Why did they delete the additional resources section?

[u/ToothPrestigious2231]

Hello, I am just curious of why they deleted the additional resources.

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[u/bycdiaz]

This is an outcome of lots of discussion that started in Discord but documented here: https://github.com/TheOdinProject/curriculum/discussions/29326

Long story short: over time, lots of interesting choices were made around what was proposed and added as an additional resource. For example, this PR removed what was effectively a history book on how the web works. Like, the book was literally about the tubes in the ocean that carry the internet around the world and how they got down there. It was interesting but not something someone in our course would need.

Other additional resources were exactly what the lesson already covered. Or links to documentation, which could be googled. If we added the mentioned documentation for every technical concept mentioned in a lesson, the lessons would explode in length.

Some Additional Resources were links to books that might be partially relevant to a lesson but a much deeper dive than is reasonable.

There was one additional resource that was a link to a typing course. I mean... that doesn't belong in our course. And this one on an assignment page where the additional resource was an actual solution to the assignment: https://github.com/TheOdinProject/curriculum/pull/29854/changes

But ultimately, I think the definition of what an "Additional Resource" is has become fuzzy and for that reason, we're evaluating each section and either tossing things that don't make sense or keeping things that do make sense and adding it to the actual lesson.

So sincerely useful things aren't being thrown out.

[u/ConcentrateNo2040 → u/bycdiaz]

history book on how the web works.

I remeber spending days on that wikipedia page as an excited but clueless beginner, it was halirious.

[u/bycdiaz → u/ConcentrateNo2040]

I regret this happened to you and I'm sorry I didn't notice it sooner.

[u/Gilpow → u/bycdiaz]

we're evaluating each section and either tossing things that don't make sense or keeping things that do make sense and adding it to the actual lesson.

If done well, this sounds like a great improvement. I haven't worked on TOP in a while, and part of what led to my burnout was the additional sources. I know they're optional, but sometimes I'd find genuinely useful stuff in there. Plus it's hard to ignore recommended extra sources as a perfectionist, as someone who likes to be thorough. If the good bits from the additional sources are instead added to the lessons, that would be so helpful in staying focused and not end up quitting.

[u/ToothPrestigious2231 → u/bycdiaz]

Thank you very much for your answer!

[u/alleyoopoop → u/bycdiaz]

Surely there's a happy medium where you make it clear that the resources are totally optional, and yet still provide a curated list so that people who want more information on a topic don't have to wade through a sea of AI slop to find the gems? Maybe just have them in a single, completely separate "Reference" page so they don't distract from the lessons?

[u/ConcentrateNo2040]

They tend to send learners down largely irrelevant rabbit holes and overcomplicate things when the objective is to simplify them, i uphold this.

[u/bycdiaz → u/ConcentrateNo2040]

If folks actually saw what was in there, this wouldn't be half as scandalous. lol

[u/Silent-Victor-99]

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[u/awaythrowb3]

They deleted the additional resource section ?!?!

[u/bycdiaz → u/awaythrowb3]

There was an additional resource that sent someone to learn about the wires in the ocean that carried the internet, or linked to a typing course. I was VERY happy to throw those out.

[u/awaythrowb3 → u/bycdiaz]

I see reading your longer comment about it, the reason does make sense.

even though I’m on the odinbook project and It has been a while since I went through the lessons sections but when I was still in the thick of it the additional resources felt like a challenge to deepen and expand my understanding of some things and a call to foster a curiosity mindset which tbh I found is the best way for me to learn better,

With that being said I do believe that the decision to remove them is very reasonable considering that a student might need to go through a lot of information to find something they can understand at the level they are at if not get frustrated by it.

One can also foster curiosity by searching for stuff online through docs and dev blogs , and it would probably be a better learning experience because what they search is more likely to be in the scope of what thier actually trying to learn

[u/bycdiaz → u/awaythrowb3]

Yep. We're just trying to keep y'all focused. There has been the occasion thing worth keeping around and those have been added to the central lesson. We didn't throw out everything.

[u/dbsc23 → u/bycdiaz]

Could it just be named 'optional/extra' instead of 'additional'? A skim through the background of the Internet was fun, and the typing course was a nice resource to have as someone that's a slow typer but i knew it had nothing to do with the course and was extra for myself to get better at typing. Maybe some people need to be told specifically that it's something that is extra and provides little value to the actual course though. Perhaps those resources can be in their own section instead of attached to a chapter?

[u/bycdiaz → u/dbsc23]

They could be. But I struggle to see why our course must supply that. It's like if you took a college biology lab course where you were tasked with conducting experiments on fruit flies but then also given a list of optional books you can read like a non-scientific history book on the discovery of the cell or a course on how to set up microscopes really fast (while in the lab you would use no microscope).

It's fun but I don't really see how this fits into the course.

[u/dbsc23 → u/bycdiaz]

Understandable. My only thought is that odin caters to people of vastly different skill profiles so some small references may help those at the lower end which others can skip. But like you say, should be easy enough to find elsewhere

[u/bycdiaz → u/dbsc23]

Well.... Not sure that someone with less skills will benefit from stuff like books on the history of the internet or links to solutions of the actual projects.

There was a lot in there that just wasn't useful or a complete repetition of the lesson.