Because I’m interested in things that tend to be idiosyncratic (workflows, customizations, etc.), I have a hard time making clear recommendations or putting tips into logical order. That’s probably why I do a lot more “thinking out loud”-type posts instead. I can experiment with identifying who might find a tip useful, extract the tips from my thinking-out-loud explorations, and gradually build up sets of related tips that way.

2015-01-16 Hmm – not guides but explorations – index card #sharing #packaging

I did actually manage to put together one guide (How to Read Lisp and Tweak Emacs) and half of another A Baby Steps Guide to Managing Your Tasks With Org. The sketches for How to Learn Emacs and Tips for Learning Org Mode are high-level guides, too.

I’ve been going back to the basics, working on developing even better Emacs microhabits. I’ve focused on two so far: abbreviating text and switching windows.I think there’s plenty of space to improve even in terms of taking advantage of what’s already out there (with minimal configuration along the lines of setting variables and keyboard shortcuts). And then there are even bigger opportunities to improve through customization and Emacs Lisp.

I’ve mentioned coaching a few times. Bastien Guerry and a few other folks offer coaching as a service. Me, I’m not particularly familiar with the kinds of issues people run into or are curious about (ex: Mac OS X, programming mode setup). I’m mostly curious about workflow, and I’m happy to talk to people about that. It could be a good source of ideas for blog posts.

2015-01-08 Imagining coaching or guiding others – index card

When I ran my Google Helpouts experiments, I turned many of those tips into blog posts. I think that would be even more effective if people wrote up those tips themselves (it’ll reinforce their learning and it will bring them into the community), so I’ve been playing with the idea of strongly encouraging or even requiring write-ups.

2015-01-15 What if I required people to pay it forward – #workingoutloud #sharing #teaching

Unrealistic, but one can dream. Or one can focus on helping people who are already sharing their questions and ideas in blog posts or discussion forums, so that’s another approach. There’s no shortage of questions, that’s for sure.

I like Emacs Hangouts more than one-on-one coaching. Hangouts are public and recorded automatically, so people can learn from them even if no one has posted notes. It’s shaping up to be a wonderful peer-coaching sort of thing, which is good because I don’t have to be so worried about not being able to help at all. I wonder what this would be like with a bit of a mastermind group structure; maybe we each pick a microhabit or idea to work on for the month (or for two weeks), we help each other out, and then we report back at the next one. That way, there’s casual conversation and discovery, but there’s also purpose and motivation.

2015-01-08 Imagining Emacs hangouts – index card

2015-01-16 Emacs community – index card #emacs

Evil-mode users are a growing part of the Emacs community. Maybe I should try it out to get a better sense of what the experience is like for people who are coming into Emacs via evil-mode. Besides, composability might be an interesting mental tool to add to my toolkit.

2015-01-18 Thinking about evil-mode and Emacs – index card #emacs

Maybe I can get better at helping the Emacs community by:

• Focusing on those micro-habits and sharing what I learn (good for helping intermediate users develop a better appreciation of Emacs)
• Playing with more workflow improvements and sharing them
• Writing about how to tinker with popular packages like Org
• Reaching out through blog comments and Emacs Hangouts to help people learn (in a publicly recorded way)
• Bringing out what people know through Emacs Hangouts and Emacs Chats (especially if people know cool things but haven’t gotten around to writing about them)

Helping me get better at helping the Emacs community (my selfish reason: so that I learn more from people) can also support your evil plans (your selfish reason: so that you can learn more from me and from other people). Any suggestions? Tell me what I’m doing right and should do more of / better at, or tell me about somewhat adjacent things that are easy to do – low-hanging fruit! =)