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> The second reason that I’ll write is to learn about something. It’s one thing to hand-wave one’s way through a presentation. It’s another to commit pen to pap
by Syonyk 2y ago
> The second reason that I’ll write is to learn about something. It’s one thing to hand-wave one’s way through a presentation. It’s another to commit pen to paper (well, bytes to disk) and explain something. Quite often I’ll realise that there’s a gap—or gaps—in my knowledge that I need to explore first before I can properly write about something, and that’s the very reason that I do it.
This is a very good reason to write - I've learned about a ton of topics over the years at depths I wouldn't have bothered with if I weren't going to write blogposts about it. I really didn't need to spend a year chewing through other people's PhD work to understand some of the quirks of lead acid battery behavior I was seeing years back (Steve on IRC's description covered the details well enough to work around it), but if I was going to write it up[0], I wanted to actually understand it. And that took time.
But it misses one of the most important reasons I write: To force myself to finish projects and document things, so I can fully offload it from my brain.
I'm very prone to "90% done, eh, good enough, I'll finish it later..." sort of projects, and they take up a lot of mental space because I still have to (or, at least, try to...) remember state on the project. Before I write about something, I want it fully done, and then as part of writing it up, I trust myself to document anything weird, any odd findings, etc. Once I've done that, then I can entirely forget the details of the project, teardown, or whatever, knowing that if I need to do it again, I can go reference my old writeup and I'll know what I need to do!
Once written, I can just clear the brain-space out, and not worry about forgetting about it, because it's been written up, by me, in my style.
Also, copy editors and reviewers start to sound more like professional writing than "blogging," at least to me.
[0]: https://www.sevarg.net/2018/04/08/off-grid-rv-lead-acid-maintenance-charging-failure-modes/ https://www.sevarg.net/2018/04/08/off-grid-rv-lead-acid-main...
- richardwhiuk 2y agoAs a reader, people writing to learn about something irritates me when it's not clearly flagged that the writer has almost zero experience using the thing they are writing about. There's so many articles in tech where the writer probably has less experience with something than literally anyone who will read their post, and it means there's effectively a content farm of what a new software engineer will learn in their first few months (if not years) on the job, written by software engineers in their first few months, with effectively no net information.
- simonw 2y agoI'll offer the opposite perspective. People writing about stuff that they are currently learning is often better, because they have a much clearer model of what's obvious and what isn't. Someone with 20 years of experience with a technology will usually have a much harder time re-connecting with that beginner's mindset and doing a great job of providing the information that other newcomers most need to understand. That's not to say that there isn't plenty of junk content out there, but I blame that more on inexperienced writers than on people who are writing about technology that they don't have a great deal of experience with. A great writer should be able to write about something while they're learning while still producing content that's genuinely useful.
- stogot 2y ago“The curse of knowledge” is what you’re describing
- syndicatedjelly 2y agoThere are some topics that we need more expert voices on, because the subject matter is genuinely complicated and requires a veteran hand to guide people through. Otherwise we end up with a bunch of "expert beginners" sitting on their local maxima of understanding and thinking they are at the pinnacle of understanding. Some of us really do want to hear how experts think, imperfect as their explanations may be. Dev-fluencers are already taking over the space with their absolute nonsense gish-galloped everywhere for that sweet YouTube $$$
- rustystump 2y agohuh, dev-fluencers, I worked briefly with one and I never knew there was a name for what he did, gish-galloped. Amazing.
- Groxx 2y agoBut they should still present themselves accurately, because at that stage they don't know what they don't know and they may be misleading people without realizing it.