Teaching

I've just been reading about the power of teaching on Hacker News.  Here are some of the insights collected:

1. At the minimum, teaching means double processing: once to take it in, and once to bring it back out.
2. However, the act of bringing it back out generally requires some internal ordering or structuring which also helps with the learning process.

While the above points may apply to self-teaching, other benefits accrue when you commit to a real group of learners.

3. Promising to teach a group a particular topic at a later date can add urgency to your decision to learn about it.
4. If you record your teaching efforts in a discoverable way (on Stack Overflow, on a blog, in a book, on Youtube, in a lecture series) you can become a known expert on your topic.
5. By engaging learners of a particular topic, you learn what the common problems are.  This can make your teaching materials more valuable.  It also works well as market research if you want to create a product.
6. By teaching consistently over time, you can build an audience who appreciates you and takes time to hear what you write.  
7. Teaching a concept to many different people will encourage you to learn to explain the concept in many different ways, which will allow you to understand that concept more deeply.
8. Teaching other people, like helping other people in any way, can be extremely rewarding.

I'd like to look for an opportunity to do this in practice.