If you’re a talented artist, you probably spend your time actually making art rather than discussing technique online. Top amateur athletes are too busy actuall

If you’re a talented artist, you probably spend your time actually making art rather than discussing technique online. Top amateur athletes are too busy actually training and playing to spend five hours a day on a forum for their hobby. Is this always true? I mean, of course it's true at the extremes; if someone literally spends _all_ their waking hours posting on forums about X, they're probably not getting very much X done. But discussion and polemic is more complementary to some occupations and disciplines than others, one must acknowledge—as this article seemingly doesn't. Publishing academics spend a lot of time on rigourous and structured rebuttals of each other's theories, a kind of highly professional and esoteric Reddit with long bibliographies. They probably partake of some informal channels to soft-trial some of their positions and hone some of the thorny bits before pushing to production, so to speak. They might spend a lot of time on that. Attorneys learn how to write more eloquent and persuasive pleadings and briefs by way of practice. A lot of practice. Surely some of them chisel the background knowledge and social skills required to operate in their world online. If that's a serious learning tool, you're probably using it more than 15 minutes/day. You might even have a senior badge on some PHPBB legal board. A lot of skills can be learned or improved on the Internet by reading and participating in sometimes contentious discussions about them. The strong religion in motorcycle repair and boating forums isn't all puffery and neurotic wheel-spinning; a lot of the commentators are quite well-informed about the range of available componentry and DIY techniques, even if they sometimes bite each other's heads off in arguments about the One True Way to overhaul a marine toilet or which ape hangers are the best. The hours developers spend arguing about React vs. Angular on HN aren't necessarily wasted; some of the discussions are rich, vibrant and informative, and make both the writers and the readers better developers or technical managers. I myself learned a great deal about history and politics in high school by arguing heatedly with informed people online. If I were an aspiring politician or writer, expository writing in support of a particular ideological conviction would have legitimate value and relevance as a skill set, and this kind of exercise helps to hone it. It takes a certain kind of personality to devote a lot of energy to online discussions. Some people don't like to think and argue about methodology or meta- issues, or otherwise engage their analytical faculties very much when socialising. They just do. Good for them. However, this is a difference of style rather than substance. Everyone has to have "continuing education" of some description to remain fluent in their field. And yes, of course there's a limit beyond which pure theory and no practice lies for simple reasons of time and economics, but it just depends. So, I don't disagree with the fundamental premise, but as is so often the case, this article paints the online world with a broad brush.