Early this month Hashnode held the #HashnodeBootcamp III 6 speakers were hosted to speak to us as attendees of the Bootcamp. Learned a lot over the Bootcamp and I would like to share key points to take from each speaker's session.

The first speaker was Sam Julien a developer Relations Manager at AuthO and also an author of books like "Getting started in Developer Relations" and "Guide to Tiny Experiments". Starts off by saying that any developer can apply for the Ambassador Program at AuthO: some opportunities for content, speaking, swags & mentors, and the Apollo Program for the opportunity to write on Apollo Blog.

Consistent small wins: The secret to building new skill

As a developer, it can be overwhelming at the start of a topic and difficult to cross things off the list you might be having 10-15 unpublished drafts in a never-ending cycle.

Writing content for fun and fun is exhausting. Don't think of any content/skills you're creating as a dictionary to memorize but think like exploring and crossing things on a checklist. Don't look at all at once learning new territory as you write/create content.

Wandering aimlessly gets lost remember we're human and we are bad at trusting our gut feelings. You make less progress wandering aimlessly we need object reality. Comfort is the enemy of growth. We like equilibrium we don't think we should grow. Comfort is not equal to self-care i.e intellectual discomfort for growth. The amount of time to work

What causes Growth

Challenging things quickly the getting feedback

Lift heavy weight/performance by giving your best effort or there are consequences. Product-focused i.e specific, deliverable article/website or video is traceable and measurable(measure impact)

Getting feedback

Does it work, learning in groups and learning in public through content, articles, or videos?

Building content system

Creating content is hard. According to Gartner hype cycle on technology adoption: inflated expectation through disillusionment. You don't rise to the level of goals, you fell to the system i.e system is greater than motivation. In 2014, Sam Julien moved to Poland where he didn't know anyone but had to pick a part of town to visit as a way to explore that area.

Build a small but complete system

Draft -> Create -> Publish -> Promote -> Garden

• Draft: Gather notes, create outline i.e first draft.
• Create: writing & adding code examples
• Publish: publish on-site
• Promote: through Twitter threads, talk-based on writing -Garden: update overtime, maintain, and cross-linking.

Building your content system

1.Draft, create and publish: This is the creation phase where you use tools like scratchpad, task manager, and knowledge system. Use Heavy lift vs slow burn rule i.e instead of a big effort at once slowly compile things on drafts over time.

scratchpad eliminates distractions of putting things down, looks for speed, ease of use, and the ability to export. e.g google docs, drafts

knowledge base digital notebooks for slow-burn your draft and link ideas together. e.g Evernote, Roam, Notion, Obsidian for cross-linking, adding multimedia and other collections.

Task Manager determines the next action, context like Omnifocus, things, google keep which allows you to work with your brain and gives you the ability to add tags/context.

• In the beginning, it's faster to define your process i.e regrow by doing challenging things quickly and get feedback through tiny experiments.
• Start with what you know i.e use writing to learn something and a new topic/skill i.e isolate skill of learning to ship.

Stuck try the TL Format(writing idea)

Use the 'Today I learned...' i.e give an intro then 2 or 3 sentences describing the problem you had. The body with few sentences describing the solution and how you got the final solution. Don't over-engineer too quickly it's not a failure, it's a test.

2.Promote & Garden

Every piece of content has a price tag i.e promotion plan to spend equal time promoting and maintaining.

Provide direct value on each platform i.e don't just dump links best person in marketing provides value

• what people looking for
• what's their frame of mind
• how can you provide value on the spot

Be patient

• takes time to a spike in popularity hence keep writing consistently

This covered general technical writing skills whereas a writer you plan your work from drafts, adding knowledge phase, publishing and still improving it over time and give us an idea of writing weekly of what we learnt over the weekly properly where you were stuck and you fixed that problem and this would ease article writing and knowledge sharing.

Thank you for reading through the article you can follow Sam Julien and read his other blogs. Hoping this will be helpful in your technical writing journey/skills.