Time to give back? Why I started a blog.

TLDR: Over the years, I have benefitted from the kindness of strangers who have taken the time to write articles and tutorials. I built my blog to give back to the community, documenting my thoughts and the solutions I have found in the hope it will help others.

The elephant in the room: why did I start a blog? The internet is full of blogs. Do we need another one?

These were my exact thoughts while trying to decide whether or not to start a blog. I've been programming and developing for nearly two decades now. As a self-taught developer, I've benefitted massively from the kindness of strangers who have taken the time to create tutorials or write articles to share their knowledge with others.

I used to create video tutorials in the early days of YouTube and have taken part in charitable work to help introduce others to our industry. Still, it wasn't until I became a Senior Front-End Developer that a large amount of my role became trying to upskill and help others. I have found it incredibly fulfilling to help others achieve their goals and help people progress in their careers.

After struggling to find solutions to some niche development topics and hours trying to work out solutions myself, I decided that it was time for me to try and give back to the community, documenting the answers I have found and remembering those articles that helped me as a self-taught developer. From a selfish point of view, blogging is a great way to help build an online brand, which I recommend to anyone trying to establish their expertise in a particular field.

That is my intention for this blog. I intend to release an article every fortnight on various development topics, anything from full-stack, front-end or games development to my experience as a founder of side projects. If just one of the articles I write helps someone somewhere on their career path, that would be a success for my blog.