Behind every interesting blog

… is an interesting person. This, I think, is a quote from one of the blogs below, though I can’t figure out which. Sorry.

Fabulous Adventures in Coding by Eric Lippert – FAIC is the first, and probably still the only, blog I’m committed to reading thoroughly; goes straight to my Pocket (Thanks, IFTTT). Mr Lippert manages to write about really complex topics in a comprehensible and digestible way and very quickly the reader realizes it’s because he’s so damn sharp. My most favourite posts are those in which he approaches a new problem, evaluates it, states is goals and solves it, because every one of them shows how all of those steps are done properly. A great example is the shadowcasting miniseries.

Unsurprisingly, when Mr Lippert finds a new hobby – metal casting -and decides to blog about it, he applies the same astute analysis with equally attractive results.

And last but not least, reading his blog instead of doing my homework helped me get my current job. :)

I only started following Coding Horror by Jeff Atwood a few months back. This is a programmer’s blog mostly not directly about programming, but about various human factors in IT, books, hobbies and some occasional parenting stories.

And the newest addition to my list of actively followed blogs is Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen where I find various practical and/or interesting info on various topics, from managing your family’s computers, new computer languages through any of the myriad things one encounters in life.

What I like about the latter two blogs the most is that they show technically-minded, clever fellows solving common, real-world problems the way they solve them all: quickly, effectively and with a very low tolerance for nonsense.

By the way, this also is what I like about my geeky and/or intelligent friends. Some may seem “socially awkward” at first, but once you’re on the same tune (i.e. you both find out the other one is capable to handle it), the communication becomes clean and effective, because you can prune all the ballast and minimize the misunderstandings that usually slow it down.

So if you’re interested in programming or IT in general, check out all of those blogs, though there’s a chance you already did. If you’re not, at least have a look at Coding Horror and try some posts with titles that don’t scare you. And if you just want to see general awesomeness applied in action, go to Fabulous Adventures In Casting and see how it’s done.