Some time ago, was an article named “short video era, still do I have to save pictures and texts? “, which got me thinking. While the pandemic has accelerated the era of short videos, graphic and text are still a cheaper option for techies to build their personal brands.

This is one of the reasons why I strongly recommend blogging. Today, take a personal look at why and how you were advised to blog. (Corrections and discussion are welcome)

Directory:

1. Thought article;
2. Theoretical articles;
3. Practice;

Part 1. Thoughts

Think of yourself as a business

Although my working life is very short (only 7 months), I still remember what my boss talked to me on the first day.

Be grateful and approve. The subtext: You’re not here to “do business” with the company (get paid for your labor), but to “start a business” (provide a service).

This shift in mindset is particularly important. You can’t make good business decisions until you start thinking of yourself as a business.

If you’re used to getting a fixed salary that doesn’t depend on your performance, it’s easy to get into the mindset that I’m just working for a company. While it may be true that you worked for a company at a certain point in your career, it’s important not to let that particular role solidify you and your entire career.

Think about it: a company with a product or service, how can they market that product so that they can be exceptional?

Most programmers 👨💻 dive into their work and simply can’t do it. Instead, we need to:

• Focus on the service you are providing and how to market it;
• Find ways to improve your service;
• Think about what specific types of customers or industries you can focus on serving;
• Focus on becoming a specialist who specializes in providing holistic services to a specific type of client;

Also, think about how you can better advertise your services and find your customers. That’s one of the reasons I suggest you start a blog.

Most software developers write a resume and then throw it at companies and recruiters. But when you’re looking at your career as a business, do you really think that’s the best way or the only way to reach your potential customers? Of course not.

Most successful companies develop products or services that customers come to buy. They don’t chase after one customer after another.

Imagine another scenario: You walk into an interview room and shake hands with the interviewer. When he saw you, his face lit up with a similar smile: “Hey! I know you, I’ve seen your picture on your blog, and I’ve read many articles on your blog.”

What do you think your chances of success are in this interview?

The truth is that it’s hard for people to get to know you in the first few hours of an interview, but that’s not always the case if you have a blog or something.

Another point is that when many skilled developers are competing for the same job, the biggest determinant of success is no longer technical ability.

An outlook on life based on information theory

Let’s start with two pieces of news.

The first message I typed was random. The second is a line from “The Buried Giant,” a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, who won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Which message is more “informative”?

Intuitively, the second one is more informative because it’s at least one piece of information, while the first one is complete gibber. But the second message simply seemed more meaningful — the first was the more informative one.

Even if you remove some of the extra words from the second message, I think you can guess the content. Sunday is a day of rest. That is, the second message is compressible.

The first message is different. Take any word out and you can’t guess what it is.

In other words, the amount of information contained in a message is not determined by the length of the message alone. Just like life, two people who live the same age may have very different levels of richness in their life experiences.

Information is accident. From the perspective of “information theory”, two kinds of things are worth doing in particular:

• Something unexpected;
• Giving yourself more options;

So if you want to leave a message in the world, writing (surprisingly) might be the way to go — at little cost and possibly high reward.

But you also need to pay attention to the amount of information. Being creative and predictable is a reasonable output of information.

If your ideas are very original and your language is very concise, there is too much information to be understood by others. And if the truth in your article is very little, wheels said a lot, that is not good.

How much information is good is an art that you have to learn. In my opinion, the only good thing about redundancy is that it should be easy for others to take in. As long as the reader can understand it and remember it, the information should be as dense as possible.

The value of life lies in expression.

Why are most people unhappy at work? The answer is: because their work is valued by others.

Nietzsche points out in the Revaluation of All Values:

The more sophisticated the organization of human society, the more thoroughly the loss of individual value.

Whether it’s part-time work, starting a business, or working in the system, most jobs in the world are “catering” — catering for money.

Entrepreneurship to cater to users, work to cater to the boss, the system to cater to the boss. The essence of all of them is to get money by making themselves conform to external circumstances.

If you look at people who have money and are happy, either they are financially free and don’t need to sell their time and labor to make money, or they work but do creative work.

Conversely, some bosses are well-paid, but have a very short view of the world beyond their business. Because their job is purely to “cater”, there is no room for creativity.

So what is creative work?

Creative work is a job where income is determined by the output of self-value rather than KPI assessment and performance.

For example: the work of a “designer” may seem like creation, but what determines his income is whether the employer is satisfied or not. This is not creative work. And a “painter” who paints without knowing to whom he will sell it is pure expression, and this kind of work is creative work.

The essence of life is to experience, and value lies in “expression”. Experience is the input, and expression is the output.

Of course, this kind of “expression” is not limited to words, any behavior that does not cater to the external world is “expression”.

Why is there more and more trolls and trolls on the Internet? This is because their “expression space” in real life is getting smaller and smaller, so they can only achieve their “expression” demands through the Internet.

This is the third reason why I suggest you start a blog.

Be sure to improve your “presentation” skills. With the further development of artificial intelligence technology and the further transformation of social division of labor, people’s space for “expression” will be further compressed.

Those who do not know how to express themselves are deprived of their essential attributes and even deprived of their “right to be tools”. (View from part 3)

Output is the best input

According to the Us National Training Laboratory’s average retention of learning content study, which counted the retention rate of learning content after two weeks of learning:

Research shows that teaching others has the highest retention rate of learning.

You can imagine a reader between the ages of 60 and 6 saying it in his or her own words, without the jargon of the industry, and then you really “understand” this knowledge.

In order to achieve this goal, it is natural for you to take the initiative to acquire more knowledge.

That’s why the Feynman method (simply reading a book) is called the best learning method in the world.

summary

To sum up, the reasons for writing a blog are as follows:

1. In order to better promote your services, better find your customers;
2. Leave more information for the world, create more surprises, output their own unique value;
3. To satisfy the demands of “expression” and exercise the ability of “expression”;
4. For their own better learning;

Part 2. Theory

The look of a good article

The articles we can write can be almost divided into the following categories:

Of course, different types of articles have different writing strategies, which we won’t discuss here. But good writing always has the following characteristics:

1. Spillover value: You get something out of it, something to think about or grow.
2. High readability: typesetting comfortable, readers are not tired, look very smooth;

Let’s talk about these points in detail.

Overflow value

One of the main reasons people don’t blog is that there’s no need to rehash something that has already been done by so many people before.

If what you write is simply a repetition of what already exists, it will be hard to convince yourself that it has meaning and value. How can this be avoided? There are a few simple ways to do this.

More input

There is a saying about the nature of learning: the process of connecting disparate things.

Our understanding of a certain concept is always limited, through more input, input from different fields, combined with the difference of each person’s own cognition and opinion, new knowledge will be generated.

Every time I read strange stories, I always feel amazed that there are so many different views and perspectives on seemingly ordinary issues.

This is similar to our learning. When we accumulate and learn, we should be more and more uncertain about the world, not more certain.

We can build up our knowledge through constant input, input from different fields, and bring more value.

Share some good content platforms:

* Feel free to add your favorite content search platforms in the comments section

Use appropriate metaphors

The easiest way to see things is to use familiar analogies.

For example, qian Zhongshu has a famous metaphor in Fortress Besieged:

The malice of honest and honest people, like the grit in the rice or the raw thorns in the fillet of bone fish, gives a kind of unexpected pain.

For example, the introduction of “data type” includes a “shredded piece of paper”, which makes the “image” of “data type” more concrete:

Appropriate metaphors can help us deepen our understanding and impression of the concept.

Tell a good story

Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 — February 12, 1980), a famous American poetess, has two lines about the importance of stories that are widely read:

Epitaph on Muriel Rukeyser’s tomb

The universe is made of stories, not of Atoms

Stories, not atoms, make up the universe. — The Speed of Darkness

Since the popularization of the Internet, the trend of “fragmentation” is increasingly obvious, and “story” may be a good solution to “attention not gathering”. Recently, a large number of story creators have emerged, and the typical representative is the transformation of code farmers.

Facts are interesting and ideas are important, but only a great story can be impressive and memorable.

Use pictures instead

Humans are very visual animals, with more than 50 percent of the brain devoted to processing visual information, compared to 8 percent for touch and 3 percent for hearing. Keep this in mind as we blog.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. For example, when introducing the Redis GeoHash algorithm, this diagram shows the core logic of region encoding very clearly:

The high density and high quality content output is impressive in itself. Pictures are a good example. Arthur Robinson, a cartographic historian, explained: “The substitution of reduced space for real space is impressive in itself.”

In addition, people’s attention is already limited, in the limited time to continuously acquire useful knowledge content can not only help us regain attention, but also deepen our impression. (See Tik Tok)

Since visual information is highly valued by the brain, improving the visual appeal of a blog can increase its value and credibility. Instead of boring text, use lots of high density, high quality images.

The system of value

Suppose, for example, that two doctors, each with a soldier in the middle of his thigh, had completely different results because of their respective knowledge systems (reference) :

D1 lacked the knowledge system for the diagnosis and treatment of arrow wounds. With only a few scattered bits of knowledge in his brain, he could only solve the first and last problems without thinking of infection, fever, dietary contraindications and other things. As a result, after his patient returned home, the wound became infected and fester, causing various complications.

D2, on the other hand, was able to consider various problems in a systematic, multi-dimensional and multi-link way and properly formulate the treatment strategy for the arrow wound. His patient was well treated and quickly recovered.

A system of knowledge in the medical field can cure people immediately, and other systems of knowledge can do the same. Write an article like this.

Generally speaking, a technical article is complete if it includes What/Why/How. Of course, this only covers one point of knowledge, but you can still make necessary arguments about related concepts.

Systematic knowledge has additional systematic value. (This is also why there are 10,000-word articles.)

How is good readability established?

There are basically two ways for readers to read a text.

Therefore, based on readers’ reading habits, we can generally take the following measures to improve the readability of the article: highlight key words, the title to the point, point out the meaning of the text in the first paragraph, and point out the narration.

Let’s talk about it in detail with some design knowledge.

Less is more

Einstein once said:

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.

There are two excellent cases in my mind. One is the official website of Apple. Second, ruan Yifeng big blog.

Why do we always feel clean and clear when we read excellent works and give people a clear visual experience? One of the most important reasons is that they can express the clearest meaning with the fewest elements.

Nothing frustrates a reader more than long, difficult sentences and walls of typeface.

To follow the less is more principle, there are a few things to note.

First, keep each line to 25-40 words :(if possible…)

Secondly, using Feynman learning method to do subtraction of knowledge:

In fact, it is the process of simplifying knowledge through continuous input learning.

Then, try to avoid grand themes.

Do not take on too much, in fact, each clear one question is enough. For example, my favorite series of articles, why do I design this way, is to explain only one question at a time, but each one goes deep enough, and that’s enough.

Intimacy principle

This is the concept in the design. The principle of intimacy refers to the organization of the relevant parts, the spacing between them and the priorities.

By grouping related elements together, information is more organized and easier to read and remember. There are several Settings involved.

Line spacing Settings:

The recommended line spacing is 1.4 to 1.6 times the font size. Less than 1 times or more than 2 times will affect normal reading.

Interval setting:

In addition, the distance between different categories of elements to reflect the “near and far” also needs to be inconsistent. So you can subconsciously think of them as a group.

Contrast principle

Contrast is divided into three methods: size contrast, thickness contrast, color contrast. Use contrasts to keep your priorities straight and to highlight the important points.

If two elements are to be contrasted, they should be different, and very different.

Pay attention to the rhythm

I like listening to music. A good arrangement must have ups and downs, highs and lows.

So it is with hearing, so it is with sight. A good article should know how to properly control the visual priorities, information density and so on. I don’t have great advice on this — I rely entirely on intuition myself.

For example, after a dry technical output, I feel entitled to “take a break” and add some pictures or memes.

Content is king, but a proper sense of “breathing” is essential. I sometimes watch half-Buddha immortal at B station, which attracts me on the one hand is profound insight, on the other hand is vivid and interesting emoticons.

The combination of unavailability of both creates a magical chemistry that keeps me wanting to see more.

Is the clickbait party necessary?

First the conclusion: it is necessary.

With the rapid development of the Internet industry, “clickbait” used to be an ironic term.

However, with the emergence of the editorial industry’s own methodology and systematic editorial standards, in the new era of the Internet, “false” headlines have entered the history, and “clickbait” also has a new interpretation.

Based on the authenticity of the content, it is the pursuit of “clickbait” to use some skills according to the user’s psychology to stimulate the user’s perception of the content, so as to urge the user to obtain useful information for themselves.

Here are some common clickbait poses.

Shock type

Through unconventional phenomena and events, the target user is aroused strong emotional reaction, so that the user is shocked at that time, so that he especially wants to know the details.

For example:

1. Something’s wrong again! Tesla caught fire while driving!
2. Cask theory is dead, longboard theory is what you must master in 2021!!
3. SAO operation! Ali to business medium painful next killer! But continue to push the data center?

digital

Use numbers to convey information succinctly and clearly, give the audience a sense of certainty, and then urge the reader to know the point behind the number.

For example:

1. What’s the difference between a Java programmer earning 10K and 30K a month?
2. The secrets of CPU execution are hidden in these 15 long graphs
3. 20+ pictures people need to know about the HTTP backend

“Lap up” pose

The potential energy of celebrities, famous enterprises and famous objects known to the public, hot spots and high recognition is used to highlight the value of the content.

For example:

1. Ma Yun, Ma Huateng, Li Yanhong and other Internet tycoons management
2. Zhou Hongyi: Learn from Lang Ping’s good example
3. The man behind Nongfu Spring is “a little tough.”

suspense

The use of a half of the way to leave half of the desire to speak, arouse people’s curiosity.

For example:

1. After ali, JINGdong warehouse opened, tens of thousands of people were shocked
2. Alert! Circle of friends these 6 pits do not step on
3. Man refuses to send daughter to school, teaches himself for 11 years

Doubt type

Key words: why, how, how to do… By constructing a scenario and preconditions to throw questions at the user.

For example:

1. Bonus period has passed, the user rapid and continuous growth, what should be done?
2. How to make a neat article of 100,000 +?
3. What is the annual salary of 50W for Java?

Information conflict type

In the title to create two kinds of information conflict, contradiction to form a strong contrast, so as to amplify the user’s interest point.

For example:

1. How did I get 25,000 followers for 0
2. Broke twice, spent time in jail, built a $19 billion instant noodle empire, with one ruthless move
3. Potatoes 50 yuan a cattie, the world’s most expensive supermarket line up every day, unexpectedly with these 3 moves to subvert Wal-mart

other

For example, please enter the urn type: pass out and the user has a certain relationship, reflect a specific label, let the user feel empathy, naturally into the urn you set.

For example:

1. I’ll tell you a joke. I work on the Internet
2. Zhang Yiming: Five characteristics of outstanding young people I met

For example, some essence summary: systematically comb out the vertical field of knowledge, hotspot, convenient for users to see all want to see.

For example:

1. Top 10 places to visit in Japan on National Day
2. The most complete and best quality PPT template in history

summary

I have been blogging for more than 3 years, and my personal feeling is that wine is afraid of a deep alley.

But we should still stick to the basics: the goal is to extract information that is useful to the reader, while maintaining quality and authenticity.

In addition from the long-term point of view, the title should also try to meet the requirements of the search engine. Don’t come up with some weird attention-grabbing title like, “With all the Locks in Java, can You lock Thanos?

Part 3. Practice

Where to start

Ok, we are finally going to write the article. Where should we start?

If you really don’t know, start with how to get started with programming. Once you start, you can’t stop.

When you come up with a new idea, write it down! Use your phone’s tag or Todo List. But don’t trust your brain too much.

The reason is that the brain is unreliable, and it’s also said that it’s not for remembering, it’s for thinking.

Writing tools

We avoid a discussion of why we use Markdown (so we can focus on content, not style). We assume that Ning uses Markdown by default for writing articles ✍️.

Here are a few tools you can use when writing.

Mdnice editor

Markdown editor: product.mdnice.com/ Markdown editor: product.mdnice.com

It can not only be copied to public accounts and zhihu platforms with one click, but also support additional functions such as anklet and file history.

There are also plenty of CSS themes and code themes to choose from.

If you have CSS skills, you are advised to customize some of the existing themes so that you can form your own style. (I am based on the above lanqing transformation)

That’s what I use for layout and writing.

Typora

Typora also works well as an old Markdown editor, with wySIWYG features:

Its advantage lies in the convenience of local file management, export (PDF/ picture/Word and other formats) and other functions.

If you want to set up a custom CSS theme, you can open the theme folder in Settings, put your own custom CSS file and restart the theme.

How to build a drawing bed

I started by updating my posts on Facebook, which at that time could be used as a platform for sharing. Then suddenly the outside world couldn’t access Jane’s pictures.

Imagine the day when all the pictures on your blog don’t load. I think every blogger who has experienced graphic bed failure can relate.

So we need to build our own chart bed. I’ve tried a lot of map beds and methods, but go straight to the recommended one: Github + jsDelivr.

Construction is also very simple, combined with the above 👆 recommended writing tools respectively.

Github map bed created

The first step is to create a repository on Github, name it whatever you want.

Then click your profile picture and click “Setting” to enter the “Developer Settings” TAB:

Create Personal Access Tokens

Fill in the Settings for the new token and make sure to check repO:

Copy generated token** (close the page this token can not be copied!) 六四屠杀

Well, that concludes Github’s work.

Mdnice editor Settings

The last step is to fill in the Github information. (The username is Github name and the token is the token copied just now)

This way, you can happily “Ctrl + V” upload pictures on Mdnice.

Typora set

This is a bit trickier. You’ll need to download a PicGo app (github.com/Molunerfinn…

After the installation is complete, open the Settings page and set it up:

Note that the custom field name here requires additional Settings:

https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/ name/user name/warehouseCopy the code

This is equivalent to adding a prefix to the image you upload, for example, the original name of the image you upload is a.jpg, after setting the custom field name, it will automatically change to :(above)a.jpg.

When you have pictures to upload, you can copy them and then press the default shortcut key “Ctrl + U” to upload them.

If you want your uploaded images to be automatically formatted (replacing the clipboard), such as automatically adapted to Markdown’s format, you can also customize the Settings:

At this point, we just have an app that automatically uploads pictures. We need to establish an association between Typora and PicGo and enter the Settings of Typora:

I have checked PicGo by default, sometimes I will copy and paste and then upload again (this is why I don’t like Typora but Mdnice), you can set it according to your own situation.

In this way, Typora also has a one-click paste upload experience.

How to get pictures

Ok, now we have our own stable graph bed, but what about the pictures in the blog post?

Pictures can be divided into two categories: external introduction and original.

External introduction

The principle is: you must have copyright awareness.

You can search for images on some non-copyrighted image sites:

1. Unsplash.com/ (English, recommended)
2. pixabay.com/zh/ (Chinese)
3. www.pexels.com/zh-cn/ (Chinese)
4. .

When you want to use a picture, be sure to mark the source, to protect others’ original, is to protect their own original, remember X3.

Their original

There are some good online sites when you want to draw on your own.

draw.io

Convenient and simple, free to use. And there are no restrictions. [Kobayashi Coding] I drew many pictures with this tool.

www.processon.com/

Is also free and convenient, there are a lot of templates can be used for reference. But personally I feel uglier.

Drawing tools

Using online tools, while convenient, has its limitations. Here are some handy tools.

Sketch

This tool was used by the Draveness guru, so I tried it myself, but it didn’t work very well. If you’re interested, check out the technical post illustration guide on the BLOG.

Take a look at some of draP’s Sketch illustrations.

At the beginning of the big guy’s style is the following one, very like so began to imitate. Then the big guy switched to the style above. (I wonder if it’s because of “copycats”, hahaha)

OmniGraffle

It’s a very powerful tool, and I still use it. Not only does it have the ease of dragging and dropping from an online site, but it’s also very easy to build your own component library.

These component libraries are also extremely easy to use, requiring only drag and drop.

In addition to convenient drawing, it can also be easily converted to the desired format. (Select element → Edit → copy to)

That fits the bill: convenient, simple and beautiful.

How to make giFs

I would like to talk about my current method of making GIFs. I need to use three kinds of software:

• OmniGraffle: Make base elements
• PPT: Use “smooth” special effect and animation to make the alignment of the whole process and elements;
• Gifox: Record the final playing effect of PPT and convert it to.gifFile;

The biggest reason to use these three apps is that they are simple and extremely useful.

OmniGraffle and Gifox nothing to say, maybe everyone is strange to PPT, focus on how to make PPT GIF.

One of the most important principles is “smooth” transitions. If you put “smooth” between two slides, the same elements will automatically transition.

The smoothness function may be much more powerful than you imagine, take a look at the PPT of Danniu:

The above is made by PPT 3D model + smooth function, if you want to further understand, you can poke here.

But sometimes the same elements are identified incorrectly or the effect is not ideal:

We can make a smooth transition by forcing the two elements together:

In case some children can not see clearly, I give a text version:

1. Click “Arrange” under the “Start” TAB to open the “Selection window”;
2. To give two elements the same name, add two exclamation points (!!!!! Any character), forcible binding;

PPT animation will not say, are ready to use. There are just a few additional Settings for the “toggle” option to keep the continuous and smooth PPT running automatically:

• First page: set to click the mouse, which can control the start of the whole PPT;
• Middle page: set automatic slide change, the interval can be adjusted, so as to ensure the automatic operation of PPT;
• Last page: neither click, nor automatically slice, so as to prevent the PPT into the black end page;

This way, a powerpoint presentation can play automatically from the moment you click the mouse to the last page, and giFs can be recorded.

Writing platform

There are many writing platforms to choose from: Jianshu, Blog Park, CSDN, Zhihu, Nuggets, Open Source China, Sifu, wechat official account, GitChat.

Nothing to say, the early stage is not pick, their update a period of time to know where the main firepower.

Here are some neat lessons :(personal)

1. Simple SEO is best, but the community is complicated;
2. Zhihu has the best answer and drainage, and its users tend to be young.
3. The blog park has the best atmosphere and can often have good interaction;
4. CSDN is the oldest, with a lot of big guns, but relatively less exposure.
5. Nuggets can often be recommended, the atmosphere is also good, the rules;
6. The public number is most suitable for precipitation, sharing, but do not become advertising reprint number;

Some tips for writing

Here are some simple and useful tips for you, all based on experience:

1. Don’t go beyond the third level, or reflect on whether your content is reasonable;

2. Write all ordered lists as 1. To avoid the problem of changing the ordinal number.

   

3. Note the ** emphasis around punctuation; compatibility varies from editor to editor;

   

4. Some public pictures (such as TWO-DIMENSIONAL code, emoticons, etc.) can be specially created in the map bed to create a category, so that there is no need to upload space every time, unified modification is also very convenient;

5. Add…. in the comments section

Afterword.

Internet content from the legendary stories of tieba forums, to the jokes in the microblog era, to the long articles in the we-media era, to the video era with more information.

Times change, but good content creators remain.

Foucault put forward the famous philosophical proposition “Language is right” in the Order of Language. Now, algorithmic new media provide the technical conditions for this proposition.

I appeal to all expressive people who crave “expression”, who are rich in heart and have insight into the world, to leave fans and likes alone and just express.

Algorithmic evolution will eventually weed out bad drafts and marketing numbers, leaving the world with really good content and the creators of good content.

The resources

1. Soft Skills: South of Survival Beyond Code
2. You have a plan, the world has another.
3. Trill | – v.douyin.com/e136mMr/ creation and expression
4. Typography four points – www.zcool.com.cn/article/ZMT…
5. The designer’s temperament – from technique to design psychology – www.zcool.com.cn/article/ZNj…
6. Use the principle of “intimacy” to make typography no longer messy – www.shejidaren.com/qinmi-xing-…
7. A “the title party” self cultivation of 10 skills – www.woshipm.com/operate/404…
8. PicGo + jsDelivr + making up free CDN acceleration diagram bed – www.sakura521.cn/technology/…

Pay attention to my

Hi, I don’t have three hearts. I will share the growth and thinking of a free technical person on the public account wmyskxz. I will share the wonderful content of the week every Sunday.

Other highlights:

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3. Programmer test public guide fire? What do you choose between salary and life?
4. Understand Bitcoin (4) — How it works
5. Surprised! The secret of the original browser is hidden in these 31 pictures!

(after)