how to write computer books

"View source" learning

Here’s how most of you learned HTML back in the days of Web 1.0:

1. Surfed the web and saw things you liked
2. Hit “viewed source” to figure out how it was done
3. Experimented to see what else you could do
4. Used those techniques in your own pages

This is how nature teaches us to learn. You see something you want to do, you figure out how to do it, then you play around to figure what else you can do with that new knowledge. And then you put that knowledge into action.

Authors, don’t fight nature. Teach like this:

1. Show the reader how to do something that they will want to learn (“Time for Action”)
2. Show them how to do it, and help them understand how it works (“What just Happened?”)
3. Give them information to help them experiment, get results…
4. … and build their own cool stuff

And then start the cycle again. Work with the natural process — but use your knowledge of the topic to guide them so there’s more learning for less “trial and error”.