Teach as you learn

Don't wait until you become an expert in order to start teaching, start writing about the things you're learning right away.

Teaching helps you learn better

Learning doesn’t happen from trying to memorize the information you're passively reading, you truly understand the idea when you explain it and apply it in practice.

Use the Feynman Technique:

• Explain the concept in a way a 12 year old could understand.
• Identify the gaps in your explanation, things you're confused about.
• Ask questions and do a bit of research to understand it better.
• Organize and simplify your explanation.
• Repeat until you've mastered the idea.

Teaching ideas right away makes your writing better

The moment you learn the idea is when it is the most novel and exciting to you. Later it will feel obvious, boring, and not worth writing about.

More importantly, this is the moment when you have the best understanding of your readers (who are also new to the idea).

You know what is confusing to you, what is exciting, what you already know, and what you have yet to figure out. In the future you'll forget what it was like, and it will be much more difficult to relate to your readers.

Things you can teach as a beginner

You don't need to know more than everyone, you just need to know more than your reader.

Teach people one step behind you. Think about the things you've learned recently, and write for the past version of yourself who didn't know them yet.

What do you wish you knew two years/months/weeks ago?