Some of us like to learn alone. Succeeding and failing privately. There are many reasons why but sometimes it's because they're afraid to make mistakes.
Recently I read a few articles encouraging everyone to learn in public. These articles spelled out the obvious benefits:
- Teaching is the best way to learn.
- You make yourself more employable.
- You add value to the world.
These are all true and valid however it wasn't until listening to a podcast with Shawn Swyx Wang and Chantastic that I heard a lesser recognized and under-estimated benefit:
- It's the best way to find out what you don't know.
The internet is full of people who know things that you don't. It's also quick to tell you when you're wrong. If you can handle that it's a wonderful thing. :)
Shawn sums it up "You can learn anything for the low low price of your ego".
Turn it around and it seems like the cost of learning in private is a slow a feedback loop and uncorrected ignorance.
Put that way it's almost a silly shame to miss out on all the other benefits of learning and teaching just because you're afraid to be wrong.
“You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by. Man, when I was young I shoved my ignorance in people's faces. They beat me with sticks. By the time I was forty my blunt instrument had been honed to a fine cutting point for me. If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn." — Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
Increase your marketability - Kent C. Dodds
Learn in public - Shawn Swyx Wang
React Podcast 31 - Michael Chan and Shawn Swyx Wang