Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by roel_v 2323 days ago
Not to dismiss your work, but do you think the best investment of your time is to write another textbook (assuming this is an undergraduate level book in a relatively well-explored field), or in adding detail/great illustrations/great interactive charts to an existing work?

I know (really, like, I know) how detrimental this would be to anyone's career, and I'm not saying this as a moral condemnation of what you're doing - just curious, as I've found myself that there are many cases in these circumstances where the interests of the author do not align with those of the audience. Just wondering if you feel the same way.
2 comments
pavpanchekha 2323 days ago
I'm writing a textbook on a topic no existing book covers: the internals of a web browser.

For your broader question---I understand what you're saying, but it's very difficult to edit someone else's writing. That's where "committee voice" comes from: it's the lowest common denominator to multiple authors working together. And often how I visualize things comes from how I look at things, and coming up with a visualization for how someone else looks at things is hard.

Take the OP as an example. This is a long blog post on gears in general, but animated by the specific question "what shape are gear teeth". If I were writing a blog post about gears, I wouldn't start at that place. And then, imagine if this blog post started text-only instead of visual. "Involute" would now be described with algebra, not a picture. The algebra is complex (compare the Wiki at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involute), and that algebra itself would need pictures. Illustrations and explorables aren't, ideally, something you sprinkle onto existing text.

link
roel_v 2322 days ago
OK yeah then your case doesn't apply to my general question. I imagine that for something that is as visual as your topic, animation would be extra useful though :) (like showing with a slider how reflowing works in certain edge cases or something) Not to egg you on of course :)

And I see what you're saying on how it's hard to build on someone else's work, and how what is relevant to illustrate heavily depends on the viewpoint of the author. Still I can't shake the feeling that there is so much duplication. Maybe I should just look at differently. Anyway, thanks for weighing in.

link
dredmorbius 2322 days ago
I'd be really interested in seeing even an outline of that text.

Oh, found it. Noice!

https://browser.engineering

link
ijpsud 2322 days ago
> Not to dismiss your work [...] assuming this is an undergraduate level book in a relatively well-explored field [...] not saying this as a moral condemnation of what you're doing

Why is that your default assumption? Seems very strong when GP gave basically no details.

link
roel_v 2322 days ago
It wasn't the assumption, I was just being extra careful to emphasize that I wasn't saying 'hey dude you're doing it wrong', but was asking about how the OP felt on a topic I had personally experienced (i.e. interests that conflict with the global optimum)
link
Dylan16807 2322 days ago
> Why is that your default assumption?

Because that's probably most textbooks.

Edit: Are people downvoting me because I'm actually wrong about textbooks, or is my answer unsatisfactory somehow?

link