[erlang-questions] Erlang and the learning curve

[Ryan Zezeski]

You're correct, the two ideas are different.  I just tend to think of them
both at the same time.  My point was that practice (even if it's typing out
something verbatim) is probably, pound for pound, the best way to learn.
 Furthermore, practice includes trying different things, even if they don't
initially make sense because by doing that you find out what works and what
doesn't.  This means that you're going to fail, a lot.  But with each
failure you gain knowledge and insight.  That's all I was trying to convey.
 That and the fact that you shouldn't expect to learn something in a few
weeks, or even months with any great depth.

As for the citation, it comes straight from the horse's mouth in the
documentary "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775438/

-Ryan


On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:17 PM, Toby Thain <toby@REDACTED>wrote:

> On 11-01-15 12:40 AM, Ryan Zezeski wrote:
> > Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Years! (or the next ones free)
> >
> > http://norvig.com/21-days.html
> >
> > Neat side story...For those of you who know the name Hunter S. Thompson
> you
> > might be interested to know the he learned to write by typing out
> Hemingway
> > word for word, letter for letter.
>
> Do you have a citation for that? Curious if true, but...
>
> I've used that fact as a reminder that
> > the act of doing is the best teacher.  If you're not failing everyday,
> then
> > you're not trying hard enough.
>
> ...how can one "fail" at typing out Hemingway letter by letter, apart
> from occasionally fat fingering a key?
>
> I think one probably _can_ learn a lot about writing by thoughtfully
> copying out good writing. But there seems to be no "fail-retry-learn"
> loop in it. That comes when one tries WRITING... :)
>
> --Toby
>
>  Success isn't nearly as insightful as
> > failure.
> >
> > -Ryan
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 4:24 PM, Robert Virding <
> > robert.virding@REDACTED> wrote:
> >
> >> This whole dscussion reminds a little of the Paul Graham essay "Beating
> the
> >> Averages", http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html , where he discusses the
> >> Blub paradox.
> >>
> >> Robert
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
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