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> I run into conceptual completeness problems of the "how do I think about this?" sort much more than "how do I do this?" problems. While I agree with you, the

> I run into conceptual completeness problems of the "how do I think about this?" sort much more than "how do I do this?" problems. While I agree with you, the latter problem is particularly frustrating to encounter. Solving the conceptual problems feel more like an exploration or a learning experience, and I rarely feel like time spent solving those problems is wasted even if it's very meandering. Solving the "how do I do this?" problem rarely feels like more than a very isolated learning experience, and more often it feels like banging your head against a wall. Doubly-so when the documentation is obsolete and leads you in the wrong direction. Learning the basics of media compression is interesting and worth spending time on. But I'm going to hate myself if I have to spend 6 hours figuring out how to convert a file using ffmpeg.

munchbunny 8y ago
Sounds like we're talking about different levels of conceptual abstraction. Here's an example: I need to generate a report where I need to cross-reference data from A and B. I need to know where A is going, where B is going, how to modify the schema of the events going into B to add a specific piece of data, where we can process inputs from A, how to do the join, and how to add the report into the dashboard. On the one hand, I could ask the surface level question "how do I generate the report for ____?" but really there's a whole lot to unwrap, and what I need is the information to do the unwrapping. I don't need a course on statistics, I just need to understand our specific architecture.
- wgerard 8y ago
  I think I see what you mean, though maybe I'm misunderstanding still. The answer (from my experience at Etsy, anyway) to questions like: > how to modify the schema of the events going into B to add a specific piece of data, was "Run schema_modifier", the docs for which were frequently obsolete. Figuring out how to "run schema_modifier" was usually a very frustrating experience in that particular instance, whereas unwrapping the actual problem was usually less frustrating.

munchbunny 8y ago

Sounds like we're talking about different levels of conceptual abstraction. Here's an example: I need to generate a report where I need to cross-reference data from A and B. I need to know where A is going, where B is going, how to modify the schema of the events going into B to add a specific piece of data, where we can process inputs from A, how to do the join, and how to add the report into the dashboard. On the one hand, I could ask the surface level question "how do I generate the report for ____?" but really there's a whole lot to unwrap, and what I need is the information to do the unwrapping. I don't need a course on statistics, I just need to understand our specific architecture.

wgerard 8y ago
I think I see what you mean, though maybe I'm misunderstanding still. The answer (from my experience at Etsy, anyway) to questions like: > how to modify the schema of the events going into B to add a specific piece of data, was "Run schema_modifier", the docs for which were frequently obsolete. Figuring out how to "run schema_modifier" was usually a very frustrating experience in that particular instance, whereas unwrapping the actual problem was usually less frustrating.