This is the final part in a series of posts in which I air my gripes and grievances (and complements!) about various kinds of software development training and reference materials.
One of the most common ways of learning about software development is through reading the blog posts of other developers and assorted schmoes. At a high level, this option appears to be the lowest risk as well as the lowest reward. Blog posts are (usually) free, are easy to search for, and are (again, usually) short. If you find one that looks promising, read through it, and discover it is junk, you will have wasted very little time. On the flip side, if you find one that is helpful, it is likely helpful in solving a very specific problem or answering a very specific question.
In reality, however, I believe that learning from blog posts can be extremely dangerous, in the sense that more often than not they will teach you enough to be dangerous. Blog posts about programming can be written by anyone, and without accusing anyone directly, I think it is safe to say that not everyone writes about software tips and tricks solely out of the kindness of their own heart. I have read many a post that looks like nothing more than an attempt at signaling - specifically, to signal to others how skilled and/or smart they are. A lot of blogs posts show you how to do things, but in no way demonstrate that the author knows why to do it or how it works. Sometimes they read as nothing more than an attempt to brag about the fact that the author is getting to use some hip and cool new tool. On a related note, a lot of blogs are trying to evangelize for a language/framework/tool more than to inform about it. Ironically, by lacking explanations about “how?” or “why?”, these authors do their favorite languages a disservice. They make it look as if it is adopted by know-nothings and bandwagoners rather than by stone cold pros.
This is not to say that all blog posts are worthless, or that the medium is worth ignoring. It’s just that the people who really know their stuff and are able to explain it to newcomers are often the kinds of people who get paid to do so, either by making courses, or by writing books. Then there are people like me, who mean well, and want to help, but under normal circumstances lack the time and mental energy needed to write a lot about technical topics in their off hours. There is good stuff out there, but whether or not it is worth looking for is a hard question to answer.