3 ms·

The best way to ensure that you truly understand something, is to attempt teaching it. To put the foot on the other shoe, however, the last person I ever want

The best way to ensure that you truly understand something, is to attempt teaching it. To put the foot on the other shoe, however, the last person I ever want to learn from is someone who is learning for the sake of teaching. Such knowledge is usually the thinnest of veneers.

marcamillion 15y ago
Couldn't disagree more. He who has just learned something, or is in the process of FULLY learning it....is usually better able to teach it, because they understand the challenges with learning it. I can't tell you the amount of times I have had PhDs explain concepts to me in the most convulted way - using terms and language that just flies over my head, until I am explained the same concepts by a fellow student or a TA or something in the simplistic of terms. It's easy, once we 'master' something, to forget how to empathize with those that have not and to get caught up in our own knowledge. Happens to me all the time, so I am not just pointing fingers at everyone else. I have found that when I force myself to remember what it feels like to not understand something I am teaching, I tend to be a better teacher because I break it down to the simplest unit. Most experts don't/can't do that. A simple case in point is, just pick up any of the hundreds of programming books...how horrible are they? Quite horrible...many of them. Some are good - and the ones that are, tend to stand out from the crowd. It's not because they are any less of an expert, it is usually because they can empathize with the reader more.
- huggyface 15y ago
  He who has just learned something, or is in the process of FULLY learning it....is usually better able to teach it, because they understand the challenges with learning it. Perhaps. Or perhaps they're at the point where they think they get it -- they understand it -- and they start espousing their wisdom to others prematurely? Only they have some fundamentally wrong ideas about the thing they just started to learn. This is the story of almost every developer's apprenticeship since the beginning of time. Heck, it's the story of the world (the whole "I was a better parent before I had children" thing. And of course the most you'll ever know is in the first year of university, before you learn how much you don't know). A simple case in point is, just pick up any of the hundreds of programming books...how horrible are they? I'm not sure how that is a case in point given that the overwhelming majority of programming books are written by people trying to gain credibility through authoring as a surrogate for actual code (indeed, isn't this what this submission is about?) -- it is hardly dominated by experts since, what, the 70s? The software development how-to field -- and this has only been made worse by the whole self-publishing trend -- is dominated by apprentices. It is the guy who has laid his first brick telling the world how to be a mason. No thanks.
septerr 15y ago
I understand where you are coming from. You feel that if you are truly interested in a topic, you will explore it without ny other reason or incentive. But I don't think they are saying they are learning for teaching's sake (what's wrong with that anyway). They are interested in the topic. But, having to put what you learnt into words for someone else, makes you crystalize your understanding. It reinforces what you learnt. Makes it stay more permanently in your brain. So it enhances your learning. Plus, answering questions raised by your readers makes you delve deeper. Just my opinion. And if you proclaim upfront that you are learning while blogging/teaching, your readers are free to read or instead find a well known expert and read their book/blog. Amazon reviews, blog comments etc. also tell you what you are getting. I have heard others say that when they want to learn something, they ultimately teach it and I have seen one of them live it. And I will say it works. She may not be The Expert on the topic, but her knowledge and passion grows everyday. I have been intending to put this in practice myself, high time I did!! Tonight!

marcamillion 15y ago

Couldn't disagree more. He who has just learned something, or is in the process of FULLY learning it....is usually better able to teach it, because they understand the challenges with learning it. I can't tell you the amount of times I have had PhDs explain concepts to me in the most convulted way - using terms and language that just flies over my head, until I am explained the same concepts by a fellow student or a TA or something in the simplistic of terms. It's easy, once we 'master' something, to forget how to empathize with those that have not and to get caught up in our own knowledge. Happens to me all the time, so I am not just pointing fingers at everyone else. I have found that when I force myself to remember what it feels like to not understand something I am teaching, I tend to be a better teacher because I break it down to the simplest unit. Most experts don't/can't do that. A simple case in point is, just pick up any of the hundreds of programming books...how horrible are they? Quite horrible...many of them. Some are good - and the ones that are, tend to stand out from the crowd. It's not because they are any less of an expert, it is usually because they can empathize with the reader more.

huggyface 15y ago
He who has just learned something, or is in the process of FULLY learning it....is usually better able to teach it, because they understand the challenges with learning it. Perhaps. Or perhaps they're at the point where they think they get it -- they understand it -- and they start espousing their wisdom to others prematurely? Only they have some fundamentally wrong ideas about the thing they just started to learn. This is the story of almost every developer's apprenticeship since the beginning of time. Heck, it's the story of the world (the whole "I was a better parent before I had children" thing. And of course the most you'll ever know is in the first year of university, before you learn how much you don't know). A simple case in point is, just pick up any of the hundreds of programming books...how horrible are they? I'm not sure how that is a case in point given that the overwhelming majority of programming books are written by people trying to gain credibility through authoring as a surrogate for actual code (indeed, isn't this what this submission is about?) -- it is hardly dominated by experts since, what, the 70s? The software development how-to field -- and this has only been made worse by the whole self-publishing trend -- is dominated by apprentices. It is the guy who has laid his first brick telling the world how to be a mason. No thanks.

septerr 15y ago

I understand where you are coming from. You feel that if you are truly interested in a topic, you will explore it without ny other reason or incentive. But I don't think they are saying they are learning for teaching's sake (what's wrong with that anyway). They are interested in the topic. But, having to put what you learnt into words for someone else, makes you crystalize your understanding. It reinforces what you learnt. Makes it stay more permanently in your brain. So it enhances your learning. Plus, answering questions raised by your readers makes you delve deeper. Just my opinion. And if you proclaim upfront that you are learning while blogging/teaching, your readers are free to read or instead find a well known expert and read their book/blog. Amazon reviews, blog comments etc. also tell you what you are getting. I have heard others say that when they want to learn something, they ultimately teach it and I have seen one of them live it. And I will say it works. She may not be The Expert on the topic, but her knowledge and passion grows everyday. I have been intending to put this in practice myself, high time I did!! Tonight!