Why Blog? Why Share Knowledge?

Disclaimer: I’m not some genius. The below are just my thoughts / opinions based on experience. I’m not basing it off of any facts really.

I’ll be pretty straight forward on this. We live in a very crazy competitive world. Almost everything seems to be a race. Even if you don’t want to be in it, you are kind of in it, or at least affected by it. Atleast that’s my opinion.

There’s a lot of inequality in this world. Starting with wealth inequality where some are just unimaginably rich and some are unimaginably poor. There’s inequality in the way people are treated. There’s inequality in the amount of education and knowledge every person has. There’s probably many more different inequalities that I don’t know about.

I feel that education, knowledge, experience is key for any person to survive and thrive in the society. With it, they can get a job, a roof over their head, food to eat, and other basic necessities.

I remember hearing in some speech about how we are in the era of knowledge. If you are able to read this English sentence, this blog, consider yourself lucky that you know how to read English, be able to use a computer or a smart phone or any device with a browser and have access to Internet. Not many people in the world have them. It’s a privilege, yes. It’s true that your simple, normal life is actually a dream for many. It’s a famous phrase. It’s just simple and normal for you.

Are you someone who donates money to the poor? To the needy? To the orphaned children? To the elderly? How long do you think that money is going to last? What if you taught some useful skill to them? How to talk in English. How to read and write English. How to do Mathematics. How to use a computer. How to use a smart phone. How to do programming. Something that will improve their knowledge, something that might slowly someday develop into a skill that will help them earn money, be self sufficient. I know it’s a long shot, and not everyone has the time to do it, yes. Giving money is too easy, yes. Just a thought.

My point is, we need to teach people things if we really want to help them. Money won’t cut it for long. Education and knowledge are pretty big! For me, writing blogs and sharing knowledge through blogs and doing workshops and talks are kind of making sense to me in a way that - even if someone has the privilege of reading my blog, they are probably still dreaming to improve their financial status, get a job or a better job, a well paying job, pay their debts like student loans or the debts of their family and be debt free.

If you want to reach out to people who are poor, who don’t have smart phones, computers or laptops, or a roof over their heads, or food to eat, or are disabled, or all of them, well, awesome! But blogs are not going to help them 😅 🙈 To reach to them, you need to get to the ground, literally, and meet them in person. Start from the basics. There are NGOs that do this. They educate the under privileged people. To teach them useful skills. Skills that will help them earn and sustain independently. You could look out for NGOs and join the one that suits you. I have seen so many kinds. Some of them help under privileged kids learn subjects, play sports, participate in cultural activities, some of them help the elderly, some of them help the blind people - like help them write exams with the help of people who volunteer as a scribe, or teach them. There are of course tons of other NGOs that do different kinds of things to help make the world a better place, and not just help human beings, but also other organisms - plants/trees, birds, dogs, cats, fishes, and the other tons of organisms!

Now, back to human beings because my knowledge is limited. Think about it. How would you feel if someone came and told you that you are one of the reasons for where they are in their life today, where they are in their career today. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Let that motivation push you to share, teach, and learn too at the same time! :)

About other organisms, I don’t know. Not sure if cats, dogs and other organisms talk. But I’m sure they will show their appreciation in any way possible if you help them :)

For me I think one of my purposes to blog, to do videos, to take public notes of my learning, or to do anything with sharing knowledge is - To Teach.

I mentioned other reasons or purposes to blog or just write here and here

With respect to my field - Software / IT industry, there are lot of communities that help kids and people to learn tech through talks, events, workshops, hackathons. Below are just some links that I know of or have seen:

https://www.freecodecamp.org/ https://www.blacksintechnology.net/ https://shelovesdata.com/ https://www.codeinthecommunity.com/ https://www.blackgirlscode.com/ https://anitab.org/ https://www.womenwhocode.com/ https://codingforcommunity.org/ https://codingandcommunity.org/ https://www.womentechmakers.com/ https://witchat.github.io/ https://girlswhocode.com/ https://www.codenewbie.org/ https://codeclub.org/en