I was 12 years old before I experienced warm ocean water. The Northern California coast where I grew up is frigid year round.

But on a family vacation to Mazatlan, Mexico, I discovered that nobody else ran away from the oncoming waves. This was standard practice during our chilly trips to the “beach:”

While in Mexico, my dad and I body surfed, allowing wave after wave to carry us toward the shore. It was relaxing and a lot of fun.

That is until a sneaky wave came and knocked us down.

When we stood back up, my dad’s glasses were gone. Standing in waist-high waters, still a little loopy from the smackdown. We realized they could be anywhere.

My dad got really creative with his language, thinking through the vacation without his eyesight.

I made a futile search on the ocean floor with my feet.

To both of our surprise, I returned to the surface with his glasses held in my prehensile toes.

That’s where I first learned the lesson of trying something anyway.

You can apply this to your developer content, too.

We get comfortable with movement of the SEO waters. Keep hitting on the developer problems and get incremental results. That’s a lot of the developer content strategy.

But how do you know you’re covering the right topics? This time of year is a great opportunity to try something out even if you don’t think it will work.

Choose a concept with potential and publish 2-3 pieces on the topic.

You don’t have to wait until a wave smacks you down and you can take a more educated aim than I did in the warm waters of Mexico.

Whatever you do, try something and hit us up if you need help figuring out what it should be.