Two years ago, I decided to learn Ruby and Rails, after programming C# and .NET for many years. At the same time, I decided to write about everything I was learning on my personal blog, akshaykhot.com. I couldn’t decide on a fancy name for the blog, so I just called it "Akshay’s Blog".
How boring.
My blog was for the audience of one. Me. I just wanted to have a repository of articles that are written in simple words so I could understand it in future when needed, without having to do all that research again.
There was another purpose of the blog: to spread the joy of programming Ruby and building web apps using Rails with the world. Learning Ruby and Rails literally changed my life overnight (might share more details in a future post), and I wanted to let the world know how awesome both Ruby and Rails are.
Two years later, Akshay’s Blog has grown beyond my wildest expectations. I thought I’d be the only person reading it, as I wrote primarily for myself. As of October 2023, more than 28,000 people are reading it every month with over 3 million impressions (whatever that means, but Google loves that metric!) made just in the last few months. What's more, many/most of my articles are on the first page on Google. Often while programming, I search for a topic about Ruby or Rails, only to come across one of my articles on the front page on Google.
Now, this is peanuts compared to some other blogs, but for me, this is mind blowing. I remember at the start of 2021 thinking it would be nice if 50 developers would read the blog for the whole month. Now, on average 50 people are reading the blog at any given time.
However, more important than the numbers are the relationships that this blog has helped me build.
Every day, I get a bunch of emails from Ruby and Rails developers all over the world about some article on my blog. I have connected with so many software developers, CTOs, founders, and business owners via this blog that I've lost count. All without leaving my bedroom and without having to attend any “networking” meetups. I am truly grateful for all the wonderful friends I’ve made all over the world because of this blog.
At the same time, I feel like Akshay’s Blog has also outgrown my personal domain, akshaykhot.com. I also wanted it back to resume my personal blogging and have a separate, dedicated place for the writing on software development.
Akshay's Blog needs a new home, with a new name.
Welcome to Write Software, Well.
Two things I enjoy more than anything are writing and building software, especially writing about software development. I wanted a name for the blog that could emphasize them both and landed upon "Write Software, Well", inspired from William Zinsser's classic On Writing Well.
For many years, my LinkedIn profile had the tagline striving to write software, well. When I was thinking of a new name for my blog, that's the phrase that jumped out, it had a nice ring to it, and that's what I settled upon.
I also had the domain writesoftwarewell.com for a few years now. But I never actually used it, since David's On Writing Software Well series (which I love, btw) came around at the same time, and I was always unsure whether it would be a good idea to use the same name. But a few weeks ago, I emailed David, to get his thoughts on whether I could use it, and he said, "All good 👍", so here we are.
So let's make it official. Today, October 26, 2023, I am changing my blog's name to "Write Software, Well" and moving it to the new domain writesoftwarewell.com. This blog was always about writing and building software, and programming in Ruby is very much like writing, so the name feels just right.
What’s changing? Other than the domain name, almost nothing. If you had bookmarked akshaykhot.com, please update it to writesoftwarewell.com. If I did my 301 Permanent Redirect right, all the existing URLs on Akshay’s Blog should still work and take you to the new domain. If you find any bugs or broken links, I'd really appreciate if you let me know, either with a comment below or by email.
To be absolute clear, the new name is not about me telling you how to write software well. I am learning, too! But I do want to strive towards writing software well.
I hate when people give blanket advice on programming techniques, best practices, and how others should write their code without having any context. So don't, for a second, think of any writing on this blog as me preaching you about what to do or not to do. It's only me writing for myself, purely for the selfish reason to understand things better and explain them clearly for the future me, and to share anything and everything I learn, as I learn.
If others find it useful, that's just the cherry on the top.
Let’s all strive to write software, well.
Akshay
