Rethinking Technical Writing

I enjoy writing technical articles, especially those that dive deep into underlying principles. I’m fascinated when seemingly disparate theorems share the exact same core concept.

For example, in my series A Journey of Inspired Research, I wrote about inverse matrices, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), and the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). Their mechanics and formulas differ, but the core idea is similar—sometimes the intuitive answer isn’t the best one, and taking a detour by changing your perspective (switching to a different vector space) makes things significantly simpler.

This was the series I wrote for last year’s (2023) Ironman Competition. Even though it was just a self-challenge, it’s my favorite series I’ve ever written for the event.

Why?

I’ve found that technical articles can be roughly broken down into a few categories: tutorials, explainers, how-to guides (manuals), and opinions/insights. It turns out I don’t really enjoy writing tutorials or how-to guides.

These kinds of articles certainly have value, and they’re often necessary for work. But to me, tutorials that merely describe steps or mechanics do very little to highlight individuality.

If everyone says essentially the same thing, why should anyone read mine? Most readers will solve their problem and leave without ever remembering who you are. While genuinely solving someone’s problem is great, what I really strive for is sharing unique, personal insights.

And that’s something I find truly rare and valuable.

With the rapid evolution of AI—or more precisely, Large Language Models (LLMs)—anyone can learn new knowledge at an unprecedentedly low cost. In this era of AI, standing out becomes all the more crucial, because AI still cannot easily replicate genuine human-to-human connections.

That begs the question: What can only you write? What truly showcases who you are?

My answer is reflections, opinions, philosophies, values, experiences, and stories. These cannot be easily replaced, and they are what I’ve been focusing on in my recent writing.

In the past, I disliked sharing my emotions and thoughts, often deliberately hiding them. I tried to keep my writing as neutral and objective as possible, almost as a defense mechanism. It wasn’t until recent years that I realized my perspectives could actually resonate with others.

• The Next Step in Your Career — Quick and Dirty: Aligned closely with Huli’s thoughts in Make Frontend a Choice.
• Internet Comments Are Toxic: A reader shared how this post helped them learn to ignore internet trolls.
• Linear vs. Exponential Output: Readers really enjoyed the framework and thinking around categorizing productivity and output.

Deep Connections Over Traffic

I care a lot about traffic.

Currently, the articles driving the most organic traffic to my blog are explanations of HTML forms:

• Understanding FormData in HTML
• Using the form Tag and FormData

Because these posts cover both the underlying principles and practical usage, and forms are something almost every web developer inevitably encounters, traffic naturally followed. (By the way, HTML forms are truly great—use them whenever you can!)

Even though these two articles account for the majority of my blog’s traffic, it didn’t really bring me much joy. So I spent a few weeks reflecting on traffic, and I realized that what I care about isn’t traffic itself, but whether that traffic can lead to meaningful potential connections.

What brings me the most joy is when someone reaches out via email or DM to share how my writing made them feel, or when we engage in discussions and exchange perspectives on Twitter and other platforms. That brings me far more fulfillment than raw traffic ever could.

Of course, I will continue to write technical articles. I just want to focus more on my own perspectives and ideas—not only to help readers think more critically, but more importantly, to build genuine connections.