First Post!

Firsts are never easy. For some people that's because they don't know how to get started, or don't want to. For others, there is the fear of doing it wrong, so they are waiting until they know they can do it "right."

My name is Matt Wood and I'm a father, husband, and senior software engineer. I've spent the last several years learning everything there is to know about software engineering, building products, and go to market for tech businesses. You can find out a lot more about me and my background on LinkedIn.

I created this blog to take some ownership over the way I post my thoughts on the internet. Not because micro blogging is dying, or that one specific platform is going away. I want to own my content and my narrative, and this is the best way to do that for long form content. I was somewhat inspired and pushed to finally do it after reading Scott Hanselman's words on owning your own words.

Goals for 2023

One of my goals for 2023 is to create and contribute content to this blog. I have a goal of 25 blog entries, but we'll see if we get there.

If you're a blogger, I'd be interested in your thoughts on achieving such a commitment and staying consistent. The best way to contact me for now is via Twitter DMs.

Most of all, I've wanted an outlet for writing in the recent past, and I want to avoid such posts to LinkedIn or other outlets.

Why Now?

So after all that, why am I doing this now? The biggest reason is that I've proclaimed a desire to build a personal brand. This isn't a super high priority, but something I wanted to get started on in 2023.

Personal brands can be very powerful. Even if it does not reveal a professional benefit, the social and economic benefits can be enormous. I'm at a point in my life and professional career that I feel like I have the ability to share, to give back, to help others, and to grow those around me. This is also a major learning opportunity: it flexes muscles that I don't normally get to use, and is a creative outlet I normally wouldn't otherwise have.

So what does this all mean? I have specific goals and objectives for my Twitter account and for this blog. We'll see how the years goes and my plans may expand next year.

As always, the blog links have all the ways to contact and follow me, which includes via email, Twitter, LinkedIn and GitHub. This blog itself will have public source and can be found here. If you have questions about it let me know!