Learning in Public#

Probably a couple of years ago, while doing some researching on learning, I ran across numerous articles and blog posts that touted the notion of learning in public. In general, these were associated with Personal Knowledge Management software such as Notion, Roam, or Obsidian (and a whole bunch of others!). This topic piqued my interest then and I played with it a bit. More recently, the topic was brought back to my attention so I wanted to explore it a bit more.

So what is Learning in Public? Essentially, it is saying to the world, “I don’t know much about this topic but I want to learn and I want to share that process with you.” Often, for whatever reason, people tend not to acknowledge their lack of understanding of a topic. No one wants to admit that they don’t know something. We’re afraid of making mistakes and to do so publicly is frightening. And so any learning we do is done “behind closed doors”. We study in private. Maybe it’s because, as I just mentioned, we’re embarrassed to admit our shortcomings or maybe we’re trying to learn about a subject that we think others might consider boring, useless, inappropriate, weird, or whatever. So, we sequester ourselves into our little office and try to wrap our heads around the topic.

Learning in public, on the other hand, puts our lack of knowledge and our desire to know more out in the public sphere. Why do that? Well, there are several reasons.

First, accountability. How often have you embarked on a learning journey only to allow it to fall to the wayside as you allowed other factors to interfere with your progress? By publicly announcing that you are studying a particular topic, you’re allowing others to help hold you accountable. You don’t want to look like a quitter to others, so you keep plugging along.

Second, you leverage the knowledge of others. By admitting you don’t know something or are struggling to understand some concept, you’re inviting others to guide you and provide support. There is always someone who knows more than you or who understands a particular concept better than you. By learning in public you are able to take advantage of their knowledge and experience which, in turn, adds to your knowledge.

Third, getting feedback. Sometimes our learning in public takes the form of sharing ideas for new activities, projects, etc. Sharing that information publicly, rather than keeping it hidden from the world, allows you to get feedback from others. Is it a good idea? Is it workable? Is it something that others might be interested in? Sharing these ideas with the world allows others to provide you with feedback and suggestions to improve the idea. Your leveraging the “wisdom of the crowd”. Now, in truth they may also provide you with negative feedback or may challenge your position. We don’t like to be challenged or told that we’re wrong. Bear in mind, though, that all feedback is good and it is through those challenges that we are motivated to learn. If someone tells me I’m wrong, well, I might be. I can do a bit more digging to answer that question. If some challenges an idea that’s an opportunity for me to examine it a bit more closely, learn a bit more, and alter my understanding or position on the idea.

Now there are probably more reasons and benefits for learning in public, but one more that I want to touch on is something that doesn’t necessarily have to be made public but that I think works better when it’s made public and that is providing a record of your learning journey. Yes, you could make notes on your journey in your private journal, but making those records public allows you to share with others what challenges you faced in learning and how you overcame them. This benefits others. It’s important, I think, to realize that learning isn’t just about advancing our own knowledge and skills it’s about sharing what we’ve learned with others. If your experience can help someone else achieve their learning goals a bit more easily, why not do that!

So, how do you get started?

First, decide what you want to learn. (That’s obvious, but I still feel the need to include it :) )

Second, choose how you want to share your learning journey. Do you want to blog? Do you want to make videos? Do you want to create a wiki that captures everything? This is where those Personal Knowledge Management systems come into play. Many of them can be set up to publish your words to the internet. Note that you generally select what you want made public and what you want to remain private. Again, a simple blog post, or wiki can accomplish the same thing. You don’t really need specialized software.

Third, decide how much you want to share. Obviously the more of your learning process you share the more feedback you’ll receive and the better your learning process will be. On the other hand, you don’t want to bog down your reader with excessive detail. What of your learning experience would be helpful to others? One of the things I tend to do is consider what I would find useful. When I’m learning something, knowing the pitfalls is helpful, so long as solutions to them are also provided. For example, in my recent post on OpenBSD I shared some of the challenges I encountered in getting that OS setup on my laptop. These are, I think, challenges that most people will encounter. Sharing how I overcame them (or not) will be helpful to others in the same boat.

Whether you choose to post all of your learning experience publicly, or just the highlights, you do want to document everything for yourself. Write down every little step (I’m still struggling to do that!) Why? Because this will help you understand the process better and will help you avoid similar problems the next time.

Finally, engage. This is something that I’m still working on. This blog, for example, does not have a comments section. That was a decision I made years ago because of all the spam comments. But, if I want to get feedback, I need to include a comments section. And, once it’s up, I need to engage with those who comment. I need to join the discussions.

Another action that you’ll want to take is to engage with other creators. Say, for example, that you’ve decided that you want to learn Linux. There are a ton of videos on YouTube to help you get up to speed. If you found a video helpful, let the creator know that you appreciated their work. Ask questions. The creator, or other commenters will likely provide solid answers. Engaging in this way allows you to take advantage of others’ expertise and deepen your own understanding while letting the creator know that their efforts were appreciated.

At the end of the day, none of us knows everything. I am constantly learning and encourage others to allows seek to learn more. Learning in public helps you build a community of learners that you can look to for guidance, support, new ideas, and new perspectives.