Everyone is a teacher, no one is a student
Post last updated 2 hours, 59 minutes ago
Every time when I get into something, like I did with photography recently, I sail the internet for guides, reviews, opinions, min-maxing tips and tricks and then (or in parallel) experiment myself when possible. It's kind of like reading the lesson ahead of class, you have a rough idea about what's coming and this way I can trim down getting stuck in things like my camera's settings.
Given the practically infinite amount of content1 on the internet, it's crucial to find reliable information quickly, which, depending on the topic can be difficult from at least two reasons:
- The subject is very niche, in which case information might be sparse or outdated. From experience, that was when I was researching split keyboards and alternative layouts.
- The subject is very mainstream and you get flooded with information.
The latter is way worse, because everyone wants to teach you something, even if they themselves have barely any experience in the field. Bought a camera a week ago and still shoots on auto? Better do a TikTok on how the exposure triangle works, even if it doesn't add any new insight amid the myriad of near identical stuff. This trend is newer I think, because if I search for guides from a few years ago it gets better and less annoying. A., my girlfriend has a similar feeling about the tattoo industry.
Nobody wants to be a student anymore it seems and it's a shame. Probably it has to do with this culture of monetizing every damn aspect of your life and it doesn't do good for the "stakeholders" for you to be a student. You have to teach others. You cannot sell a course if you are a student, so you pose as teacher. And you make yourself look like a clown and you make me lose my time2.
But it's fine to be a student. In fact, even if you ever come to be a teacher, you'll not be proper one if you're not still a student.
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