Why I'm comfortable publishing foolishness
And so it goes, I publish an article, it gains some traction, and I find myself making edit after edit to please the angry internet mob.
And sometimes I dabble where I "shouldn't", like trying to determine the world's most efficient language - over a weekend and without any formal knowledge of linguistics.
My ventures into uncharted territory sometimes go well, and other times poorly. But the thing I always take away from it is a lot of fresh knowledge.
You see, I cannot just read a book to learn something. I must get my hands dirty, play around, formulate hypotheses, and challenge my own assumptions.
Thus, when I write about an unfamiliar topic, I'm putting my assumptions to the test - both during the writing process, when I'm forced to learn more, and after publishing, when others inevitably teach me more about it.
So when the comments pour in, I attain a lot of knowledge that's more likely to stick. My claims are debated and assumptions checked, and I come out of the endeavor with a greater understanding of a topic that I was interested in.
