Frequently Asked Questions
Vision Statement
To create a one stop place to learn, from theory to practice in a pragmatic way, driven by the community for the community itself.
Who we are?
We are engineers, now in industry and realizing that everything is connected. If we cannot see the obvious, it is our ignorance, not that the truth was non-existent before. But the way education is being imparted, at least in many corners of where we come from, the masters are as ignorant as their pupils and do not provide enough intellectual stimulation, which makes learning at this stage not just onerous and burdensome, but also creates a pressure of learning it on our own. Unaided discovery, though the most profound and fulfilling of all experiences, is painfully slow and we’d like to help you find the right content, and the peers with whose help, you will arrive at it faster. Just like our coding principles, we believe in ‘DRY’ – Don’t Repeat Yourself.
Why the name ‘Pirate Learner’?
Because today we’re living in the world where education has become institutionalized, and everyone, sooner or later makes it a profit making machinery, with profit driving the central philosophy. We brand ourselves as pirates, who are learner at hearts and would go to any extent to clinch that panacea of educating anyone who wants to be educated with the least of trouble in terms of resources – tangible as well as intangible. Profits? Yes, we’d love to, but one ideal is ingrained in our heads – it will never be at the cost of inconvenience of the people we wish to serve, you. This place will always be open, and clutter free. If it gets cluttered, let us know, we’ll clean it up again.
What we’re trying to do?
Create a portal
keyboard_arrow_downA community, as the center stone of our entire project, is what we intend to create. An organic community where each one benefits from the experiences of the other. You might ask that we have Google for that, but internet is so full of information, right and wrong, that it is hard to tell and even harder to find everything that clicks. The moderators, and the ranking system will ensure that only the most useful content is presented to you first. If you find another way, write it for the others. Our editors will constantly be updating the main content from the tid-bits of wisdom from each pearl and stringing a beautiful necklace. Structuring is a problem in information, and it is hard to tell what to start from and where. We’ve, for our reference, taken our course curriculum and a uniform book structure, and would proceed in that way. By doing this, we’ve effectively overcome the initial hurdle of finding the right sequence. But what extra we’ve done is to establish links, to explain why it is that particular order, other than of providing ease of direction. Each post would be self-contained but short, so that it can be completed in a relatively short time, and much ease. Further, we’ll be taking help from our textbooks, the good books out of the swarm that we’ve sifted in our days and continue to do so even after in industry – because there are only a few good books out there. And we’ll quote them heavily and discuss what it implies, so we’ll be a companion of sorts to those books. We understand that reading can be a burdensome task, and we are sometimes too diffuse in establishing an analogy. We hope to bridge this gap by providing interactive videos, images and simulations.
Open Source
keyboard_arrow_downThere are mainly two kinds of creating value. One, create it and give it to the community without charge, the other is to create value, package it well so the inner workings are hidden, and charge the people for the service. While the latter works, but its value might be short-lived; the scope of things is controlled by the vision of a select few which is good, and bad. The open source way gives back to the community, in hope that if it is useful, people will take it, and make it more useful. Thus the open-source way is much like our human communities where each one takes care of each one by doing what one is capable of. However, we cannot allow a fully open community either, since, out of much reflection and analysis of world histories, we’ve found that too much distribution is most certainly harmful. It is like the closed feedback loop in a system which must keep the system in check lest it may become unstable. So, how do we ensure that the feedback loop does not become faulty itself? By refreshing it often. From time to time, this feedback loop must be checked for wear and tear and our assumptions must be challenged. Thus, a smaller pool of moderators draws its resources from the large pool of community and keeps doing it from time to time, by random selection or unanimity based on the sole metric of “using one’s own head”. It will be a Darwinian approach, survival of the fittest, in straight terms. But we hope that it is the community that survives.
On advertisements
keyboard_arrow_downWe believe that there are empty walls, and because of them there are advertisements. Walls musn’t be created for the sole purpose of putting up advertisements. So, for a major part of this project, it will remain add free, clutter free. Where will advertisements come in? We believe we are making an educational project, but social networking is a form of recreation too. So, expect a few billboards on the social sides of this project. There will be no advertisements on pages of educational significance, and everything that can clutter up or distract will also be absent from those pages. We’ll help you to put your undivided attention on the content when you make up your mind to read it.
On culture
keyboard_arrow_downEven though it will be a community, treating each individual as an individual, is our idea. A sense of space, and full control over it, a private area to keep your notes, a balcony to get an overview of the public area, and an open space to share and grow.
On core competency
keyboard_arrow_downWe expect ourselves to be community driven, and community maintained. This means that we’ll be open to all sorts of social experiments, should someone want to conduct one. It will be an organized buffet of ideas and information, and participation from all and sundry is solicited. Our core competency shall be, to be as accessible to the community as fresh water.
On finances and resources
keyboard_arrow_downRight now, we’re few, and we’re employed. So, we give less time but manage it in one way or the other. But we expect to grow, and with that, we expect to help others grow too. So, in terms of resources, we’ll always be looking for talent – coders, designer, hobbyists, and writers. About money? We haven’t figured that out yet, but we wish to do it in a non-invasive manner. ‘No gimmicks, no cheating’ is our Zen. Pirates are not cheaters, they’re quite honest to their trade and so are we.
What’s in for you?
We intend to promote lifelong learning and mentorship. We believe that the true hallmark of an expert is that he not only understands it fully, but can explain it in so simple terms that even the uninitiated layperson gets the hang of it and arouses inquisition for them to venture into the field. If that kind of pursuit of excellence doesn’t stir you, I am afraid there isn’t much we can do. Other than that, since we’re open and open-source, and always want to be, we’re open to new and innovative augments into the community – Coding, design, experiments, projects, collaboration and what not. We promise, that if you show diligence and promise, we will go the extra mile to make you feel good and appreciated, not just in the virtual, but in the real life too.
So, if you feel like contributing, feel free to drop in an email. If you'd like to see our source code and create something better, here is the link to our github repositiories.
What we really want?
To work from anywhere and anytime. Lots of vacations knowing that there is someone trustworthy who’ll carry the torch forward with or without us, particularly without us. To have lots of fun, and to allow everyone who connects with us have lots of fun.