A question that’s been stuck in my head for a while
I’ve got this idea stuck in my head: turning ITSpecialist.News into a global project in English. But what would that mean for you? I really want to hear your opinion.
A Saturday email from me? 😮 Let’s get straight to the point, no beating around the bush. I’ve got something stuck in my head that keeps circling around. It’s the idea of completely transforming itspecialist.news into a more “global” project in English, with a view to a possible “FutureInWhichWhoKnowsWhereI’llBeWhatI’llDo” (even though, to be honest, that part for now feels quite far away).
Short story.
Regarding the Italian language, I’ve always chosen to use it as the main (and essentially only) language for my publications because I believe that, when you share knowledge, it’s right to do it “here and now” for the local community. There isn’t much more to add: I’ve been doing it since 2011 (the year of my very first blog) and I still do it today.
Now let’s talk about English. I started publishing in English too in 2023, after my first MVP Summit. The idea was to connect somehow with the community outside of Italy as well. It didn’t work out because my main effort was still focused on Italian content: social posts, talks, events, and so on. English was just something extra that I had added in a rush of enthusiasm, but without any solid foundation behind it. After some time, I realized it was a pointless effort that only ate up time and energy. Today on Substack there is an English section with a few selected pieces of content and, above all, AI gives me a big hand with translations, saving me a lot of time. Has anything changed? No, pretty much nothing, apart from the effort I put into translating, which is definitely lower thanks to AI.
So what? Maybe it’s a bit of a simple and “naively enthusiastic” thought, but every time I come back from an event like the recent Tech Connect 2026 in Seattle, where there are literally people from all over the world... I remember that there is a whole world out there. 😃
You might think: “Well, no kidding!”. And you’d be right, but sometimes you need to have things right in front of your eyes to really become aware of them.
So? All of this to say that I have this idea stuck in my head. The problem is that, in terms of effort, focus, time, and so on, I definitely wouldn’t be able to produce content in two languages with the same quality and intensity. Besides my job at Microsoft and the “IT Specialist” project (driven purely by passion and from which I don’t make a single euro), let’s just say I also like to have a life. 😅
What would a new project in English mean, according to what this idea is suggesting to me? It would definitely mean choosing just one of the two languages, not both.
And this is where things become extremely difficult.
I’ll think about it; in the meantime, I wanted to share this doubt that’s been nagging at me.
Maybe this idea is just the beginning of something new… or maybe it will just go away on its own, like many other late‑night ideas. 😄
As Ted Mosby would say: “Nothing good happens after 2 a.m.”
And probably even these kinds of ideas are born around that time.
But there’s one question that really matters to me: if one day ITSpecialist.News used another language, would that change the way you follow it?
Having some points of view on this would be important.
Vote in the poll, and feel free to write to me here or in private to talk about it!
See you soon,
Rick