Here are a few bits from Cory Doctorow’s Medium post on blogging:
The genius of the blog was not in the note-taking, it was in the publishing. The act of making your log-file public requires a rigor that keeping personal notes does not. Writing for a notional audience — particularly an audience of strangers — demands a comprehensive account that I rarely muster when I’m taking notes for myself.
I have private notes and many times over the years I’ve set up private blogs – thinking I’d use them to store my own personal thoughts that I’d rather not publish. That was folly because it is in the publishing that makes me finish thoughts or at least push them forward.
After all, if the point of writing is to clarify your thinking and improve your understanding, then, by definition, your older work will be more muddled.
Also:
And while I never set out to blog in the hopes of “building a platform” (or, worse still, a brand), the act of publishing my own interests helped people with similar interests to mine to find me — and vice versa. Some of those people buy my books (and vice versa), but far more importantly, they are a community.
The importance of blogging cannot be overstated by or to me. I am long blog. And I think almost everyone should have one.
Side note: Why in the world would anyone use Medium at this point? It is so hostile to readers. Go to Cory’s post and try to select some text – it doesn’t even follow convention and allow you to copy it unless you know how to hack it. Medium should be shut down.