What if you don't care for employers or what people think of you? (self employed, etc.)

What if I tell you another reason and you ask "what if you don't care about reason X" ?

So maybe instead of asking other people, it's time for you to figure out yourself why millions of people blog.

The answer you gave (a valid answer) is well known and understood (vanity).

I'm curious why developers blog other than vanity.

to reinforce one's own understanding. you're motivated to get things right if you know that other people will be reading it, rather than, say, writing something in your own private notes.

This is why I do it. I don't blog for "vanity" mostly because there isn't much glory in it at the level I'm blogging. There are so many others out there way smarter who do it better than me.

I do it simply to:

- Share with others cool stuff I've learned

- Formulate stuff I've learned into a structure so I better understand it

- Put it out there so people will criticize/mock it, and improve my game.

does altruism count as vanity? people often feel good sharing information with others and helping others. perhaps that's still "vanity", but i don't think so.

His answer was not vanity. Vanity is just probably, not nescessarily, and surely not uniquely, one of the reasons behind his answer.

Very key for independent consultants. Almost essential

Becoming visible is even more important if you're self-employed, so much more so it is not even optional but essential. How else would you find clients?

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