Scott on Writing

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# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/10/2003 10:05 PM Darren Neimke

I'd like to see an article describing Custom Attributes and giving simple, real world examples of when, where and how to use them :-)

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/11/2003 6:28 AM Kent Crutchfield

I would love to see an article on how to hook into the Style builder in VS.NET (for CSS) and turn it into an add-in for the Web Matrix.

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/14/2003 9:54 AM Jim

I would like to see an article about how the "experts" of the field become experts. It seems to me that some people just have knowledge that doesn't exist publically. Perhaps I'm wrong, or I'm looking in the wrong places. I do realize that creativity has some part to people becoming experts, but some people just know where to look or something. I also realize that Microsoft employees do have access to private documents or even the source. Or an article about the process that you go about for learning a new technology would be cool, too. Something along those lines.

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/14/2003 3:58 PM Darren Neimke

Watch out Scott! Jim's asking you to give away all of your secrets :-) hehe...

On a serious note - and I'm *far* from expert - but, I'd say that one way that people become "experts" is to find out where the experts hang out and go there. You can learn a lot just by being around smart people :-)

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/15/2003 12:09 AM Scott Mitchell

Jim, excellent idea. I don't think this would translate well to a magazine article, but would be an interesting blog piece.

Take Darren's suggestion to heart, it's a good one. Another bit of advice: Learn by tinkering. Try new things. Stretch your knowledge limits. If you can't figure it out, ask those who know. Specifically for .NET and the like, use tools like Reflector to find out about the intracacies of classes. Read the .NET documentation for liesure. Practice, practice, practice, practice. Create a spreadsheet or Word file or something where you record new things you learn, you'll remember them better that way and you'll be able to quickly look them up if needed. Most importantly, make sure you enjoy what it is you're trying to become an expert at - it makes the process much easier and much more fun. :-)

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/15/2003 9:08 PM Darren Neimke

An idea that I've been meaning to get to is to explore some of the "core" framework features and look at how a "common" developer (like me) might leverage them when building everyday, modern, object-oriented applications.

The types of features that I'm talking about are the boring ones such as:

System.Object
IConvertable
IFormattable
IComparable

Those guys don't tend to get a lot of press, yet they are the fundamental building blocks for so much of the semantic behaviour of our current toolset!

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/15/2003 9:50 PM Scott Mitchell

Darren, a stellar idea. Are you up for writing an article for 4Guys on this matter? :-) (hint, hint!)

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/17/2003 12:16 AM Aemca

I would like to see a blog of the steps that are taken to go about writing an article for 4guys.

Maybe something about the standard they are judged on.

etc. If this is already on the 4guys website somewhere, then im sorry for the request.

I just got curious without checking

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/20/2003 6:55 PM Xander

Ameca,

As you suspect, there is an article on 4Guys that goes over writing an article for the site, and has hints for authors.

Check it out if you get a chance.

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/authors.shtml

Cheers,

Xander

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/23/2003 9:24 PM Steven Smith

Jim,
Regarding experts, Scott's advice to record info in a word doc or spreadsheet is pretty good. Believe it or not, I got my start as an author by doing exactly this, but rather than using a local file, I published every new trick I learned as a simple entry on my then-brand-new ASPAlliance column. I used my articles as my own personal notes, and eventually that grew to the point where I was being asked to write articles for magazines and later, books.

Steve

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/24/2003 2:08 AM chrisg

Thanks to Steve I had the same experience as Steve (althought aspa wasn't brand new when I joined <G>).

Being known in any field of life is all about A) having something to be known for ("oh, he/she is the XXXX guy/gal") and B) networking/socialising/making yourself known. That means being where other people are and getting noticed.

An additional tip I would give is when you do write something, write about things that are not currently getting a lot of attention - there are way too many people writing about things like datagrids and authentication in asp.net. I am a pretty average programmer but I got interested in certain aspects of .net that others hadn't really spent much time on and that brought me article and book writing offers - as easy and simple as that.

You don't have to be brilliant, just different.

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/25/2003 11:41 AM Scott Mitchell

Chris and Steve's advice is right on. Specialize, specialize, specialize. It's easiest to become regarded as an expert in something if you're the only one who publicizes their knowledge in that subject!

Pick something that interests you and not many others are covering, learn everything about it, and start publicizing your knowledge.

Of course, it is possible to become regarded as an expert in a commonly discussed field, but you need to be a first comer. Think of blogs - anyone and everyone tries to be an expert in that, but the first guys who got on the bandwagon are the ones people know about, like Dave Wiener.

# re: Ok, let's try something new 7/25/2003 11:43 AM Scott Mitchell

Ameca, there's also a piece I wrote on this blog about writing for a technical Web site:
http://scottonwriting.net/sowblog/posts/155.aspx

And, as Xander pointed out, there is a specific link to writing an article on 4Guys:
http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/authors.shtml

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