Introduction

Hi, my name is Josh Albrecht and this is my blog. I have been wanting to create a blog for some time now, and I am happy to finally get one created. I wanted to devote the first blog entry to explain why I want to blog and what I hope to accomplish.

Why Blog?

1. Learning more information about subjects

Writing a great blog post on a technical subject requires a deep understanding on the subject you are writing about. To gain this understanding you identify gaps in your knowledge and reinforce your own understanding. You research to find other perspectives or approaches that may be better than what you currently know or understand. This leads to obtaining deeper knowledge.

2. Improving writing and communication skills

Consistently writing helps you become a better communicator which is a valuable skill in both a personal and professional setting. Being a Software Engineer, I think that it is easy to discredit communication as a soft skill. I tend to care more about technical details or designing software to build, so I naturally gravitate towards those activities. However, if you do not continuously work on your communication, you may experience atrophy in your communication skills.

Some of the best Software Engineers I have met are also some of the best communicators I have met. They are able to communicate their technically great ideas in the best digestible formats for their target audiences. They can create high level PowerPoint presentations for leadership that explains project details without overloading the audience with technical jargon to get buy-in to their ideas. They can also create technical design documentation for other engineers to implement without guidance. This ability of effectively communicating is a super power in the hands of an already technically competent engineer.

3. Sharing information for others

Finally, I want to publicly share this information to potentially help and or inform others. If I think that a problem or topic is interesting enough to write about, then chances are good that there are other individuals that will feel the same way. If the information ends up being useful to even a small amount of people, then I think the effort is worthwhile.

All in all, I’m hoping that blogging will be a positive experience that helps in personal growth and potentially help others.