One thing I’ve found out over the past decade of writing is that some problems are easy enough to solve that we sometimes forget about them. Maybe it’s something you encounter once in a great while. Perhaps it’s something that needed a little extra thought or a novel reconfiguration of an existing solution. Something so minor that you didn’t even think to write it down. Until you run into the problem again.

The truth behind most of these simple problems is that the solutions aren’t always apparent. Sure, you might be a genius when it comes to fixing the network or the storage array. Maybe you figured out how to install some new software to do a thing in a way that wasn’t intended. But did you write any of it down for later use? Did you make sure to record what you’ve done so someone else can use it for reference?

Part of the reason why I started blogging was to have those written solutions to problems I couldn’t find a quick answer to. What it became was way more than I had originally intended. But the posts that I write that still get the most attention aren’t my long think pieces on the state of the networking industry or multiplied engineers. It’s the simple solutions to questions or problems that keep driving traffic here day after day.

Look Around

A lot of my great posts come from me asking simple questions. How does BPDUGuard work on a switch? Why does the Apple Watch not unlock my MacBook? What is up with this SFP not working? When you ask the questions you have to figure out the answers. And that’s the hard and rewarding part of the puzzle.

I challenge you to go search out a simple problem. Say it’s an issue with data not being shared between two devices. The search results will almost always turn up a few pages that have a litany of solutions that are basic troubleshooting steps. Things like:

• Ensure the devices are connected
• Reset the network settings
• Unpair and repair the devices
• Restart everything
• Call Tech Support

You’ve probably stumbled across these before. And the sad truth is that running down that laundry list of solutions will often fix issues, which is why they keep getting boosted back into the search results. But you know what’s missing? They why of the problem. It’s not enough to just toss things at a problem in the hope that it starts working again.You have to also figure out what went wrong and why it happened.

Networking people always want to know why something went wrong because we want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Security people are even more stringent about figuring out the why behind a problem. They want to stop a potential breach or plug a hole that needs to be dealt with. So to them a solution is just a temporary fix until you can confirm that something won’t happen again.

This is why the work that writers do is so important. We explain the why behind problems. We figure out what caused something to go off the rails and then how to fix it so it doesn’t happen again. Those are the kinds of posts that get the most attention. Because they’re specific about the fix, enlightening about the education behind the problem, and most importantly aren’t just a laundry list of fixes to throw at something until it works.

Tom’s Take

If you’re someone out there that’s looking to start writing down your solutions to problems, you need to start with the questions behind what’s going on. It’s not enough to just regurgitate the fixes and hope that one of them has some kind of magic that works. You need to investigate, understand, and explain what’s going on. Once you can do that, you will have created something that gets lots of attention and will encourage you to keep up the questions for years to come.