I enjoy also the Alan Perlis line, "You think you know when you learn, are more sure when you can write, even more when you can teach, but certain when you can program."
I have been endeavoring to get in the habit of writing about things that I learn. My main obstacle is the feeling that, even if I can write and explain the topic well, other people can too and already have; so why bother writing about it? But that misses the point -- or even two points.
The writing helps me; the fact that someone else wrote is irrelevant. Further, my writing, even if the subject matter is hardly original, might in fact help someone else: not everyone favors the same calculus textbook, or the same Python programming manual, or the same history of World War II. People enjoy different writing styles, different perspectives, even different fonts and page layouts. (I've elected against buying at least one book because I found the page layout excessively annoying to look at!)
I have been endeavoring to get in the habit of writing about things that I learn. My main obstacle is the feeling that, even if I can write and explain the topic well, other people can too and already have; so why bother writing about it? But that misses the point -- or even two points.
The writing helps me; the fact that someone else wrote is irrelevant. Further, my writing, even if the subject matter is hardly original, might in fact help someone else: not everyone favors the same calculus textbook, or the same Python programming manual, or the same history of World War II. People enjoy different writing styles, different perspectives, even different fonts and page layouts. (I've elected against buying at least one book because I found the page layout excessively annoying to look at!)