We all possess knowledge that may seem painfully obvious to us, but is mind blowing to others.
The mistake most of us make is believing some ideas are not worth sharing or teaching to others.
You don’t need to be an expert.
The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process.
Kathy Sierra (blogger) puts it this way, “Make people better at something they want to be better at.”
Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it.
When you share your knowledge and your work with others, you receive an education in return.
Author Christopher Hitchens said that the great thing about putting out a book is that “it brings you into contact with people whose opinions you should have canvassed before you ever pressed pen to paper. They write to you. They telephone They come to your bookstore events and give you things to read that you should have read already.” He said that having his work out in the world was “a free education that goes on for a lifetime.”
This isn’t only true in the case of Hitchens, I too, receive emails and comments that educate me and expose me to information, I otherwise wouldn’t have been aware of.
Some examples-
Sharing what you’re learning not only creates a cycle of feedback, but exposes us to information we wouldn’t have otherwise come across.