I was terrible at blogging.
Not occasionally. Reliably. I got into the community for real around 2015-2016, the golden age of SQL Server blogging. Everyone around me was publishing. I stayed quiet, because two voices in my head kept winning: “I have nothing to add” and “it’s too much work, who cares anyway.”
Both sound reasonable. Both are wrong.
This month, Jeff Iannucci asks for T-SQL Tuesday #204: are blogs still relevant?
Yes. With a condition.
The slop is real #
There is a lot of AI-generated filler out there. Posts that exist because someone wanted a post, not because they had something to say. You feel it within three paragraphs. Smooth, confident, empty.
So I curate. Hard. I read people I know put thought into what they publish, people who would rather skip a week than ship noise. My reading time is limited, and I want it to pay something back. Slop doesn’t.
Here’s the thing: the format didn’t change. The signal-to-noise ratio did. That makes the personal, real content more valuable, not less. A blog is relevant when the person behind it is.
What fixed my writing #
It wasn’t discipline. It was changing the audience.
I stopped writing for anyone but myself. The test became one question: would I want to read this?
That question killed “who cares anyway.” I care. That’s enough.
Years of silence, and the fix cost nothing. No new tool, no new routine. Just a different answer to “who is this for?” I wish I’d found it in 2016, when everyone else was in full swing.
It also changed what a blog is for me. Not a stage. A workbench. I use it to explore ideas. Some stay a single post. Some turn into series. Some turn into conference sessions.
Paper is not your head #
An idea in your head feels finished. Put it on paper and the gaps show. The argument you were sure of falls over. A connection you missed appears in paragraph four.
Writing doesn’t record what I think. It’s how I find out what I think.
I’ve published every Tuesday for a year now. Not because anyone asked. The schedule ends the negotiation with myself, and the negotiation was always where my posts died.
Where LLMs fit #
Nothing wrong with using an LLM for structure or research. They’re great tools, and I use them.
The line is intent. Did a person with something to say decide what goes in, what stays out, and what it means? Or did someone push a button and publish whatever came back, with zero regard for the content?
The first is a tool. The second is slop with a byline.
So, relevant? #
Blogs are as relevant as the people writing them are intentional. Treat yours as a place to think, and it pays you back even if nobody reads it. Treat it as a content factory, and you’re making the noise the rest of us filter out.
If you’ve been sitting on “I have nothing to add,” try my test. Write the post you would want to read. You might be surprised how often you’re the audience that was missing.
Join the Conversation #
What got you to start, or stop? I’m always keen to hear other stories. Reach out on LinkedIn or BlueSky.
Photo by Samer Daboul: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-and-blue-click-pen-on-white-notebook-921716/