On Learning in Public

There is a version of learning in public that is performance. Tweet threads about everything you are working on, daily updates, follower counts going up as the audience grows. The point of that version is visibility.

This is not that version.

The reason I keep this notebook public is simpler. When I know something might be read, I write it more carefully. I catch the gaps. I am less satisfied with vague handwaving. The audience is almost incidental — it is the act of writing for an audience, even a hypothetical one, that does the work.

Richard Feynman had a method. When he wanted to understand something, he would try to explain it simply. Not because simple explanations are dumbed down, but because if you cannot explain something simply, you do not understand it yet. The gaps in your explanation are a map of the gaps in your thinking.

This notebook is my attempt at a version of that.

What goes here

Not everything I think or read or work on. Just the things that need somewhere to sit while I think about them more. Sometimes a note matures into an essay. Sometimes it just stays a note. Sometimes I write it and realise partway through that I had the question wrong.

The imperfection is intentional. A notebook that only contains finished thoughts is not a notebook — it is an archive.

What does not go here

I try not to put things here that are not real. No exaggerated confidence in things I am still uncertain about. No performance of expertise I do not have. If I do not know something, I say so. If a note is rough, I mark it as rough.

The status fields in the frontmatter are part of this. “Draft” means it is not ready. “Evergreen” means I think it is worth keeping. “Active question” means I am still working on it.

Curio Synapse is different

The notes here are mine. They are part of how I think, not necessarily part of how I would teach. Curio Synapse is where I take ideas that are ready to help someone else understand something, and turn them into something more structured.

Some notes here will become Curio Synapse lessons. Most will not. That is fine.