grep by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
If you are a programmer, grep becomes a verb: "to grep" means "to search text files", much like "to Google" means "to search random stuff online".
Divergence in Einstein notation by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
First we write a vector field as:
Note how we are denoting each component of as with a raised index.
Then, the divergence can be written in Einstein notation as:
It is common to just omit the variables of the function, so we tend to just say:
or equivalently when referring just to the operator:
Contravariant vector by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Linear algebra bibliography by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Gold by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Gold leaf by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Video 1.
Hands: A Dublin Bookbinder
. Source. Some awesome gold leaf action!
One year update by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
One problem popped up about one year after having bought the blinds in 2019: the blind won't stay still except at the most closed position. Anywhere above it started to slowly go up by itself.
It is not super serious as it covers the two main use cases: full closed and fully open, but it is a bit worrying.
Also, we've had some mold grow on the window, so it is something to look out for, and add some mold spray as it comes up. The fact that the window is dark makes the mold harder to spot.
Publish somewhere people can comment by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Then, if people find errors, or have questions, they will write a comment near the content itself.
Then, next person that comes along and has the same problem, will also find that comment, and your answer will solve their problems too.
The perfect way to do this is to use GitHub issues
Text is cheaper than video by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Text materials are generally superior to video because they:
  • are faster to create and edit
  • uses less disk space and network bandwidth
  • is easier to search: Ctrl + F on the browser and off you go. And then grep if you have superpowers.
Only produce video material if:
  • it shows an experiment, physical technique, natural phenomena or location that is of interest. See also: Section "Videos of all key physics experiments"
  • it gives fundamental geometric insight on the subject
  • you are filming a human transmitting their passion about the subject, and the speaker is amazing, and does not speak for too long
Never create videos of people just speaking hardcore content for long amounts of time.
If you have to use videos, make them as short as possible, and index them with a textual table of contents.
Also consider using sequences of images or GIFs instead of videos, since those are cheaper.
Figure 1.
Textbooks Y U NO HAVE CTRL-F meme
. Source. Same applies to videos.
Version your material by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Whenever you make a change to your material, people should still be able to access the previous version.
Maybe there was something in the previous version that they needed, and you just removed.
Git + GitHub is the perfect way to do versioning.

Pinned article: ourbigbook/introduction-to-the-ourbigbook-project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Video 1.
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source.
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
    Video 2.
    OurBigBook Web topics demo
    . Source.
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    • to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
    • as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
    Video 4.
    OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo
    . Source.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact