knowledge

The proverb "those who can, do; those who can't, teach" is usually seen as disparage for teachers. If you are not skilled enough at something to make a career out of it to yourself your only option is to teach it. But there is another way to look at it.

Teaching others is the best way and motivation to learn something new. To be able to teach something you really need to know your topic really well because you need to be able to explain it to somebody who knows even less than you do. If you want to learn something really well you should try teaching it to somebody else.

Doing background study on something to write about can be fun. But, unlike when you have actual set goals to achieve there is the danger of getting carried away. There is always something more to learn, or just some interesting side tracks to explore. It's just so much more fun than actually writing about it.

A couple of days ago I wrote about how I like to read and learn new things. So much that I just can't remember all of it. And even that little which I do probably replaces something I previously used to know.

Except, as I have read,  that's not how our memory works. All the things are still mostly there. They remain in our heads indefinitely, at least almost. It's just that while the amount of information grows some of it becomes less relevant and is therefore buried beneath the more important information.

I love reading and learning about obscure things. There are so many fascinating things I want to know more of. And so little time. 

In a way, studying those things is a complete waste of time. Where would I ever use such knowledge anyway? I would be much better off learning about some useful topics.

I do that as well already. Sure, could focus on only those useful things. But what's fun about that. There is enough room for both.

Quite often I encounter tutorials or other posts about various matters that I consider myself being an expert in. Sometimes those texts might be spot on, but way too often I find them being just somebody getting started and sharing their experience.

While this is great knowledge sharing and I fully support such things, unfortunately, that beginner advice might sometimes be counterproductive, wrong or even dangerous. It's so easy to think you are right once you have figured out something and got it working. It's great to share such wins.

To be able to work with things requires certain level of knowledge. You need to understand the things well enough that you yourself know how they work. You have probably started from the basics and worked up from there deepening your knowledge and forming your own understanding.

You might know how things work and how to use them but transferring that knowledge to others is another things. For that, you need to really understand them. You need to know where you come from and how you got there.

There are times people come to me at work, after trying everything I'm their only hope. After a moment listening to their problem and then running a couple of commands the issue is magically gone. They are left in awe, wondering how I did it. 

Another time there is an issue on some server. I log in, and once again run a few commands. Everything is back up and running smoothly. Others hardly had time to react to the alerts at all before it was already resolved.

Being right feels great. Even so much that even if we are wrong it's hard to admit. Sometimes we don't even realize it, we are not open enough to see the truth and change our mind. Because we don't want to feel less great and show our fallacy.

I think of myself as a rational human. I can think critically about matters. But even so, sometimes I find myself defending some point of view long after I have been proven wrong. Even if you realize it, it's still hard to change your mind.