Random Bullets on Blogging

09 Jun 2021 - Michael H. Scott

It’s 2021. So, why blog when peak blogging was like 2007?

Here are some random bullets on why blogging works for me.

The more you write, the more ideas you generate. Usually it’s ideas for more blog posts, but sometimes it’s new ideas for research.
Blog posts have a direct, conversational tone. Like I’m talking with you, not at you.
Blog posts make nice homes for half-baked, less-than-LPU manuscripts that have languished for years.
Many questions posted on the OpenSees message board, Facebook group, or GitHub have already been answered in a blog post. I respond with a link.
If a question from an online forum can’t be answered by a simple Google search, I’ll write a blog post with my answer. I read in another blog that a blog post is the greatest gift you can give someone who asks a question.
I supplement course materials (lecture notes, examples, assignments, and projects) with blog posts. Students seem to like this.
Just like in-person lectures, I infuse blog posts with references to obscure 80s and 90s American pop culture. Very few students seem to get this–I should update my references.

I work on problems related to modeling and nonlinear structural analysis. If these problems are relevant to a current professional project, feel free to reach out.