Many of my coworkers have done it... I've had people ask me to do it... so far I have avoided it...

Should I write a book?

The question I have asked myself is why would I?

1. To get money
2. To get fame
3. To educate people
4. To get advancement

Money: From everyone I know that has written a book they are a loose loose situation. They consume an amazing amount of time and you never make any significant money beyond your initial advance. Even the most popular books will only make you a trivial amount, and the reality is that most books loose money.

Fame: The glory of having everyone know you... hmm... I guess if your book is seen as the definitive reference you can gain some fame, but again, most books sit on a shelf, rarely do you get any real fame. Oh, and if the book sucks (since I'm not a professional author, we can make this assumption) they you can negative fame for being a self-promoting know-nothing.

Education: The pure goal of educating customers - giving them a quality resource that can make them more productive. A worthy goal.

Advancement: Working with customers, educating them, and getting some amount of fame can help with career advancement. It will give you an entry into the conference circuit, which can also help. Spending your free cycles on a for-profit book can actually hurt you though - basically if you had all this free time why weren't you working on the product? We'll call advancement a wash.

OK, so we have:

• Money: -1
• Fame: -1
• Education: 1
• Advancement: 0
• Total == -1

Combined with my lack of writing skills means... I'm still not going to write a book...