After a decade in graduate school, I started my career as a web engineer in 2023. That's when I discovered the Today-I-Learned (TIL) culture, a practice that has become increasingly popular among developers.
The Origins of TIL
The TIL concept originated around 2008 when a user created the "today-i-learned" subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/). From there, it evolved into a habit among engineers to create GitHub repositories named "til" to record daily learnings in Markdown format. The jbranchaud/til repository played a significant role in popularizing this trend.
According to the Reddit TIL topic description:
TIL does not aim for in-depth and serious discussion about a subject, but rather is more interested in a pop-knowledge overview of some minutiae of a field.
In essence, TIL is about jotting down small, interesting facts you've learned each day. For engineers constantly trying to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies, this habit became particularly relevant.
The Birth of an Idea
As I began recording my daily learnings in my company reports, two thoughts occurred to me:
- Lately, I've been solving problems by querying Large Language Models (LLMs) rather than using search engines.
- Could we automatically generate TILs from LLM query histories?
The most challenging aspect of TIL is articulating what you've learned, which requires metacognition and objectivity. I wondered if AI could help with this process, which led me to create a web application.
Introducing the TIL App
I'm excited to present Today-I-Learned.app, a web application with three key features:
- LLM querying functionality
- Automatic generation of learnings
- A dashboard for reflection
The dashboard feature was inspired by my previous research in Learning Analytics, where I developed similar tools. (You can find some of my research here.)
I've created a YouTube video demonstrating the main features of the app.
Open Source and Tech Stack
The app is open-source, and you're welcome to host it yourself if you prefer to store your own data. You can find the source code on GitHub.
The tech stack includes:
- Framework: Next.js
- Authentication: Firebase Authentication
- Database: Firebase Firestore
TIL and Zen Philosophy
While TIL originated in the US, I find it reminiscent of Zen philosophy. TIL doesn't require past academic achievements or grand future study plans. It's about focusing entirely on the present moment, which aligns with core Zen values.
The beauty of TIL lies in its accessibility. All you need is a desire to learn, and you can start immediately.
I hope you'll give the app a try and embrace the TIL mindset. Happy learning!
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