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Most tech content is bullshit

aleksandra.codes

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Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#71

Post by thevirtuoso1973 »

Brozilean wrote: post #21

I basically realized this when I was at an internship talking to a buddy about a compilers course I could be taking and his language he was making for fun. He was talking about a couple topics I'd probably go over in the course. Then a more senior coworker came over to join the convo and mentioned a few similar words that were clearly jargon related to compilers etc. He spoke with such confidence that I didn't want t…

You and your senior coworker are allowed to not know things, and furthermore, allowed to talk about things that you don't know much about.

Was your role or the senior person's role related to compilers? You don't have to authoritatively know something to talk about it, and I never assume anyone knows anything authoritatively if they talk about it nonchalantly.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#73

Post by tracerbulletx »

fxtentacle wrote: post #60

I believe this all started with the advise to write blogs and books to market yourself as an authority. As a result, nowadays, most blog posts are written by people who are seeking a job in that area, not by people who have experience working in that area. I mean I'm sure that I would have experience about different topics. But I rarely have the time to write about it. Customers and their projects keep getting in the…

Ok, it might be true that a lot of inexperienced people are writing blogs now as a way to build a personal brand. But your reaction is an over-reaction. There are also lots of incredible experts writing, and writing its self is an incredibly rewarding and educational activity. It's not a waste of time, no matter how busy you are.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#74

Post by Carpetsmoker »

tuyguntn wrote: post #33
anthony_romeo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or those fake how-to tutorial pages. Often when I’m looking up, say, error codes in Windows, I need to wade through pages of “Step 1: Download the MyNewFreeComputerCleaner.biz app”

after working at couple of startups, I also noticed worrying trend. * 21 years old marketer writing about life crisis in 40s * fashion blogger explaining is Teflon harmful or not (come on, fashion and chemistry?) * 18 years old student who never immigrated to another country or studied abroad writing about how difficult is immigrant life and what to look for in different country and many more similar content.

About 5 years ago I attended a local code meetup and someone gave a presentation about this new TypeScript thing. He basically just explained the basic syntax, concepts. etc. A bit boring, but not the worst I've seen.

Then in the Q&A someone asked a "In our experience, we've had problems with X, what's your take?" (I've forgotten what X was specifically), and the guy replied with "well, actually, we haven't really used it yet, we're just looking at it".

So ... he basically just read the TypeScript "getting started" tutorial, transformed it to a presentation, and had no real knowledge of TypeScript.

The entire talk seemed pretty useless to me. I don't even know how accurate that presentation was, because there's much more to using a language effectively than the basic syntax learned from a glance at a tutorial page.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#76

Post by dgb23 »

leetrout wrote: post #34

I’ve said this for a long time: The people actually doing the work don’t have time to talk about it and the people spending all their time talking about it aren’t doing the work. Of course there are exceptions but I’m extremely skeptical of a lot of stuff I read. Also that the HN bubble will always make readers feel behind when in reality 90% of the industry hasn’t even begun to catch-up. I felt behind with K8S in 20…

This might be true for some, but certainly not all.

There are plenty talented, productive people also writing articles and giving talks. Hell, most of what I watch/read (not just skim) is content either from the main drivers of a given tech or people who are experts.

It isn’t that hard to differentiate.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#77

Post by skrebbel »

_bxg1 wrote: post #13

From personal experience, including reading a lot of HN, I think programmers as a species are especially biased towards putting forth opinions in the hopes of being validated for our experience or intelligence, even when we know we don't know much about the subject. The fact that IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) [but...] is a common enough statement in these circles to deserve its own acronym is telling. We often throw out…

I don't know, talking about what is allowed and what isn't is pretty normal in most circles.

I think IANAL is a popular term on HN because HN originated in a country with a terribly litigious culture, and because HN is primarily populated by people who can at least afford lawyers.

If I'd "talk to a lawyer" as often as HN comments recommend people do then I'd have no money (or time) left to eat. The whole thing is about covering your ass.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#78

Post by jdnordy »

> Articles have plenty of conceptual mistakes. And people are not perfect, either! Senior developers are not always good developers.

I think this point is well made. It is a good caution when consuming content on the internet to always be assessing. I seek to understand how something works before I use it.

Yet here's my question: Does this mean I should not be writing for my personal blog?

Writing helps me work out, articulate and understand better the tech that I am working with. And it might help others to work it out as well, even if it's not perfect.

Re: Most tech content is bullshit

#79

Post by janeshmane »

"Your solutions are not any worse than the ones on the internet."

Sorry, I just don't agree with this. Of course you need to vet the solutions you find online, but chances are you will find solutions that have already worked through bugs and edge cases you would only learn the hard way if you went forward naively.

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