0x4 reasons to write and publish

Nov 7, 2023

If you spent time studying a topic, and struggled to understand parts of it, here are three good^[1] reasons to write about it. And publish^[2].

The altruistic reason

There are many types of brain out there. They all click in different ways. Chances there are people who click like you do. If you take the time to explain something difficult in your own way, it will without a doubt help others.

A while ago, I wrote about how floating point work. Every once in a while, the article pops up on HN. What is interesting is the polarity of the comments.

While some people found the mathematics notation more than enough, it turned out there were other brains clicking like mine.

The selfish reason

There is value in explaining a topic to yourself. You should as well publish it afterwards.

If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough.

- Author Unknown^[3]

The altruistic and selfish reason

Whatever level of proficiency you have achieved, it will decrease over time. You will forget chunks of what you know. Why not treat future-you something to refresh their memory?

Getting typo/bug fixes for the books I wrote is an opportunity to browse them again. Quite often I realize there are whole sections I have completely forgotten about.

The magical reason (also selfish)

Sometimes a webpage feels like a bottle thrown in a numeric ocean. No feedback. Maybe no readers either. There is something pure about it (that is why this site has no analytics.)

Yet, occasionally, someone will take the time to contact you.

From: x@z.com
To : fabiensanglard.net@gmail.com

I have dyscalculia (like dyslexia but with numbers) and while I'm okay with binary maths (it's easy to visualize flipping and shifting bits), I never understood how floating point numbers actually worked, like how to get from those seemingly random hex words to an actual number.

I've probably come across that horrid formula before, but that's not a lot of help without a far deeper understanding of maths than I possess.

You, in the course of a few short paragraphs and well designed diagrams, have just explained something that has eluded me for a very long time.

- X

References

^ [1] Your mileage may vary.
^ [2] Btw, the same goes for code. If you had a hard time reading it, you should probably add a few comments.
^ [3] Einstein, Peter Singer, Richard Feynman, Daniel Dennett, or perhaps Nicolas Boileau (Ce qui se conçoit bien s’énonce clairement) .

^	[1]	Your mileage may vary.
^	[2]	Btw, the same goes for code. If you had a hard time reading it, you should probably add a few comments.
^	[3]	Einstein, Peter Singer, Richard Feynman, Daniel Dennett, or perhaps Nicolas Boileau (Ce qui se conçoit bien s’énonce clairement) .