Before googling for something you need to actually realise first that there's something that you don't know, but could.

Lots of useful things don't fit that pattern.

To take one example from here, I use 'pry' regularly, but before reading https://github.com/jbranchaud/til/blob/master/ruby/editing-c..., I didn't even think to wonder whether there was a way to fire up an editor from within it. It's not something I've ever actively needed, but it's a very useful shortcut now that I know about it.

1. Usually you need to look through multiple posts to find your answer. It's still quick, but remembering you wrote up about it before and searching for it and seeing your more precise note about it is faster.

2. I've been using mine to also keep track of tools I encounter but don't have time to investigate, or for hotkeys or features in specific applications that I didn't realize were there before. I just took a quick glance at my old notes and was reminded about a feature in XCode that I had completely forgotten about since I wrote the note.

3. It's great for a refresher before diving back into a language you've had on the backburner for awhile, and/or before going in for interviews where you know you're going to be quizzed on random knowledge from past languages you've used before but maybe not recently.

I think the added value in this is that by doing it then you can get back to the learning process going on in your brain at the time you wrote about it and this could resonate with many other stored but half-forgotten memories (for example that project that you were working on when you wrote that note, bringing in additional information).

Moreover, nothing is more useful to the understanding of a subject than trying to explain it to someone else, including your future self (you can only say to have fully understand Relativity when you are able to explain it your grandparents? :) ) That's why I guess it's being seen as a good thing.

Sometimes it takes quite a bit of effort to get the results you need.

For example when you search for something specific that uses very common words. I'm not great at searching either, often I have to read through lots of results to get the answer I'm looking for.

Having a personal repository of curated results seems like a good resource to have.

I assume the value comes from the act of recording your learnings over sharing or later reading them.

You sparked an idea for myself though! Don't gmail results now show up in Google search results?

I can email myself my TIL findings and they will show up at the top (hopefully) the next time I google the same problem. Experiment time!

You google for them, then you rephrase to be concise to what you wanted, and in doing so help commit them to memory, and commit them into a publicly visible resource -- where somebody else might find them by googling.

It's not REALLY useful, but at the same time it's really useful.

google does not create content from thin air, someone has to write it down first. this is it. maybe it will become google's first result?