I presented “Learning Through Blogging: Ruby Blogging Benefits“
for Lighting Talk in RedDotRubyConf 2016 (Jun 23-24th, 2016).
This was a first time to make a presentation in English.
My exerience helped me to express the benefits of blogging.
😸 Intro
The following slide images & texts are the content of my presentation:
🐠 Who am I?
My name is Kenji Mori. I’ve been a Ruby programmer and Japanese tech blogger for almost 4 years.
🤔 Working at M3 Inc
I work at M3 Incorporated.
M3 Inc. is a Japan-based global company focused on improving medicine in Japan and worldwide,
developing services for doctors.
🎉 Started career & blog in 2012
I became a web engineer and started my blog in 2012.
At first, I started the blog as a public memo to be able to remember RubyGems usage, and to keep log of my experience.
🍣 Current
Public memos in my blog are beneficial to me.
The page view count of my blog is over 2.4 million from 2012.
Fortunately, my blog is fairly well-known in the Japanese Ruby community.
Through my blog, 1 or 2 companies per month contact me with offers.
Now, I am a lead tech engineer at my workplace.
🐹 Perseverance Pays Dividends!
In Japan, we have a proverb that says that three years
on a cold stone will make the stone warm.
What it means is that you should not give up and
that perseverance and patience will bring good results.
👽 Blog as a Sales Tool
Someone asked me why I was writing a blog.
Writing a private local memo is easier than making a public blog article,
but I told him that a tech blog is a sales tool for an engineer.
If you want to get a good job, you should be well-known in the tech community.
A tech blog provides them with helpful information.
You have a chance to grab their attention.
🏈 Blog as a Skill Showcase
Your tech blog is your skill showcase.
Blog audiences can understand your powerful skills by reading your blog.
😼 Blog as a Motivation Generator
To me, my blog provides another benefit.
Other engineers who were helped by my blog thanked me.
Their appreciation motivated me to learn new technologies.
🎳 How to Increase Page View?
To increase page view count, I always often write 2 types of articles.
Someone who has a problem will see my blog and read it, looking for information to help solve a problem.
Secondly, If I collect some information for a topic to solve a problem, Another engineer may need the information too.
Summarizing information is useful for everyone.
🐞 Why do a Presentation?
I usually make a presentation from some blog articles.
In this section, I would like to introduce the reason for, and the merit of making a presentation.
The reason for making a presentation from my blog articles is to organize my knowledge.
A blog article is helpful to solve a problem, but sometimes the information is not organized.
Through making a presentation, you can convert ambiguous knowledge into systematic knowledge.
🚕 Teaching = Learning
I think teaching is equal to learning.
Research in the following URL shows that one of the best learning methods is to teach other people.
If you prepare a presentation, you will consider how to describe a topic to others.
You may prepare to answer possible questions after your presentation.
Above all, you should concentrate more on preparing for a conference than just attending.
🐰 Workshop with Coworkers
If you want to practice making a presentation, try to hold a workshop with coworkers.
My coworkers and I have a 5-minutes Lightning Talk every week.
We all use the same technology in my workplace, so we are good teachers to each other.
If you don’t have enough time to prepare, you can present your blog articles.
It is so easy to start!
🐡 Feedback & Improve
After your presentation, you can discuss the topic you tackled.
You can understand the other person’s know-how.
You may get to know an engineer who has a similar interest as you.
You can confirm their evaluation of the topic by their feedback.
I think that this evaluation can allow you to understand the next step for self-growth.
🏀 Finding Your Best Style
Writing a blog was a good first step for me to become known by other engineers.
But it is just one example of output and productivity.
Another example is contributing OSS or creating web or smartphone apps.
Try to find the output style with which you match.
😎 Wrap Up
It is first time for me to make a presentation in English and I enjoyed the presentation a lot!
If some beginner engineers who heard or saw my talk to begin writing their blog, I am really happy :thumbsup:
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