Spreading the Knowledge
"On Monday, I went to see Harry Potter, which was a great movie by the way. I really love the angle they're taking although they didn't hold back at all on the computer graphics, not like they ever did in the first place. But this is about a few hours before that. Jen and I had went to explore the Westfield Oakridge Mall and strolled into their Borders. As usual, Jen headed to the manga section and I followed, eventually getting her three volumes. Then we headed to the computer books, where I started to look for a book on (gasp!) AJAX.
It's for work. I swear.
Next to me was a middle-aged man, balding - he looked like one of those grandfathers that were looking to get into something new. I was feeling particularly nosy, so I glanced over to see what he was reading. One he had picked up "CSS for Dummies", I had to intervene. Come on, there was no way I was going to just sit there and let him read that.
If you're starting to learn CSS, let me show you some good books.
So I did a quick scan of the single bookshelf of HTML and CSS books and came across two. I had wanted to show him Dan Cenderholm's "Web Standards Solutions" offering, but unfortunately one will have a better chance finding an autographed version of Jeffery Zeldman's book. So I pointed him to "The Zen of CSS Design" and "Eric Meyer on CSS" (I haven't read Eric's book, but I have heard many great things about it.). The man looked intrigued and started to jump into both books, so if anything, I got the satisfaction of knowing that he'd probably get off on the right foot. Needless to say, I left the store with a smile on my face.
So there's a moral to this story. We do our best spreading knowledge between each other, but unless somebody stumbles onto this site, or any of our sites for that matter, they'll be left in the dark about how to jump into our vast world. So it's important not only to share your knowledge through blogging, forums and other forms of messaging, but on a more active level away from your computer.
We're all on this world to learn, to gain knowledge about the subjects that are most important to us. The same goes for those who are just starting our craft. Rather than shun those who don't seem like their "getting it," take the time to reeducate them. Not only will you be helping somebody on the road to learning, you'll feel good about yourself too.