The Build-in-Public Method for Technical Learning

The Build-in-Public Method for Technical Learning

What Is It?

The Build-in-Public Method is a learning strategy where you document your learning process publicly—through blog posts, Twitter threads, videos, or open-source code—while you’re still learning the material. Instead of waiting until you’re an “expert” to teach others, you share your journey, mistakes, and discoveries in real-time.

This approach transforms learning from a passive, private activity into an active, social process that accelerates understanding and creates valuable artifacts along the way.

The Core Principle

Learn by teaching while you’re still learning.

Traditional approach:

  1. Learn privately
  2. Become expert
  3. Teach others

Build-in-Public approach:

  1. Start learning
  2. Document immediately
  3. Teach what you just learned
  4. Repeat (you’re now learning faster because you’re teaching)

Why It Works: The Science

1. The Protégé Effect

Research shows that people learn better when they expect to teach the material to others. Brain imaging studies reveal that preparing to teach activates retrieval and organizational cognitive processes that deepen understanding.

Key Study: A 2018 study in Applied Cognitive Psychology found that students who prepared to teach material scored 28% higher on tests than students who only studied for themselves, even if they never actually taught.

2. Elaborative Encoding

When you explain something publicly, you must transform your understanding into language. This transformation forces you to:

This process (called elaborative encoding) creates stronger memory traces than passive reading or note-taking.

3. Social Learning and Feedback

Building in public creates a feedback loop:

This iteration loop accelerates learning far beyond solo study.

4. The Generation Effect

Creating original content (blog posts, code examples, diagrams) forces you to generate your own understanding rather than passively consuming others’. This “generation effect” significantly improves retention and transfer.

How to Implement It

Step 1: Choose Your Medium

Pick a public platform that matches your learning style:

For written learners:

For visual learners:

For code-focused learners:

For social learners:

Step 2: The 30-Minute Rule

After every 30-minute learning session, spend 10 minutes documenting:

This creates a 3:1 learning-to-documentation ratio that’s sustainable long-term.

Step 3: The “I Just Learned” Framework

Use this template for rapid documentation:

# I Just Learned: [Topic]

## What I was trying to do
[1-2 sentences on the goal]

## What I learned
[3-5 bullet points of key insights]

## What surprised me
[1-2 things that were counterintuitive or unexpected]

## What I'm still confused about
[1-2 open questions—this invites community help]

## Example
[One concrete code snippet, diagram, or demo]

## Resources
[Links to what you learned from]

This framework takes 5-10 minutes to complete and creates immediately shareable content.

Step 4: Embrace “Beginner Mind” Authority

Your unique value isn’t expertise—it’s recency. You just learned this, so you remember:

This makes your content MORE valuable to other learners, not less.

Step 5: Build a Learning Streak

Commit to documenting for 30 days straight. Even if you only learn one small thing, share it. The consistency matters more than the depth.

Why 30 days? Habit formation research suggests 21-30 days is the minimum for establishing a new behavior pattern. After 30 days, documentation becomes automatic.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Pitfall 1: “I’m not qualified to teach this”

Reality check: You’re not teaching experts. You’re teaching people one step behind you in the learning journey. They need YOUR perspective, not an expert’s.

Fix: Change your frame from “teaching” to “documenting your learning journey.” You’re not claiming expertise; you’re sharing discoveries.

Pitfall 2: Fear of being wrong publicly

Reality check: You will be wrong sometimes. That’s not a bug; it’s a feature. Public correction is one of the fastest ways to learn.

Fix:

Pitfall 3: Perfectionism paralysis

Reality check: Published and imperfect beats perfect and unpublished. Always.

Fix:

Pitfall 4: Comparing yourself to experts

Reality check: Experts have years of head start and full-time content teams. You’re competing in a different league: the “authentic learning journey” league.

Fix:

Pitfall 5: No audience initially

Reality check: Everyone starts with zero followers. Your early posts are practice. The audience comes later.

Fix:

Practical Examples

Example 1: Learning Rust

Day 1 post (Twitter thread):

Thread: I'm learning Rust. Day 1 observations 🧵

1/ Coming from Python, the borrow checker is making my brain hurt. 
But I think I get why it exists: preventing data races at compile time.

2/ Just spent 45 minutes debugging: "cannot move out of borrowed content"

Turns out I was trying to use a value after passing ownership. 
In Python this would silently work. In Rust: compile error.

3/ The error messages are actually... helpful? 
It suggested using `.clone()` or references. 
Tried reference (&), worked. 

4/ Still confused about: lifetimes. The syntax makes sense but I don't grok WHEN I need to specify them vs when Rust infers them.

5/ One thing that clicked: Rust makes memory management explicit. 
Python hides it (garbage collection). 
Rust shows it (ownership). 
Neither is "better"—tradeoffs.

Resources I'm using:
- The Rust Book (official docs)
- Rustlings exercises
- This video: [link]

What am I missing? Any Rust devs have advice for a beginner?

Why this works:

Example 2: Learning System Design

Blog post: “I Just Learned: Database Replication”

# I Just Learned: Database Replication (And Why Twitter Uses It)

## What I was trying to understand
How do big systems like Twitter handle millions of database reads per second without the database falling over?

## What I learned
- **Replication** = copying data to multiple database servers
- **Primary-replica pattern**: One primary (writes), many replicas (reads)
- Writes go to primary, then async copied to replicas
- Reads can go to any replica (distributes load)

## What surprised me
Replicas can be "stale"—they might not have the latest write yet. This is called **eventual consistency**. 

Twitter is OK with this! When you tweet, you might not see it on your timeline for a few seconds. That's replication lag.

## What I'm still confused about
How do you handle conflicts if writes happen while a replica is disconnected? Is there an automatic merge strategy?

## Example
Imagine a blog platform:
- Primary DB handles: new posts, updates, deletes
- 5 replica DBs handle: viewing posts (99% of traffic)

Result: 5x read capacity without changing the primary.

## Resources
- "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" (Chapter 5)
- This AWS article on RDS read replicas: [link]

Am I understanding this correctly? Database experts, please tear this apart!

Why this works:

Example 3: Learning Kubernetes

GitHub repo: “kubernetes-learning-journey”

# My Kubernetes Learning Journey

I'm learning Kubernetes from scratch. This repo contains my notes, examples, and experiments as I go.

## Week 1: Core Concepts
- [x] What is a Pod? (./notes/pods.md)
- [x] Deployments vs. ReplicaSets (./notes/deployments.md)
- [ ] Services and networking (in progress)

## Experiments
- [./experiments/01-simple-pod/](./experiments/01-simple-pod/): Deploying my first pod (it failed 5 times, here's why)
- [./experiments/02-deployment/](./experiments/02-deployment/): Creating a deployment with multiple replicas

## Resources I'm Using
- Kubernetes official tutorials
- "Kubernetes Up & Running" book
- This YouTube series: [link]

## Questions I Still Have
- When do you use a StatefulSet vs. a Deployment?
- How does inter-pod networking actually work?

## Contributing
If you see mistakes or have suggestions, PRs welcome! I'm learning this in public.

Why this works:

Advanced Techniques

Technique 1: The “TIL” (Today I Learned) Collection

Create a running collection of daily micro-learnings. This lowers the barrier to documentation and creates a valuable reference over time.

Format:

# TIL Collection

## 2025-11-08
- Python's `walrus operator` (:=) lets you assign and use a value in the same expression
- Useful in list comprehensions: `[y := x*2 for x in range(10) if y > 5]`

## 2025-11-07
- PostgreSQL `EXPLAIN ANALYZE` shows actual query performance, `EXPLAIN` shows planned performance
- Always use ANALYZE for real bottleneck debugging

Technique 2: The “Mistakes I Made” Series

Document your errors explicitly. This is some of the most valuable content for learners.

Example post titles:

Technique 3: The “Explain It to My Past Self” Method

When you finally understand something that confused you, write an explanation for yourself from one week ago.

Prompt: “I wish I’d known [X] when I started learning [Y]. Here’s what finally made it click…”

This creates content that’s perfectly targeted for beginners because you remember exactly what was confusing.

Technique 4: The “Progressive Elaboration” Approach

Start with a basic post, then expand it over time as you learn more.

Example:

This creates living documents that grow with your understanding.

Measuring Success

Short-term metrics (first 30 days):

Medium-term metrics (3-6 months):

Long-term metrics (6+ months):

Real-World Success Stories

Shawn Wang (@swyx): Coined “learn in public” and used it to transition from finance to Senior Developer Advocate at AWS. His blog posts documenting learning React led directly to job opportunities.

Ali Spittel: Documented learning to code on Dev.to, built an audience of 100K+ followers, became a Senior Dev Advocate at AWS.

Josh Comeau: Shared CSS and React learnings via interactive blog posts, now runs a successful course business teaching the same topics he learned in public.

Common thread: All started as learners, not experts. Built authority by documenting the journey, not claiming expertise.

Getting Started Today

Your 10-Minute Action Plan:

  1. Pick ONE thing you’re currently learning (5 seconds)
  2. Choose a platform (30 seconds—don’t overthink it)
  3. Write a “I just learned” post using the template above (8 minutes)
  4. Hit publish (30 seconds)

That’s it. You’re now learning in public.

Do it again tomorrow. And the day after. By day 30, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve built.

Conclusion

The Build-in-Public Method works because it transforms learning from a solitary, passive activity into a social, generative process. You learn faster because you’re teaching. You retain more because you’re creating. You build authority because you’re shipping.

The hardest part is overcoming the fear of being wrong publicly. But here’s the secret: everyone who’s ever learned anything was wrong many times along the way. The only difference between you and experts is they’ve already made their mistakes. You’re making yours now—and by documenting them, you’re helping everyone who comes after you.

Stop waiting to be an expert before you start sharing. Start sharing today, and expertise will follow.

Your future self—and the countless people who will learn from your journey—will thank you.

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