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I frequently get emails from people which follow a predictable pattern: "I'm doing a PhD in .. I saw your blog post .. can you point me at a tutorial for advan

I frequently get emails from people which follow a predictable pattern: "I'm doing a PhD in .. I saw your blog post .. can you point me at a tutorial for advanced-subject?" I often wonder why people don't do research, and what would happen if tutorials just disappeared. People would have to do their own research and learning. Maybe things would take longer, but I think the people would benefit from it.

ackbar03 7y ago
I'm not sure if I can speak for everyone but sometimes I do this in the hopes that it could lead to a connection with the author or potentially deeper insights and discussions on the topic with someone more knowledgeable. Usually I go off and try to figure out what it was I was asking in the first place anyways
- stevekemp 7y ago
  I'm happy to answer questions, and sometimes I can point to non-obvious resources. But mostly I feel that the approach would/should be different for trying to discuss things than "Please help me do my homework"
MaxBarraclough 7y ago
> what would happen if tutorials just disappeared. People would have to do their own research and learning. Maybe things would take longer, but I think the people would benefit from it. I sincerely doubt it. When the barriers to learning are raised, we should expect to see less learning, not more. I learn a lot from quality blog posts and YouTube videos, on all sorts of topics. I have no interest in taking an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering or political science, but with easily-consumed 'tutorials', I can absorb a basic understanding of all sorts of topics. Were these resources to go away, I would certainly be less knowledgeable, not more. Also, I'm not sure that People would have to do their own research and learning means anything in the first place. We're talking about the quality/quantity/availability of learning materials. That's all.
jplayer01 7y ago
Admittedly, I don't send personal emails, but on HN or Reddit, I'll often ask experts or people who are at least knee-deep in a topic themselves (or find previous instances where expert(s) was asked). It's not about laziness, it's just that as somebody who doesn't know anything about established papers or books of a certain field or how it's structured, it can help a great deal to get started if somebody can point in a general direction of where to spend my attention (which is a limited resource). As somebody with dozens of interests across a bunch of disciplines, drawing on existing knowledge has been such an immense time saver and help that I'm always grateful for. There are a lot of books and papers out there. And not all of them are particularly good. If other people have experienced them and share that experience, why shouldn't I want to draw on that? Also, I've gotten a response as often as I haven't. And when I don't, it really isn't a big deal. You don't need to respond to every request.
- stevekemp 7y ago
  > You don't need to respond to every request. True, but I feel a little bad if I don't at least say "Please write a tutorial yourself, people would be pleased". Sometimes useful discussion occurs, but mostly it feels like "please send me the codes / do my homework for me". It's hard anyway to judge intent.
  - TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
    I'd love to know what percentage of the population has any interest in self-directed learning. It may well be smaller than we hope. And HN - probably software in general - is unlikely to be representative of the population median.
ebiester 7y ago
The good thing about the Internet is that there is a lot of great information that was never available before. The bad thing about the Internet is that it is interspersed with incorrect or misleading information. When tackling something outside your expertise, and outside the expertise of a large number of people, it can be hard to discern the two. And then we are forced to go back to our web of trust. "I trust Steve Kemp is knowledgeable, and he can get me bootstrapped." I honestly don't know a way around this outside some sort of curated expert-reviewed system. Of course, being snarky, I might answer, "I'm unaware, sorry. However, after you learn, I'd love it if you can create such a tutorial to help others after you!"
- stevekemp 7y ago
  Yeah sometimes the best replies I can make are "I'm sure if you wrote it people would be greatful". I don't like saying "no" to people, and often go out of my way to answer quite complicated questions. But when receiving a brief "Point me at a tutorial for XXX/YY/ZZ" email it's hard to discern whether the person wants to learn, is incapable of using a search engine, or is really contacting the wrong person.

ackbar03 7y ago

I'm not sure if I can speak for everyone but sometimes I do this in the hopes that it could lead to a connection with the author or potentially deeper insights and discussions on the topic with someone more knowledgeable. Usually I go off and try to figure out what it was I was asking in the first place anyways

stevekemp 7y ago
I'm happy to answer questions, and sometimes I can point to non-obvious resources. But mostly I feel that the approach would/should be different for trying to discuss things than "Please help me do my homework"

MaxBarraclough 7y ago

> what would happen if tutorials just disappeared. People would have to do their own research and learning. Maybe things would take longer, but I think the people would benefit from it. I sincerely doubt it. When the barriers to learning are raised, we should expect to see less learning, not more. I learn a lot from quality blog posts and YouTube videos, on all sorts of topics. I have no interest in taking an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering or political science, but with easily-consumed 'tutorials', I can absorb a basic understanding of all sorts of topics. Were these resources to go away, I would certainly be less knowledgeable, not more. Also, I'm not sure that People would have to do their own research and learning means anything in the first place. We're talking about the quality/quantity/availability of learning materials. That's all.

jplayer01 7y ago

Admittedly, I don't send personal emails, but on HN or Reddit, I'll often ask experts or people who are at least knee-deep in a topic themselves (or find previous instances where expert(s) was asked). It's not about laziness, it's just that as somebody who doesn't know anything about established papers or books of a certain field or how it's structured, it can help a great deal to get started if somebody can point in a general direction of where to spend my attention (which is a limited resource). As somebody with dozens of interests across a bunch of disciplines, drawing on existing knowledge has been such an immense time saver and help that I'm always grateful for. There are a lot of books and papers out there. And not all of them are particularly good. If other people have experienced them and share that experience, why shouldn't I want to draw on that? Also, I've gotten a response as often as I haven't. And when I don't, it really isn't a big deal. You don't need to respond to every request.

stevekemp 7y ago
> You don't need to respond to every request. True, but I feel a little bad if I don't at least say "Please write a tutorial yourself, people would be pleased". Sometimes useful discussion occurs, but mostly it feels like "please send me the codes / do my homework for me". It's hard anyway to judge intent.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y ago
  I'd love to know what percentage of the population has any interest in self-directed learning. It may well be smaller than we hope. And HN - probably software in general - is unlikely to be representative of the population median.

ebiester 7y ago

The good thing about the Internet is that there is a lot of great information that was never available before. The bad thing about the Internet is that it is interspersed with incorrect or misleading information. When tackling something outside your expertise, and outside the expertise of a large number of people, it can be hard to discern the two. And then we are forced to go back to our web of trust. "I trust Steve Kemp is knowledgeable, and he can get me bootstrapped." I honestly don't know a way around this outside some sort of curated expert-reviewed system. Of course, being snarky, I might answer, "I'm unaware, sorry. However, after you learn, I'd love it if you can create such a tutorial to help others after you!"

stevekemp 7y ago
Yeah sometimes the best replies I can make are "I'm sure if you wrote it people would be greatful". I don't like saying "no" to people, and often go out of my way to answer quite complicated questions. But when receiving a brief "Point me at a tutorial for XXX/YY/ZZ" email it's hard to discern whether the person wants to learn, is incapable of using a search engine, or is really contacting the wrong person.