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What teaching style do you follow in SurviveJS and what makes it a unique resource for learning webpack and React?
The whole effort was born out of frustration. It started well over year ago when I commented at Christian Alfoni's blog. He wrote a nice post about webpack and I had a few improvements in mind. We realized it would make sense to write a tiny cookbook for webpack/React and go from there.
After a while I proposed the idea to a publisher but they turned us down. As Christian got busy, I decided to start pushing the effort further regardless and here we are. I wrote the full story at Agile Finland blog if you want to dig into the details.
The journey has been far from easy. But the best journeys rarely are. The most amazing thing so far has been how much I can learn from my readers. The process has been full of iteration. The first version of my first book is completely different from the second one (released recently).
I expect the third edition will improve further. I'm currently in the process of splitting it up so that we get two more focused books. So I try to go with the flow and keep on improving both the offering and myself.
I feel this process of iteration and continuous improvement is one of those things that makes SurviveJS unique. The process is open and a significant part of the content is freely available through web. This kind of open/closed model is conducive to collaboration with my readers. The problem is that I'm blind to my own mistakes so it takes feedback to set me right.
When it comes to topics like React and JavaScript, you can never expect things remain the same. In some ways the ecosystem has solidified already, but there are still certain things that are in flux. My challenge is to keep up with this rapid change.
To answer your original question about teaching style, it is good to understand that I have a programming background, not a teaching one. I want to understand the individual parts of a system and how they connect together. I like to split things up and chunk them so they make sense. You can see this in my writing and the way I structure.
Especially early on I was too terse on my explanations. This is something I've been improving on as I've received feedback and a bit of coaching from my editor (thanks Jesús!). When it comes to writing, I want to hit somewhere between terse and explanatory enough.
Perhaps the hardest part about writing is to accept the fact that you cannot please everyone. Some will find your work too easy, some will find it too hard. But I'm not worried about this. I'm very happy to know there are people that have found the effort useful. That's what keeps me going.