Comment by simonw

Comment by simonw 9 days ago

6 replies

I'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.

Groxx 9 days ago

But 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.

  • simonw 9 days ago

    This is why I like the TIL format. Saying "Today I Learned" is a great shorthand for "I'm not an expert and I may have missed something but here's what I've figured out so far..."

  • no-exist 9 days ago

    One could be skeptical and not take everything written on the internet as the source of truth.

    I like to utilise the socratic method while reading about something, I want to understand deeply.

syndicatedjelly 9 days ago

There 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 9 days ago

    huh, dev-fluencers, I worked briefly with one and I never knew there was a name for what he did, gish-galloped. Amazing.

stogot 9 days ago

“The curse of knowledge” is what you’re describing