---
title: "Filling in the gaps of the internet"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2025/03/filling-in-the-gaps-of-the-internet/
last_updated: 2025-03-14
---


[Filling in the gaps of the internet](https://evanhahn.com/filling-in-the-gaps-of-the-internet/) by Evan Hahn:

> Here's a small philosophy I have about the internet:
>
> I believe that it's my duty to publish the answer to previously-unanswered
> questions. That way, the next person who comes along has an easier time.

Hell yes!

> For example, I was once trying to figure out how to skip the first line of a
> CSV file in Python. When I did a web search for "python skip first line of
> CSV", I couldn't find the answer.
>
> After a few minutes, I figured it out myself. Then, I wrote a [quick blog
> post](https://evanhahn.com/python-skip-header-csv-reader/) explaining my
> solution…and now it's one of the most popular posts on my site! Even though
> the post only took a few minutes to write, it's been one of my most viewed
> over the last decade, (presumably) because so many people are trying to do the
> exact same thing.

[Hell yes!]({{< ref "2025-02-17-crawling-indexing-is-wild" >}})

> Of course, this is a guideline, not a rule. Sometimes I don't feel very
> confident in my answer and don't want to publish bogus information. Sometimes
> I'm busy and don't have time for a writeup, especially for more complex stuff.
> And sometimes, nobody cares—how to compute a CRC32 checksum in Crystal has not
> been a big hit; I might have wasted my time with that one.

And fair enough.

Time is limited, after all.