Repetition and Attribution

Published on:

November 17, 2024

Categories:

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Peppermint Tea

Introduction

Today, I want to talk about two things, in the context of writing articles and sharing knowledge in general. One of them we don’t need to be afraid of, and another we need to do as often as possible.

The first one is repetition. The second one — attribution. It could seem like an odd pair, but I’ll try to explain how they are connected.

Repetition

We should not be afraid to repeat others and ourselves. When thinking about an idea for a blog post, article, talk, or anything else, often a stray thought can appear: what if someone did this already — and did this better, so why bother?

This is the wrong way to think about ideas and knowledge. A question like this can have two answers:

1. “No, no one did write about it.” If you can verify it, this is a great answer! But a boring one. Well, in the context of this article: if you know that what you’re going to share is novel, there should not be any hesitation. Go ahead and do it!

2. “Yes, someone did already share it.” Ok, but that does not mean that it should stop there. This is a much more interesting position to be, and a big part of what I want to talk about.

Unknowingly Repeating

It might happen that you could not find prior art and decided to share something. It is totally fine if you discover later that someone did do the same thing! “Multiple discovery” is possible, and even if someone did come up with the same concept before, it is rarely expressed in the same way. Everyone is different, and you’ll likely still contribute something.

Take the “space toggles” as an example. Multiple people discovered them at different times, and shared them in one way or another. I compiled a timeline of this in the “Was This Always Possible?” section of my “Cyclic Dependency Space Toggles” article.

Don’t be afraid to publish something just because you’re afraid that someone in the past already did so.

If they did — and you will later get to know about it — you can always, you know, attribute them, and then spend some time looking at what they did, and how it is different from your perspective.

It is always fun to look at these differences, and look at the same thing from others’ perspective. Often, an unexpected angle could bring a new insight.

Continuing the Work

Occasionally, you can get this insight based on others’ work and don’t think much of it. You can read someone’s article, see a small potential for improvement, and think that this is too small of a thing to share.

But there is no such thing as a “too small to share”. At the minimum, you can share it on your social network. Or — explore the idea further. If the author missed this small part, what else could there be? What if you played with their code more, tried to understand it, and maybe integrated it into your work?

All of this could lead to more discoveries or new use cases. Often, some articles can be too theoretical, with not many practical examples. It can explain why some techniques work, but not go into details of when they can be applied, or how they can fit into your workflow. By exploring it, you can, at least, share it as a case study. Or you will eventually discover something more interesting!

Many discoveries have others’ work at their foundation. You don’t have to be that foundation, but you can use it to build something new on top of it.

Rephrasing

Even if you don’t have anything new at all to say, rephrasing the common knowledge can be really useful!

A radical example is a translation: the same meaning is made accessible for a bigger slice of the world population.

But even without translation, there are multiple ways we can repeat something. Everyone is different and has various mental models of the world, and ways they like to consume information.

Your sources can be too technical or too dry, but you can always reword things, presenting them in a way you like to receive them. Take some CSS specs or an MDN article, and try to think how you would describe it to your friend. Which examples could you make? What specific parts talk to you more than others?

You can focus on one aspect, and dig deeper into it, or you can do the opposite and generalize the text by giving an overview.

Just Sharing

Even if you don’t introduce much new, in today’s work with the constant flood of information, a repetition can bring something to someone’s attention that they could’ve missed otherwise.

You can just share that you’ve learned something, and describe it in a few words. For example, you could stumble upon a CSS feature from recent years that you somehow missed. You know what? Others could’ve missed it too! If you write about it — even without adding much new — someone else will now stumble upon it too.

Attribution

I hope it is obvious to you, but let me be explicit here: when doing all of the above — reading others’ works, sharing what we learned, and building on top of it — we must attribute our sources.

In today’s world, where information is so often processed through a grinder into a uniform soulless mess, attributing the sources is something that could make your work stand out.

When you mention another person, you create a connection. Hyperlinks — they’re cool. They provide context, they allow others to read the same thing you read, and they allow others to discover something new.

If you share some links, don’t do it blindly: find out who the author is. Do they have a personal website? Do they have a Mastodon account? What else do they write about? Can you subscribe to their RSS feed?

You have the power to bring attention to others — use it. Now that you know someone by their work, you can elevate them, and multiply the force they put into their work by sharing it with attribution.

If someone did write something, they might have had doubts and anxieties about whether it was worth it, whether their work was novel, and whether anyone was interested in it. When sharing a work with an attribution, you’re not just sharing a link; you point at someone and say, “Look at how this person did a cool thing!”.

I can assure you, that brings joy, and I wish I saw others do this more. I think we’ve gotten much better at it in the last few years.

Final Words

Do not be afraid to share what you learned. Use others’ works as an inspiration, and give it back by attributing them properly. If you missed something — you can always edit it later. If someone reminds you about it or shares a link to a similar thing — thank them, attribute it, and consider that you’re in such good company. Others are interested in the same thing that you are!