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Yes, please write your tutorial. The best way to learn something, by far, is to teach. To those who say "but we don't want another crappy tutorial we only want

Yes, please write your tutorial. The best way to learn something, by far, is to teach. To those who say "but we don't want another crappy tutorial we only want to hear from experts" I heartily disagree. First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not. You can not and should never just believe something on the internet. Even experts get things wrong. Keep asking "why" while learning. Second, experts are far detached from the beginner's mindset and often lack the ability to explain something in simple terms. Someone who is a few steps ahead of you will have a better chance to explain things in your language. We need to spread more knowledge, not less. A beginner's experience with learning a new technology is valuable knowledge, even if some details may not be correct. As long as the reader keeps his critical thinking hat on, we all win.

dtf 8y ago
Excellent points. I've come to appreciate that this explosion of tutorials and choice on the modern web is not a bad thing. It seems rather like keeping up with the news - you can either read for (maybe pay for) one high-quality, authoritative guide. Or alternatively you can skim many and develop your own sense for quality and veracity by noting the similarities and contradictions between what they each say.
wruza 8y ago
>Keep asking "why" while learning. I usually keep facepalming myself when reading turorials. The problem is not that I stop asking why, the problem is that before I can find a good one, I have to dig through piles of trash from popular guys who “just tried it and it seems cool”. They basically spoil my search engine.
- amorphous 8y ago
  So write about it please and let us know where we can find the good ones. If lots of people agree your post should move up in the search result
  - wruza 8y ago
    Even if I had time/will for this, it’s a game against a horde of professional writers. I don’t believe it will work that way and that it will save my time at all – and there are tutorial places out there, all flooded with low-quality content in the end. Currently topmost “please no” comment is a best approach, in my opinion. If they simply stop writing tutorials while not being tutors experienced in topics, it will suffice.
  - wongma 8y ago
    > If lots of people agree your post should move up in the search result No. If he's an expert at gaming the SEO game, then maybe. Or if he gets super lucky.
oldcynic 8y ago
It's great that there's loads of tutorials out there on most topics. it's not so good that so many of them are crap, or straight up wrong. > it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not I disagree. It's on the teacher to explain clearly and accurately. If you can't meet that low bar don't pollute the net. The beginner is usually unable to decide which piece of conflicting advice or misinformation is correct. For a great example of this see the php reference and the dozens of conflicting comments and recommendations on each language feature. A beginner has none of the nuance needed to decide which are helpful and which are misunderstandings. Or w3schools for an endless litany of poor and partial explanations. > experts are far detached from the beginner's mindset and often lack the ability to explain something in simple terms Again that's on the teacher and it need not be the case that an expert is detached (Though some can be). Explaining in simple lay terms is a different skill that is entirely unrelated to expertise of a subject. You don't need to be expert to write a beginners tutorial, but you really should have the foundation firmly fixed (and validated by others or use) and reasonable ability to write clearly. Until then writing a "my experience learning x" blog is a far better service to the internet. Save the tutorials a month or two more for when you have enough grasp to be helping rather than hindering.
- amorphous 8y ago
  I'm not saying it's fine to create low quality on purpose, obviously, any writer should aim to create the best content possible. The problem I have is the reasoning that just because someone is a beginner there's no value in publishing his or her stuff. Any real effort has value. The more the better. It's new material that others can build upon. For example, it's a great opportunity for curators digging out the good stuff for others (I partly do this). Besides, when does someone become "expert enough" to be sufficiently useful to publish? Who decides that? The other problem with the argument "please don't publish, you are spoiling my search engine" is that it is not realistic at all. Everyone writes now. That's why we all need critical thinking and ask "why" and "does this make sense". A writer shouldn't pretend to be an "expert" or make false claims but this does not mean it is realistic to demand this (and I'm not even starting to talk about fake news etc)
fsloth 8y ago
"First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not." That applies only to the most trivial of subjects. Most complex things worth learning are so opaque to complete outsiders that it's impossible to discern good advice from bad. In the most complex domains it all appears gibberish, and the only thing that you can trust is that the teacher knows what they are doing, and that in the end it will all make sense. Teaching things without any understanding of the subject is folly, and is actually dishonest. Just like portraying as a "healer" without any concept of the cure or the decease is dishonest and unproductive. Yes, you can help people without medical degree, for example in giving physiotherapy, but you really need to know your muscles, joints and therapies then. The role of the teacher is holy and venerated, and for a reason. Please don't make it cheap by saying "anyone can and should do it, and let students pay the prices". Anyone can and should do it, but only after they have paid the price to master the subject in sufficient complexity to actually offer any advice worth sharing. Informally helping colleagues is cool, but in that case you are sharing much more common context than in a semi-anonymous blog post.
justaguyhere 8y ago
First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not If one doesn't know anything about a topic and comes across two tutorials - one written in broken English (because the author is not a native English speaker) but the steps are accurate and other written in perfect English but the steps are wrong, it is highly likely they'd pick the latter. That is just one example. Often, it isn't easy for beginners to tell good tutorials from bad, especially for highly technical topics.
sampl 8y ago
> A beginner's experience with learning a new technology is valuable knowledge, even if some details may not be correct. This is so true. I think I'm a better teacher of javascript than design, simply because I'm worse at JS and find it easier to take early learner perspectives when I write tutorials (http://getfirefly.org http://getfirefly.org)
mayankkaizen 8y ago
In matters of all things that is technology, I am totally beginner. And when I am totally beginner, I have no way to decide which one is good tutorial. This had actually happened to me. I learned a lot of wrong stuffs and that is not the bad part. The bad part is that I realized my mistakes way too late and often in painful ways. First lessons are the lessons which usually stick with you for a long time. It shapes your take and mindset about technology. For example, to learn C, I picked a book 'Let us C' and some blogs written.by novices. At that time I knew nothing about either C or this book. Much later I realized that book is utter garbage. This affected me badly. I had to relearn C and even now I can see I still think in C in the ways that crappy book taught me.
kjeetgill 8y ago
You put me on a roller coaster of agreement and disagreement. I don't want want to frame beginners publishing amateur level tutorials and "bad" or "evil" necessarily. I DO think the apparent "internet pollution" is worth considering in the context of "what helps us as a community". > Yes, please write your tutorial. The best way to learn something, by far, is to teach. I absolutely agree! This one of the reasons school and university is great: you have tons of peers at about your level of knowledge and who need only the level of rigor you can supply. School work is fantastic at avoiding the kinds of robust rigorous information production work needs. > To those who say "but we don't want another crappy tutorial we only want to hear from experts" I heartily disagree. First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not. You can not and should never just believe something on the internet. I agree with whomever you're quoting. I don't want wade through hundreds of crappy tutorials. We don't need experts per say but intermediate skill and some actual experience goes a long way. I think the appropriate tone and style of writing can go along way towards mitigating the frustrations of "internet pollution". Putting the onus partially on the learner is reasonable, but if all of their resources are poor or wrong theres only so much you can do. > Second, experts are far detached from the beginner's mindset and often lack the ability to explain something in simple terms. Someone who is a few steps ahead of you will have a better chance to explain things in your language. This is too true. Experts aren't always the best resources, but beginners are virtually always terrible. I think the keys is here it sucks when you're learning something but it turns out the author isn't a few steps ahead but a few steps off the path in a sand trap. > We need to spread more knowledge, not less. A beginner's experience with learning a new technology is valuable knowledge, even if some details may not be correct. As long as the reader keeps his critical thinking hat on, we all win. Mixed feelings. My proposal: If you're just learning working with your peers (in a very localized), teaching others, and writing your experiences is invaluable. You've gotten all the value you're going to get from it. The broader community doesn't have the context of what level you're at so they're not likely to get a ton from what you're doing. Publishing this is probably not bringing anyone a ton of value unless it's pretty narrow like a messaging board for your class. When you're at an intermediate level and you have some experience under your belt I'd say putting your ideas out there is the only way to get to the next level. Bringing beginners up the rungs with you is important. It's okay to be a little wrong if you're tackling bigger topics but this is also the level when you're a "reader [who] keeps [their] critical thinking hat on". You know where you're publishing something that fills a need.

dtf 8y ago

Excellent points. I've come to appreciate that this explosion of tutorials and choice on the modern web is not a bad thing. It seems rather like keeping up with the news - you can either read for (maybe pay for) one high-quality, authoritative guide. Or alternatively you can skim many and develop your own sense for quality and veracity by noting the similarities and contradictions between what they each say.

wruza 8y ago

>Keep asking "why" while learning. I usually keep facepalming myself when reading turorials. The problem is not that I stop asking why, the problem is that before I can find a good one, I have to dig through piles of trash from popular guys who “just tried it and it seems cool”. They basically spoil my search engine.

amorphous 8y ago
So write about it please and let us know where we can find the good ones. If lots of people agree your post should move up in the search result
- wruza 8y ago
  Even if I had time/will for this, it’s a game against a horde of professional writers. I don’t believe it will work that way and that it will save my time at all – and there are tutorial places out there, all flooded with low-quality content in the end. Currently topmost “please no” comment is a best approach, in my opinion. If they simply stop writing tutorials while not being tutors experienced in topics, it will suffice.
- wongma 8y ago
  > If lots of people agree your post should move up in the search result No. If he's an expert at gaming the SEO game, then maybe. Or if he gets super lucky.

oldcynic 8y ago

It's great that there's loads of tutorials out there on most topics. it's not so good that so many of them are crap, or straight up wrong. > it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not I disagree. It's on the teacher to explain clearly and accurately. If you can't meet that low bar don't pollute the net. The beginner is usually unable to decide which piece of conflicting advice or misinformation is correct. For a great example of this see the php reference and the dozens of conflicting comments and recommendations on each language feature. A beginner has none of the nuance needed to decide which are helpful and which are misunderstandings. Or w3schools for an endless litany of poor and partial explanations. > experts are far detached from the beginner's mindset and often lack the ability to explain something in simple terms Again that's on the teacher and it need not be the case that an expert is detached (Though some can be). Explaining in simple lay terms is a different skill that is entirely unrelated to expertise of a subject. You don't need to be expert to write a beginners tutorial, but you really should have the foundation firmly fixed (and validated by others or use) and reasonable ability to write clearly. Until then writing a "my experience learning x" blog is a far better service to the internet. Save the tutorials a month or two more for when you have enough grasp to be helping rather than hindering.

amorphous 8y ago
I'm not saying it's fine to create low quality on purpose, obviously, any writer should aim to create the best content possible. The problem I have is the reasoning that just because someone is a beginner there's no value in publishing his or her stuff. Any real effort has value. The more the better. It's new material that others can build upon. For example, it's a great opportunity for curators digging out the good stuff for others (I partly do this). Besides, when does someone become "expert enough" to be sufficiently useful to publish? Who decides that? The other problem with the argument "please don't publish, you are spoiling my search engine" is that it is not realistic at all. Everyone writes now. That's why we all need critical thinking and ask "why" and "does this make sense". A writer shouldn't pretend to be an "expert" or make false claims but this does not mean it is realistic to demand this (and I'm not even starting to talk about fake news etc)

fsloth 8y ago

"First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not." That applies only to the most trivial of subjects. Most complex things worth learning are so opaque to complete outsiders that it's impossible to discern good advice from bad. In the most complex domains it all appears gibberish, and the only thing that you can trust is that the teacher knows what they are doing, and that in the end it will all make sense. Teaching things without any understanding of the subject is folly, and is actually dishonest. Just like portraying as a "healer" without any concept of the cure or the decease is dishonest and unproductive. Yes, you can help people without medical degree, for example in giving physiotherapy, but you really need to know your muscles, joints and therapies then. The role of the teacher is holy and venerated, and for a reason. Please don't make it cheap by saying "anyone can and should do it, and let students pay the prices". Anyone can and should do it, but only after they have paid the price to master the subject in sufficient complexity to actually offer any advice worth sharing. Informally helping colleagues is cool, but in that case you are sharing much more common context than in a semi-anonymous blog post.

justaguyhere 8y ago

First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not If one doesn't know anything about a topic and comes across two tutorials - one written in broken English (because the author is not a native English speaker) but the steps are accurate and other written in perfect English but the steps are wrong, it is highly likely they'd pick the latter. That is just one example. Often, it isn't easy for beginners to tell good tutorials from bad, especially for highly technical topics.

sampl 8y ago

> A beginner's experience with learning a new technology is valuable knowledge, even if some details may not be correct. This is so true. I think I'm a better teacher of javascript than design, simply because I'm worse at JS and find it easier to take early learner perspectives when I write tutorials (http://getfirefly.org http://getfirefly.org)

mayankkaizen 8y ago

In matters of all things that is technology, I am totally beginner. And when I am totally beginner, I have no way to decide which one is good tutorial. This had actually happened to me. I learned a lot of wrong stuffs and that is not the bad part. The bad part is that I realized my mistakes way too late and often in painful ways. First lessons are the lessons which usually stick with you for a long time. It shapes your take and mindset about technology. For example, to learn C, I picked a book 'Let us C' and some blogs written.by novices. At that time I knew nothing about either C or this book. Much later I realized that book is utter garbage. This affected me badly. I had to relearn C and even now I can see I still think in C in the ways that crappy book taught me.

kjeetgill 8y ago

You put me on a roller coaster of agreement and disagreement. I don't want want to frame beginners publishing amateur level tutorials and "bad" or "evil" necessarily. I DO think the apparent "internet pollution" is worth considering in the context of "what helps us as a community". > Yes, please write your tutorial. The best way to learn something, by far, is to teach. I absolutely agree! This one of the reasons school and university is great: you have tons of peers at about your level of knowledge and who need only the level of rigor you can supply. School work is fantastic at avoiding the kinds of robust rigorous information production work needs. > To those who say "but we don't want another crappy tutorial we only want to hear from experts" I heartily disagree. First, it is your responsibility as a learner to decide if something makes sense or not. You can not and should never just believe something on the internet. I agree with whomever you're quoting. I don't want wade through hundreds of crappy tutorials. We don't need experts per say but intermediate skill and some actual experience goes a long way. I think the appropriate tone and style of writing can go along way towards mitigating the frustrations of "internet pollution". Putting the onus partially on the learner is reasonable, but if all of their resources are poor or wrong theres only so much you can do. > Second, experts are far detached from the beginner's mindset and often lack the ability to explain something in simple terms. Someone who is a few steps ahead of you will have a better chance to explain things in your language. This is too true. Experts aren't always the best resources, but beginners are virtually always terrible. I think the keys is here it sucks when you're learning something but it turns out the author isn't a few steps ahead but a few steps off the path in a sand trap. > We need to spread more knowledge, not less. A beginner's experience with learning a new technology is valuable knowledge, even if some details may not be correct. As long as the reader keeps his critical thinking hat on, we all win. Mixed feelings. My proposal: If you're just learning working with your peers (in a very localized), teaching others, and writing your experiences is invaluable. You've gotten all the value you're going to get from it. The broader community doesn't have the context of what level you're at so they're not likely to get a ton from what you're doing. Publishing this is probably not bringing anyone a ton of value unless it's pretty narrow like a messaging board for your class. When you're at an intermediate level and you have some experience under your belt I'd say putting your ideas out there is the only way to get to the next level. Bringing beginners up the rungs with you is important. It's okay to be a little wrong if you're tackling bigger topics but this is also the level when you're a "reader [who] keeps [their] critical thinking hat on". You know where you're publishing something that fills a need.