---
title: The value of content creation
author: Issa Rice
created: 2014-12-18
date: 2014-12-18
status: draft
---

Here we consider how much impact writing online can make on the world.

# Value for the creator

Easily-accessible online content can be useful for oneself; Terence Tao [says](http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/write-down-what-youve-done/):

> There were many occasions early in my career when I read, heard
> about, or stumbled upon some neat mathematical trick or argument,
> and thought I understood it well enough that I didn’t need to
> write it down; and then, say six months later, when I actually
> needed to recall that trick, I couldn’t reconstruct it at all.
> Eventually I resolved to write down (preferably on a computer) a
> sketch of any interesting argument I came across – not necessarily
> at a publication level of quality, but detailed enough that I
> could then safely forget about the details, and readily recover
> the argument from the sketch whenever the need arises.

Within mathematics, [Terence Tao argues](http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/make-your-work-available/) that sharing online helps with networking:

> In particular, your work will show up in search engine queries in
> your topic (I have come across many an interesting paper this
> way). This will help spread awareness of you and your work among
> your colleagues, and hopefully lead to future collaborations, or
> other people building upon (and citing) your papers.

# Value for the world

Vipul Naik [asks](https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10202840266223633) whether there is low-hanging fruit for encouraging young people to work on side projects, including web content creation:

> Do you think there's a lot of low-hanging fruit that can be plucked by
> encouraging more young people to do side projects (particularly things
> that benefit from scale, such as websites or apps)? What are some
> pieces of advice you would offer to young people to help them choose
> side projects that are doable and impactful personally (learning,
> consumption, and signaling) and socially?

Vipul Naik also [asks](https://www.facebook.com/vipulnaik.r/posts/10202884940740468) whether academic research or blogging produces more social value.
Brian Tomasik has his take on the issue in [Is It Better to Blog or Formally Publish? | Essays on Reducing Suffering](http://reducing-suffering.org/is-it-better-to-blog-or-formally-publish/).

See also Robert Winslow's answer to the Quora question "[What do effective altruists think of online content creation?](https://www.quora.com/What-do-effective-altruists-think-of-online-content-creation)", which begins:

> I doubt that anyone except the most high-profile content creators
> could generate more good from content creation than they could from
> spending that time on a high-impact career, but spending your leisure
> time on valuable content creation seems like an okay idea, especially
> if you can provide a unique contribution with your content.

See [What's the relative social value of 1 Quora pageview (as measured by Quora stats http://www.quora.com/stats) and 1 Wikipedia pageview (as measured at, say, Wikipedia article traffic statistics)?](https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-relative-social-value-of-1-Quora-pageview-as-measured-by-Quora-stats-http-www-quora-com-stats-and-1-Wikipedia-pageview-as-measured-at-say-Wikipedia-article-traffic-statistics) for a comparison of Quora and Wikipedia.