Julia Evans

Here’s a few how to style sites that I’ve found useful for everything from small things to big projects:

These are general things that might seem too basic but there are some gems in there. Everyone, even really experienced users, can have gaps in their knowledge of basics:
https://github.com/you-dont-need/You-Dont-Need-GUI

Julie Evans doesn’t right just about Linux but when she writes a how-to she really puts the time in to do it well:
https://jvns.ca/

DigitalOcean has the best set of how-to docs I know of for a web hosting company:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials

I have less experience with them but Linode seems to do a good job on how to docs too:
https://www.linode.com/resources/

And there’s man pages and the like, too, but man pages can be a bit cumbersome for learning more than some options and basic use of a command.

Any other sites that people think are best for Linux in general, specialized areas like shells and scripting, distro specific sites, etc.? I’d save those sites and return to them first then do a web search if not enough there.

Author here -- I'm glad you like the post! There are more like you describe out there, though they tend to be scattered around the Internet.

https://jvns.ca/ often gets mentioned on HN and has a large volume of posts that follow the format "let's assume both you and I don't know anything - how do we figure this out?". http://jamie-wong.com/, a coworker, has a few good ones on graphics/numerical stuff.

Characterizing unique IDs with emojis instead of an abstract number was inspired by Tim Babb who has a good blog post on Kalman Filters: http://www.bzarg.com/p/how-a-kalman-filter-works-in-pictures/

Explaining a concept in person really helps, as you get immediate feedback if they look confused and it helps you figure out in what order you need to introduce concepts. In the case of this project, I was working on it alongside other people who were working their side projects. So I had the chance to explain what I was working on very frequently as we asked each other what we were up to, but I'm still learning to write this way intentionally.

I suffer from the same problem. Something to consider is that we benefit from having a diverse set of materials on the same topics. Maybe you explain something a little differently than someone else does, or in a way that resonates better with a certain type of person. Julia Evans[1] is a great example of this. For much of what she publishes, she’s not explaining something that you couldn’t figure out from reading the man pages or a lengthy tutorial, but her work is still hugely valuable because it’s concise, and visual.

The other thing to remember is that writing is just as much for you as it is for others (maybe even more). The act of writing down an explanation of how to do something or how something works ensures that you understand it was well as you think you do. I don’t publish nearly as much as I should, but I often write things down in a Markdown file because it helps me organize the thoughts in my head and lets me identify any gaps in my knowledge.

[1] https://jvns.ca/

https://jvns.ca/

Julia Evans blog posts are always a treat to read.

* Doesn't skimp on the technical details / resources / examples.

* Incredibly readable, human focused language that doesn't "talk down" to a reader.

* Wide range of useful topics: Networking, Careers, Soft-Skill, Writing, etc.

* Amazing & informative Art/Zines.

I leaned on her wisdom often when I found myself suddenly thrust into a career as a DevOps Network Engineer.

Her writing very validating for me during some particularly turbulent projects I was working on.

It helped me find my own language to advocate for my code/designs in the face of (often needless) scruitiny from technical and non-technical team members.

Even if you're familiar with the subject matter of a post -- there's a 99% chance that it'll still be worth it to skim, and come away with something you didn't have before.

Huge fan.

Thank you!

Recurse is amazing. Truly an amazing gathering of accomplished, interesting and curious folks. It’s an amazing community and setting - if you can swing the 6 or 12 weeks, and especially if you can come to the physical space in downtown Brooklyn, I would very much recommend it.

Lots of Recursers end up on the HN homepage these days - from https://jvns.ca to https://jakelazaroff.com ‘s series on CRDTs. I think there’s a connection between the Recurse and HN communities, and an appreciation of what Recursers tend to gravite towards (personal projects that are meaningful to its creators, and are typically about explaining, exploring or building something new).

Feel free to email me to talk more about it.

As for Trouble, thanks for the suggestion! I’ll be adding it, on top of all of the other places that people have been mentioning.

I don't think blog posts lack merit.

There's only so much you can put in docs, and docs can only really encompass one way of learning things.

Blog posts help teach things in other ways, and having that diversity of approaches is great.

This is why, for example, I love Julia Evans' (http://jvns.ca/) work. Most of the blog posts don't really uncover undocumented stuff. They just explore the topic in a novel way, which some people may find more accessible.

Rust is open to importing blog posts into the docs; this has happened a few times (once to one of my own posts!). So I'm happy that there are blog posts out there.

That said, if you're writing a blog post, it's good to see if there are bits than can be put into the docs too.