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I think this misses another equally important reason, which is to do your part to help build the gift economy upon which we all rely in our day to day work. Nea

I think this misses another equally important reason, which is to do your part to help build the gift economy upon which we all rely in our day to day work. Near every common solution and recipe has been written up by someone, somewhere, and we all make use of these gifts. When you learn to do something useful that other people will likely also have to accomplish at some point in time, write it up. Not only will it benefit people out there in the world, but it is also a great way to ensure that you yourself don't have to reinvent the wheel a few years down the line. Who remembers the details after that long? So write it down, and if you write it down, you may as well publish it.

TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
While I agree generally with what you've written here, my only issue with it is that writing it up takes about as long as building the thing, and I'm pretty lazy. Also, if someone, somewhere, has written up nearly ever common solution, how do I know which ones are novel enough to put the effort in to publishing. Most of things I build aren't novel or new in any way, I'm fairly sure.
- wazanator 10y ago
  You will know what to write. When you spend time searching for an answer to an odd problem but don't find it and have to do it yourself you will want to write about it afterwards because you will want others to know you figured out the solution.
mooreds 10y ago
> do your part to help build the gift economy upon which we all rely in our day to day work Great point, but I think most folks aren't going to be persuaded. I asked a tech meetup how many folks had read from stackoverflow the past month. 95% of hands went up. Then I asked how many folks had answered a question. Far fewer, maybe 10%. And I think I was the only person who had asked a question on the site. The 90/9/1 rule is real. But I agree, we should encourage folks to join the 1% of content creators.

TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago

While I agree generally with what you've written here, my only issue with it is that writing it up takes about as long as building the thing, and I'm pretty lazy. Also, if someone, somewhere, has written up nearly ever common solution, how do I know which ones are novel enough to put the effort in to publishing. Most of things I build aren't novel or new in any way, I'm fairly sure.

wazanator 10y ago
You will know what to write. When you spend time searching for an answer to an odd problem but don't find it and have to do it yourself you will want to write about it afterwards because you will want others to know you figured out the solution.

mooreds 10y ago

> do your part to help build the gift economy upon which we all rely in our day to day work Great point, but I think most folks aren't going to be persuaded. I asked a tech meetup how many folks had read from stackoverflow the past month. 95% of hands went up. Then I asked how many folks had answered a question. Far fewer, maybe 10%. And I think I was the only person who had asked a question on the site. The 90/9/1 rule is real. But I agree, we should encourage folks to join the 1% of content creators.