5 ms·

I personally love it. RTFM is pretty much the basis of my career. I always at minimum skim the documentation (the entire doc) so I have an index of where to loo

by pbrb 5y ago

I personally love it. RTFM is pretty much the basis of my career. I always at minimum skim the documentation (the entire doc) so I have an index of where to look. It's a great jumping off point for if you do need to google anything. Books are the same. When learning a new language for example, I get a book that covers the language itself (best practices, common design patterns, etc), not how to write a for loop. It seems to be an incredibly effective way to learn. Most importantly, it cuts down on reading the same information regurgitated over and over across multiple blogs.

cogman10 5y ago
lol... yeah.... I've become "the expert" on so much shit just because of RTFM :D It's amazing how much stuff is spelt out in manuals that nobody bothers to read. The only issue is that so few people RTFM that some manuals are pure garbage to try and glean anything useful. In those cases, usually the best route is often to just read the implementation (though that is tedious).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- cosmodisk 5y ago
  I have someone in my network, who is very active in PHP scene. Tutorials, tips&tricks, code reviews, you name it. He pretty much abandoned his very popular website and went all in on YouTube. Why? Apparently watching video is so much easier than reading 3000 word article.
  - tmh88j 5y ago
    >He pretty much abandoned his very popular website and went all in on YouTube. Why? Apparently watching video is so much easier than reading 3000 word article. Learning from videos is lazy? Content you've learned is only valid if you read it? I'm not sure what exactly you're getting at, but I'm a visual learner and I much prefer (well made) videos over text. There's a visual and audio aspect to it enabling so much more information to be conveyed at once. For example, Dr. Sedgwick's video series on algorithms and data structures has animations as he steps through how algorithms work. He's overlaying his audio while displaying code and animating the "data" as it's processed by the algorithm. I have a physical copy of his book Algorithms but I go back to his videos when I need a refresher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wme8SDUaBx8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wme8SDUaBx8
    - cosmodisk 5y ago
      There are pros and cons of each media, I'm not arguing against it. What I mean is that there's a general tendency of migration from longer versions( books) to more compact,bite size content(videos). It's one of the reasons why there's countless videos on YouTube on how to create a dictionary in Python,even though the documentation has it covered wide and deep.
      - tmh88j 5y ago
        I agree that something like a Python dictionary is probably unnecessary to make a standalone video for, but simple concepts like that also wouldn't be a 3000 word article unless you're looking for literally every nuance and weird quirk the language has to offer.
        cosmodisk 5y ago
        like an explanation of what 'this' is in JS:) https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Dont-Know-JS-Prototypes https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Dont-Know-JS-Prototypes
        tmh88j 5y ago
        Haha, I'm genuinely intrigued to see the contents of that book. It could certainly be copy/paste from the Mozilla docs, but who knows! I was pleasantly surprised by this video about the JS event loop, although in fairness it is a lecture at a conference rather than a made for youtube video. Regardless, the length of the video made me question how necessary it was but I ended up watching the whole thing and enjoyed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGhZQkoFbQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGhZQkoFbQ
    - licebmi__at__ 5y ago
      I do have a prejudice against people who tell me they learn something through a video. There are good video creators and good educational videos, but there’s just too much trash. Besides that, I default to text content because of the monetary incentives on youtube, it’s absurd that a 10 min read, can be a more than half hour video that never gets to the point.

by pbrb 5y ago

cogman10 5y ago

lol... yeah.... I've become "the expert" on so much shit just because of RTFM :D It's amazing how much stuff is spelt out in manuals that nobody bothers to read. The only issue is that so few people RTFM that some manuals are pure garbage to try and glean anything useful. In those cases, usually the best route is often to just read the implementation (though that is tedious).

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
cosmodisk 5y ago
I have someone in my network, who is very active in PHP scene. Tutorials, tips&tricks, code reviews, you name it. He pretty much abandoned his very popular website and went all in on YouTube. Why? Apparently watching video is so much easier than reading 3000 word article.
- tmh88j 5y ago
  >He pretty much abandoned his very popular website and went all in on YouTube. Why? Apparently watching video is so much easier than reading 3000 word article. Learning from videos is lazy? Content you've learned is only valid if you read it? I'm not sure what exactly you're getting at, but I'm a visual learner and I much prefer (well made) videos over text. There's a visual and audio aspect to it enabling so much more information to be conveyed at once. For example, Dr. Sedgwick's video series on algorithms and data structures has animations as he steps through how algorithms work. He's overlaying his audio while displaying code and animating the "data" as it's processed by the algorithm. I have a physical copy of his book Algorithms but I go back to his videos when I need a refresher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wme8SDUaBx8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wme8SDUaBx8
  - cosmodisk 5y ago
    There are pros and cons of each media, I'm not arguing against it. What I mean is that there's a general tendency of migration from longer versions( books) to more compact,bite size content(videos). It's one of the reasons why there's countless videos on YouTube on how to create a dictionary in Python,even though the documentation has it covered wide and deep.
    - tmh88j 5y ago
      I agree that something like a Python dictionary is probably unnecessary to make a standalone video for, but simple concepts like that also wouldn't be a 3000 word article unless you're looking for literally every nuance and weird quirk the language has to offer.
      - cosmodisk 5y ago
        like an explanation of what 'this' is in JS:) https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Dont-Know-JS-Prototypes https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Dont-Know-JS-Prototypes
        tmh88j 5y ago
        Haha, I'm genuinely intrigued to see the contents of that book. It could certainly be copy/paste from the Mozilla docs, but who knows! I was pleasantly surprised by this video about the JS event loop, although in fairness it is a lecture at a conference rather than a made for youtube video. Regardless, the length of the video made me question how necessary it was but I ended up watching the whole thing and enjoyed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGhZQkoFbQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aGhZQkoFbQ
  - licebmi__at__ 5y ago
    I do have a prejudice against people who tell me they learn something through a video. There are good video creators and good educational videos, but there’s just too much trash. Besides that, I default to text content because of the monetary incentives on youtube, it’s absurd that a 10 min read, can be a more than half hour video that never gets to the point.