Why Writing is Important for Your Developer Career
Tags: career, writing
Published: 2019-12-27 03:32:58

# Introduction
When you first started to learn about programming. 

Are you forced to learn to write documentation you are just given something to "write hello world"?

As I progress as a developer, it did not occur to me that learning to **write** is one of the most essential skills we need to learn as a developer.

As without it, tons of wasted hours of work is done. 

Due to our lack of understanding and clarity in conveying it to people.

I encountered the same problem while I was trying to communicate to doing something. 

Which resulted in a drastic difference in technical implementation when another developer was implementing it.

# Clear Thinking
I remember while I was listening to one of the Tim Ferriss show.

He was interviewing one of the founders of Airbnb or Spotify on recruiting engineers for their startup.

The founder responded that he looks at other areas and not just the technical code that the engineer wrote.

Instead, it was the **scribbles** in the piece of paper to understand how they broke down and solve the problem.

As an engineer are hired based upon how they wrote on the solution before coding their first line of code.
 
# Ease of Communication
The additional perk of writing well and clear is the need for **back** and **forth** exchange on what is to be implemented. 

When you are communicating with the **client** or **user**.

I always love the idea of [KISS][1] so that you communicate your **intent**. 

Even when someone does not have the **background knowledge** or **context** to understand the whole project. 

Therefore I would advise that you strive to write for a layman.

Plus with the rise of tools like [Grammarly][2]. 

It has become much easier to write better through the rapid feedback from either an actual person or AI to help you to write better.

# Ripple Effect for the Community
If you are an API developer, one of the keys for API adoption is the existence of high quality [documentation][3]. 

Which till this day, I love how companies like [Twillio][4], [Postman][5], [DigitalOcean][6], [Kong][7] & [Stripe][8].

Invest and place a **premium** in quality writing for their technical documentation.

Since without that, I believe they will be unable to **attract** new developers or **convince** development teams to use their product or services.

So that it allows me to get started by installing and using that package to **accomplish** a feature that I would like to deliver for my project.

Beside **contributing code**, you could always help through [documentation][9]. 

To make it easier for someone to get started in using the software.

I did something similar when I was rewriting documentation for one of the Python guides in Freecodeamp.

# Conclusion
I hope that you can gain a better insight and would be interested to learn to write well as a developer.

Instead, it is about the [human problems][10] we are trying to solve with the right context.

If you like this article **sign up** for my [Adventurer's Newsletter](https://maxongzb.activehosted.com/f/1) for a weekly update in the area of **Python**, **Startup** and **Web Development**.

You can also **follow** me to get the **latest** update of my article on **Dev**

The original post was on [Why Writing is Important for Your Developer Career - Reading Time: 3 Mins](https://www.maxongzb.com/why-writing-is-important-for-your-developer-career-reading-time-3-mins/) and cover image by [Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/y02jEX_B0O0)


# Reference
* [The Importance of Writing][11]
* [Draft No 4 Writing Process][12]
* [On Writing Well][13]
* [Why Developers Should Know How To Write][14]
* [Writing Developer Content that Delivers][15]
* [KISS][1]
* [Grammarly][2]
* [10 Ways to Create Easy-to-Use, Compelling API Documentation][3]
* [Twillio][4]
* [Postman][5]
* [DigitalOcean][6]
* [Kong][7] 
* [Stripe](https://stripe.com/en-sg
* [How To Contribute][9]
* [Jim Collins — A Rare Interview with a Reclusive Polymath (#361)][10]


[1]: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/kiss-keep-it-simple-stupid-a-design-principle
[2]: https://www.grammarly.com/
[3]: https://swagger.io/blog/api-documentation/create-compelling-easy-to-use-api-documentation/
[4]: https://www.twilio.com/
[5]: https://www.getpostman.com/
[6]: https://www.digitalocean.com/
[7]: https://konghq.com/kong/
[8]: https://stripe.com/en-sg
[9]: https://opensource.guide/how-to-contribute/
[10]: https://tim.blog/2019/02/18/jim-collins/
[11]: https://benmccormick.org/2019/03/02/the-importance-of-writing
[12]: https://www.amazon.com/Draft-No-4-Writing-Process/dp/0374142742/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=Draft+No.+4&qid=1550449942&s=gateway&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=offsitoftimfe-20&linkId=5cf47809d4744d927aafe34315cb9d69&language=en_US
[13]: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-Classic-Guide-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=writing+well&qid=1577415253&sr=8-1
[14]: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/why-developers-should-know-how-to-write-dc35aa9b71ab/
[15]: https://devada.com/writing-developer-content-that-delivers/