Why Every Tutorial Is Bad. - Tutorial Maker's Tutorial
Published: 2020-04-05 10:40:50

Every tutorial, book on how to do things, and even example scripts to learn a new language, are just plain bad. Like, REALLY bad. I recently came to see the *exact issues why* as when I had to look up 100 different things to do the things I needed to do. **To my dismay, every single tutorial I found was just plain** ***garbage***. So let me explain
1. Why they are bad
  - Too Long
  - Too Short
  - Too Simple
  - Too Complex
2. How to fix them.

Everything in here is opinionated. About as opinionated as a Libertarian twitter account, trust me *I am a Libertarian.* ***We are overly opinionated***. That convo can be held on a highly opinionated Twitter post but for now: TUTORIALS.

# Why Tutorials are BAD.

## Too LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

You might think the amount of G's I put there is too many to explain the length of tutorials. *no. it is small*. So this is the FIRST problem and probably the most common form. The simplest tasks need at least 7 paragraphs of explanation as to why someone would do this, and 12 more to explain the specific parts. Think I am exaggerating? Go and read ANY Canonical (Ubuntu people) made tutorials, and you will be bored and confused in minutes.

Everything in these tutorials is so long, and when you are looking for the pure basics of "How would I start doing this?" it just makes everything a nightmare.

Another prime example of length is the OSDevWiki. I am sure OS dev for idiots like me is easy if you don't write 2,028 paragraphs dedicated to the simplest items. This grinds my gears, but not as much as the other problem.

## Too ₛₕₒᵣ
Yeah, everything is wrong with these. I'd much rather have a complicated boring book to read than a tutorial that doesn't explain anything and doesn't have fixes. It is the difference between LFS and ExampleFakeLFSBookAlt.

LFS explains everything to the exact atom, EFLFSBA says "Grab the Linux kernel, compile it, add required root folder setup, add software, boom you made Linux OS". Like the "add required root folder setup", unless you do this stuff daily, NONE OF THIS makes sense. "What do you mean root folder setup?", "Why is it required?", "How am I supposed to do it?", "Who says this? WHY?".

With things being too short, these tutorials are often too simple. But even long tutorials are too simple.

## Too Simple
These tutorials explain things like I explain professions. Surgeon: "Cuts the thing, fixes or replaces thing, un-do cuts after".

Now I am not saying explain it like you would explain plugging in a mouse on a resume: "I combined a universal serial port device, of which enables for operations to be done on a machine including a graphical environment in which to allow a user to use what is known as 'indicator-based' procedures managed by additional features allowed by the graphical environment - notably icons that allow access of other graphical applications - to a separate machine with input access to the port, from which runs the graphical environment"

Again, don't be like OSDevWiki. I am pretty good at the things I need to be, and who cares if I have an IQ of 7.12? Back on topic.

It is not like "Plugin the mouse to a USB port", while yes that is a little simple, it is understandable. These tutorials do more of a "Put the thingy on the mouse into the other thingy". It is longer, BUT IT IS SO SIMPLE no one can understand it. Don't do this.

## Too complex
BIG WORDS that have no meaning to me, unexplained and I am left to google a new thing every 5 words.

To explain this, let's create a new type of science that isn't real. Here, let me explain what you need to know:

"In this, we will get the gviuru effect. To calculate, we need to use the mastoidrua equations of manxiz. These were first conceptualized in 1812. Now to calculate, you need to know the 'exuboraturoanariam' effect. With that out of the way, we need to..."

Even I got confused writing this, AND I MADE UP WORDS. Anyways this was inspired by a physics book I read once and the OSDevWiki.

# How to fix this
Make sense of the subject with reasonable lengths, hyperlinks, and footnotes. Don't take inspiration from the OSDevWiki for tutorials.


I feel like this was more of an OSDevWiki rant, but I haven't been there in a long time.