Knowledge grows if you share it

Dec. 17th, 2003 | 01:00 am

Jeremy Zawodny has written about how he just couldn't get himself to write about the data storage technology choices at Yahoo (I wish I could "ping" his trackback on this) until someone posted a query on a mailing list. In a related note, I remember having read somewhere that different parts of the brain are used for "learning" and "teaching". So, if you teach, you understand better. This is perhaps also the reason why the "stupid programmer trick" works.

Here's the algo I've been using for improving my knowledge:
  1. Subscribe to n mailing lists.
  2. Wait for J. Random L'user to post a query.
  3. Search the web. Learn all about the topic. Get an answer to JRL's query.
  4. Post a reply with a semi-rude RTFM, STFW, and the answer. (The RTFM and STFW don't directly help in improving your knowledge, but they make you sound like one of those extra-knowledgeable assholes.)
  5. Argue with everyone else on the list. That way, people will try to correct you, and you'll get to learn something new. Of course, just pretend to stick to your original opinion.
  6. Goto 2.
You'll end up spending most of your time waiting, so it's ideal to run this in a separate thread or make it message-driven (no pun intended).

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