Monoid MaryApr 30, 2017
Chris Martin

Finally starting to notice this striking inverse correlation between
- whether something is confusing
- whether you've read a book about it

This "google things as you need them" habit, I think, It's actually pretty bad

Somehow I taught myself this helplessness. Struggle over years. Feel like I'll never get it.

Have you read a book about it?

Well, no

Apr 30, 2017 at 10:40pmWeb
Show threadGinBaby ❣Apr 30, 2017
@chris_martin yeh you were just tellin me this about my struggles with CSS babe, remember? i need a CSS book. i ain't touchin CSS again until i have read a CSS book. not for you, not for no one. <3
Show threadChris MartinApr 30, 2017
@GinBaby Yeah I had that example in mind. Watching you do that with CSS is largely what made me realize I've been doing it with so many things.
Show threadneville park ❎Apr 30, 2017
@chris_martin vaguely related: the phenomenon of someone who seems really smart about everything, except the particular fields you know about, and then you're like 🤔
Show threadNate Cull (.social)Apr 30, 2017
@chris_martin Lord love the Wikipedia maths page editors, but they do NOT have a clue how to TEACH maths concepts.
Show threadChris MartinMay 1, 2017
@natecull Math on Wikipedia seems like an impossible task. The encyclopedia concept is comprehensible self-contained articles. With the tree of learning for math and some other disciplines... I just don't know how you can ever decide what level any given math article should be written at.
Show threadGinBaby ❣May 1, 2017
@natecull @chris_martin that's why I always feel super ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED when I understand a Wikipedia math article. it means I now understand a lot of background stuff I didn't before. I'm climbing that fuckin tree, if it kills me. :P
Show threadNicholas BundyMay 1, 2017
@chris_martin @natecull the only hints I can discern at to what "level" something should be written at are the "English" and "Simple English" language options.
Show threadjamesMay 1, 2017
@chris_martin corollary: The phrase "those who can't do, teach" has a double meaning of teaching in order to learn doing.
Show threadBen-jammin to the BeatzMay 1, 2017
@chris_martin at least in our industry, the way things are structured prevent it. e.g.: "here's a ticket that involved topic X, which you don't know" "okay, I'm going to take the next two weeks to learn about X" "no, you're going to google just enough to fix the ticket"
Show threadGary FixlerMay 1, 2017
@chris_martin Been having similar feelings for a while. Starting to read proper things, finally.
Show threadthe sunshine girl is sleepingMay 1, 2017
@chris_martin this *does* explain a lot
Show threadnydelMay 12, 2017
@chris_martin i've never read a book about commonlisp and i know that! as i was typing that sentence i realized i've read almost every single book in circulation on the subject but just kinda took it for granted somehow & it suddenly makes sense that very few of my more complicated ksh scripts work very well.