why do you share information?

A co-worker said:

.. and I could not think of any reason why I would want to give free information to the anonymous general public.

I was kind of floored/surprised by this statement. So I blogged my response freely to the anonymous general public

.

Almost everything I wrote applies equally to CodeRanch and blogging. I'm curious what else people here can think of as an advantage of information sharing.

I'm not going to tell you.

Why wouldn't I share information with the general public? That's the question to be answered, in my opinion.

1. I hope it can help somebody else
2. It also serves me as a memo, which I can go back to later
3. I may be misunderstanding something and somebody will point it out. Or there may be a better/easier way to achieve something and somebody will point it out.

Because I'm a snitch.

1. It would help me to learn better as I would take sometime to understand things better before sharing it
2. It will be like recording it some where so that I can go back and refer it when I want.
3. And also helps me to correct my understanding when readers leave comments to the articles.

One thing I would like to say is- if I don't share information, there would be hundreds of others who would. :-)

To me, not sharing is selfish. My mom didn't bring me up to be selfish.

Sharing information, research, et cetera is like a way to form bonds with other people. You share stuff with them, they share with you... eventually everyone is getting along like [well behaved] kids in a schoolyard.

That's the only way people truly learn is through other people... and in exchange for the stuff you share, folks share their stuff with you.

The bottom line is, everyone wins.

P.S. Love the blog post!

Paul Clapham wrote:Why wouldn't I share information with the general public?

Because you might end up with the Swedish police trying to extradite you on rape charges.

The best way to make sure you understand something it to try and teach it to someone else. it forces you to really THINK about the issue. If you can't explain it to someone else, you don't really understand it yourself.

second, I get a little 'high' out of telling someone else something they don't know. When I taught middle school math, seeing the light-bulb go on over a kids head was AWESOME. Granted, you don't see that most of the time in a blog post, but every once in a while you get a "Boy, that was a GREAT explanation. Now I get it" feedback, which makes it worthwhile.

third, think of it as professional defense. It is possible that a year or eight from now, I'll have to work with someone who read my post. If they learn something, now, the won't make that mistake in the future, and I won't have to fix the bugs in their code.

To answer this question I heartily recommend reading Pragmatic Programmer "The Passionate Programmer".

All good answers.

Bear: LOL.

Janeice: Thanks! And I like the selfish angle.

Are we not "selfish" by sharing information and expecting something in return pleasure, satisfaction, etc.?

To annoy my manager! Out of general protest against that everything should be paid and calculated and quantified in money! Because I am a rebel!

Also because I asked a lot of stuff from other programmers when I was newbie in a subject, hence to give back to 'the community'.

Free?

Money is an abstract concept, and only has value because we believe in it. When we exchange information, we are simply using a different currency -- one that has (perhaps) even more intrinsic value.

Me... I'm paid in poetry.

Poetry used as pay,
is not worth my time, I say.
But to someone who treasures the iambic,
verse as currency is slick.

marc weber wrote:
Me... I'm paid in poetry.

You made me think of a commercial....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tviPLpD8VG8

marc weber wrote:Free?

Money is an abstract concept, and only has value because we believe in it. When we exchange information, we are simply using a different currency -- one that has (perhaps) even more intrinsic value.

Good answer!

Bear Bibeault wrote:But to someone who treasures the iambic

I prefer the alembic.