Andrew Chen wrote on his blog for over a decade before becoming a prolific early-stage tech investor in Silicon Valley. His writing helped land him key roles at both Uber and a16z.
Years ago, he shared some lessons from his 10+ years of blogging. Each still resonates today. Here are a few favorites:
"There's always room for high-quality thoughts/opinions. Venn diagram of people w/ knowledge and those we can communicate is tiny."
"Writing is the most scalable professional networking activity - stay home, don't go to events/conferences, and just put ideas down."
"Think of your writing on the same timescale as your career. Write on a multi-decade timeframe. This means, don't just pub on Quora/Medium."
"People are often obsessed with needing to write original ideas. Forget it. You're a journalist with a day job in the tech industry."
"Publishing ideas, learnings, opinions, for years & years is a great way to give. And you'll figure out how to capture value later."
You can read his full advice here.