Learn Enough Tutorial Writing to Be Dangerous
summary
Concrete, actionable rules for writing long‑form tutorials: use a process of successive refinement (free association, content throwdown, main exposition, polishing, ship), defer tricky concepts, repeat and spiral examples, and aim for Goldilocks difficulty. Tools and outputs are specific: the Softcover publishing platform with cross‑references and HTML chapter releases, a ~700‑page Rails Tutorial and an ~80‑page Learn Enough command‑line primer, shipped, iterated, and monetized — earning readers’ praise (including a Jimmy Wales mention) and sustainable revenue.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:24Welcome
- 1:12Introduction
- 5:28Baby Anteater
- 6:07General Principles
- 7:07Deferring Material
- 9:09Concrete Examples
- 11:55Repetition
- 14:42Free Association
- 15:15Content Throwdown
- 16:46Cross References
- 18:31Polishing Passes
- 21:06Softcover
- 21:52Break
- 23:46Table of Data
- 28:32Questions
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