How To Write About Software
summary
Defines four clear post types and shows a concrete rewrite path using a Render Postgres case study: a 7,000‑word explain draft becomes a detective mystery by elevating a single slow query, moving background into an aside, cutting sentences, turning dense paragraphs into bullets, and tightening headings. Result: the series lands atop Postgres Weekly (16,000 subscribers), spawns a docs page of reusable debug queries, and teaches using PG stat activity and info boxes to make posts skimmable.
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chapters (28)
- 0:00in this talk…
- 1:10introduction and motivation
- 3:00the three phases of the thought process
- 3:49about me
- 4:22about render
- 5:03phase 1: getting started
- 6:26goals and reasons to write
- 7:34phase 2: find the angle
- 7:494 types of tech blog posts
- 9:40applying the framework to Eric’s post
- 11:10phase 3: write + refine
- 11:32opening: before
- 12:18opening: after
- 13:15opening: another example
- 13:44openings: think about…
- 14:20headings: before
- 15:02headings: after
- 15:55body: making it skimmable
- 17:05body: bullets
- 17:52body: keep it moving
- 19:14body: “info box”
- 19:37title: before & after
- 21:24ending
- 22:28good v. great
- 23:45the impact of writing on a reader
- 25:06ingredients for greatness
- 26:42closing thoughts on your next great blog post
- 27:00audience questions and answers
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