How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by tangue on Thursday April 26, 2012 @08:07AM (#3893457)

Though I respect the process and the efforts behind this, "How to write books with a superficial understanding of what you're talking about" would be more appropriate.

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by eee_c on Thursday April 26, 2012 @08:17AM (#3893492)

Ah, but I think that's the point. My understanding of the topics is anything but superficial. If you follow along with my daily posts, I think you can see me work through initial infatuation, recognition of limitations, and finally deeper understanding.

To be sure, I could know more. But I think you're being dismissive by characterizing this as superficial.

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by dansingerman on Thursday April 26, 2012 @08:54AM (#3893633)

Is it more than superficial though? Depends on your definition of 'superficial':

If I buy a book on SPDY (or any technology), it is likely because I want to use it in a production/live environment.

I want to buy a book on technology from someone who has run a live system, and got the battle scars one gets from doing so; who has learnt from the experiences, which they can then share.

When it comes to technology, one can research all they like about it, but until you have practical _experience_ in a live environment, I would call it 'superficial'.

(From the blog post it is not clear; if you have run all these technologies live then I agree, your understanding is not superficial)

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by sanderjd on Thursday April 26, 2012 @10:04AM (#3893927)

I had the same thought as you about his books, if this is the methodology. But I also find it very inspiring, and am extremely envious. Every time I think, "Maybe I should write a book about this", I immediately project myself onto a prospective consumer of my unwritten book and think, "I wouldn't read a book written by me on this subject, because I am not enough of an expert, so why should I expect anyone else to feel differently?", so I don't write the book. This guy thinks the first thought and just goes for it. The word is overused, but: awesome!

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by mindcrime on Thursday April 26, 2012 @11:05AM (#3894249)

Is it more than superficial though? Depends on your definition of 'superficial':

I think that depends on who the audience is. If you're a CTO at a company that's up and running and live and you're beginning a deployment of something new, then yes, you need an overview rooted in hands-on experience. But if you're a guy who just wants to learn something new because "I might use this in the future" or "I'm just evaluating this" or whatever, a book which is based only on theory/research can be wildly useful if it helps you shortcut the learning curve to learning the tech. Actually, if it helps you shorten your own learning curve, it's beneficial in either of those scenarios, in a sense.

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by eee_c on Thursday April 26, 2012 @09:45AM (#3893827)

That is a fair point. I had not run SPDY in a heavily utilized production environment. I'll agree that there are things that I would learn had I done so, but I would definitely argue that this is the only way to learn something in depth.

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by tangue on Thursday April 26, 2012 @08:38AM (#3893572)

To be clear : I'm dismissive about the title but admiring the results. I'm just tired of reading blog posts where everything from jquery plugins to pancakes recipes are "awesome"

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by eee_c on Thursday April 26, 2012 @09:42AM (#3893810)

Gotcha. The title is intentionally over the top and definitely worthy of, at least, a skeptical attitude. I do have some awesome pancake recipes though...

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by livingtech on Thursday April 26, 2012 @10:00AM (#3893910)

This was exactly my thought. More tech books written by someone who is just learning the technology. This is one of the main reasons I barely ever buy tech books. Useless.

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