First, a big thank you. I’m so excited that this site has been able to reach more people than I thought possible — I love hearing about and exchanging insights :).
Still, there’sonly so much juiceyou can squeeze from this orange at a time. Theprevious articletook several days to research, draft, diagram and edit (I hope to get faster over time).
And that’s where you fit in: I’ve had some great email conversations about expanding the site, and I’d like to get everyone’s thoughts. Are blogs, guest posts, wikis, or forums the best way to share?
The Goal: Cram Ideas Into Your Head
Taking a step back,my philosophyis simple: Let’s share the hard-won insights that usually stay locked in our heads.
Learning is like crossing a minefield. There’s pitfalls everywhere, but after a struggle you make it through (or get “permanently discouraged”). But once you’ve navigated the path, shouldn’t you share it with those behind you? While it’s still fresh in your mind?
It frustrates me我们学习相同的科目(代数、微积分、编程)，但独自奋斗。我们没有分享“啊哈”的见解，真正让学习坚持;大多数教科书提供的都是迂腐的事实和死记硬背。We have enough of those — what about the insights that help us “really get it”:
- e is afundamental rate of growth, just like pi a fundamental ratio in every circle
- Version controlis like keeping a timeline of your files
- HTTPCachinglets you avoid downloading a file you already have
Models For Online Communities
Having this blog has been a huge learning experience (more to come), and there’s much to learn about starting a community. Though it’s still a small site, I’m looking to my favorite big sites for patterns of interaction:
- Regular blog (Coding Horror,TechCrunch)单个作者或多个作者以一篇详细的文章开始讨论。读者用他们自己的想法来回复。它们的风格和质量是一致的，但主题仅限于作者讨论的内容。
- Edited submissions (Slashdot):Site owners collect and filter topic submissions; readers contribute their thoughts. The majority of the value is in the comments, not the stories or writeups themselves.
- Community submissions (Digg,Reddit):社区决定主题并处理评论。网站所有者似乎是隐形的。这对于突发新闻很有效，但可能导致“人群暴政”。
- Forums (Steve Pavlina,Webmaster World): Users kick off their own topic ideas. Forums have fast, free-flowing discussion but can have a low signal-to-noise ratio.
- Wikis (Wikipedia): Edited repository of information containing collected thoughts. Unfortunately there’s a high barrier to entry — how often do you contribute something substantial to a wiki? It’s nice to have your own voice shine through in a forum post or comment.
Those are the major collaboration models I’ve found.
《前进》:你希望看到什么?
I’m a fan of the “ready-fire-aim” approach, trying something new and tweaking as you go. So here goes:
- Share a commenton what type of collaboration you enjoy most. I’m looking more into wiki and forum software; perhaps a hybrid will do.
- Suggest topics你想看到更好的解释。更多的数学吗?更多的编程的主题?更多的业务/写作/沟通?
- Contact me([email protected]) if you’d like to do a guest post. Just think of a topic you like — the content is yours. I can help with formatting/proofreading, even diagrams if you like. I’m thinking of making a guide to writing “how-to” guides as well.
My dream is to contribute to a community that helps us all avoid learning’s stumbling blocks. There’s so many ways to present a topic and yet so many “a ha!” moments are just locked away in our brains.
是什么激励你分享你的理解?如果你像我一样，你会忘记自己的见解，需要再解释一遍。还有谁比你更适合教一个主题，当你记得它的时候?
再次感谢所有的支持和评论——它使写作成为一种乐趣(编辑仍然是一种痛苦，尽管!):))。I’m excited for what the next months and years will bring.