2 ms·

Are you genuinely arguing that the world would be a better place if there were only official docs and no tutorials? You must have a very different experience t

Are you genuinely arguing that the world would be a better place if there were only official docs and no tutorials? You must have a very different experience to me. I'd say the value is about 70-30% in favour of unofficial tutorials for the tech topics I've learned over the years.

mywittyname 6y ago
It sounds like the OP was complaining about the bulk of tutorials out there are written by people without any real experience with a subject. It's a blind-leading-the-blind situation where you don't know enough to realize that these people have significant knowledge gaps.
blunte 6y ago
But it is getting increasingly more time consuming to sift through the either outdated and misleading guides or the incomplete, inaccurate, or simply bad ones to get to a useful one. Even StackOverflow is reaching the point of net-negative value; far too many of its questions and answers are outdated, but the nature of their system means the older (first acceptable) answers tend to be promoted as current answers.
- andybak 6y ago
  > But it is getting increasingly more time consuming I'd dispute "increasingly" - twas ever thus to some degree. Spotting whether a tutorial is still valid is a skill that can be honed and it's part of learning how to learn. Your argument has some merit but your solution of "let's stop writing tutorials" seems a trifle extreme. Wishing something was better isn't a great argument for it's extinction.
  - blunte 6y ago
    I missed the part where I said we should stop writing tutorials. I do believe people should be responsible for content they publish, periodically reviewing and removing outdated, irrelevant, or immature/incorrect articles.
    - andybak 6y ago
      Ah - sorry. I assumed I was still talking to the first person I responded to. I've made that error in the past of not looking at the username.
- gremlinsinc 6y ago
  I think it's easy... I ALWAYS filter tech searches by date, anything over a year is outdated, usually. Esp. framework related as they change frequently.
  - blunte 6y ago
    Yes, but on StackOverflow, repeat questions are very strongly discouraged (or locked/deleted); the reader is pushed back to the older or original question which may be very much out of date. There are often useful comments or additional answers on those old questions, but it's a slower process to wade through the old content in hopes of finding a useful new nugget. With general Google/DDG searches I often do filter to past year, but I've noticed increasingly that some sites have been republishing old articles with new dates, or minor updates (apparently to bump them up in search results?)

mywittyname 6y ago

It sounds like the OP was complaining about the bulk of tutorials out there are written by people without any real experience with a subject. It's a blind-leading-the-blind situation where you don't know enough to realize that these people have significant knowledge gaps.

blunte 6y ago

But it is getting increasingly more time consuming to sift through the either outdated and misleading guides or the incomplete, inaccurate, or simply bad ones to get to a useful one. Even StackOverflow is reaching the point of net-negative value; far too many of its questions and answers are outdated, but the nature of their system means the older (first acceptable) answers tend to be promoted as current answers.

andybak 6y ago
> But it is getting increasingly more time consuming I'd dispute "increasingly" - twas ever thus to some degree. Spotting whether a tutorial is still valid is a skill that can be honed and it's part of learning how to learn. Your argument has some merit but your solution of "let's stop writing tutorials" seems a trifle extreme. Wishing something was better isn't a great argument for it's extinction.
- blunte 6y ago
  I missed the part where I said we should stop writing tutorials. I do believe people should be responsible for content they publish, periodically reviewing and removing outdated, irrelevant, or immature/incorrect articles.
  - andybak 6y ago
    Ah - sorry. I assumed I was still talking to the first person I responded to. I've made that error in the past of not looking at the username.
gremlinsinc 6y ago
I think it's easy... I ALWAYS filter tech searches by date, anything over a year is outdated, usually. Esp. framework related as they change frequently.
- blunte 6y ago
  Yes, but on StackOverflow, repeat questions are very strongly discouraged (or locked/deleted); the reader is pushed back to the older or original question which may be very much out of date. There are often useful comments or additional answers on those old questions, but it's a slower process to wade through the old content in hopes of finding a useful new nugget. With general Google/DDG searches I often do filter to past year, but I've noticed increasingly that some sites have been republishing old articles with new dates, or minor updates (apparently to bump them up in search results?)