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Learning curve is a weird reason for such an important and well compensated profession to be wielding subpar tools towards subpar outcomes. “Yeah, medicine seem

Learning curve is a weird reason for such an important and well compensated profession to be wielding subpar tools towards subpar outcomes. “Yeah, medicine seems really powerful, but med school is hard and I’ve got patients to treat.” Seems more likely that the grass is not actually greener on the other side. If it were, we’d see small teams of the rare few who are willing to surmount the learning curve outcompeting the rest of the tech industry.

commandlinefan 7y ago
I wonder about that, too, honestly. Taking my comparison with vi again: I’m a vi true believer, having gone from a vi skeptic… but I don’t really have hard evidence that I’m truly, actually, indisputably more productive in vi than I would be with, say, notepad++ or sublime or atom or some other editor. I say the same things that other vi true believers do, and I’ve never seen or heard of anybody who was comfortable in vi who ever said that they regretted spending time learning it or that they didn’t think the time was worthwhile - but how do I (we) know that isn’t just confirmation bias? Or worse, how do we know we’re not just deluding ourselves to try to convince ourselves that we didn’t waste time learning - or justify time spent doing something we enjoy(ed)? I’ve been learning Scala on and off for a while and it _feels_ better and more correct than Java, but maybe I just want it to be better and more correct than Java.
Chlorus 7y ago
"“Yeah, medicine seems really powerful, but med school is hard and I’ve got patients to treat.”" Isn't that in fact the case, and why we have nurses, RPNs & medics? "Sorry, I can't give you this flu shot - I've gotta finish med school first"
mattnewport 7y ago
This occurs in medicine too. One of the primary problems we're trying to help solve for our customers is that they introduce medical devices (for orthopedic surgery) which in theory have many benefits over older devices but which have a learning curve for surgeons. Surgeons often don't feel they have the time to invest in learning the new device when they already have experience with an older device and are confident in their use of it, even if they are sold on the potential benefits of the newer device once they get past the learning curve.
- kamaal 7y ago
  Perfectly an acceptable reason as long as you know how to use the older devices well. Here we are talking about people refusing to move beyond beginner phase.

commandlinefan 7y ago

I wonder about that, too, honestly. Taking my comparison with vi again: I’m a vi true believer, having gone from a vi skeptic… but I don’t really have hard evidence that I’m truly, actually, indisputably more productive in vi than I would be with, say, notepad++ or sublime or atom or some other editor. I say the same things that other vi true believers do, and I’ve never seen or heard of anybody who was comfortable in vi who ever said that they regretted spending time learning it or that they didn’t think the time was worthwhile - but how do I (we) know that isn’t just confirmation bias? Or worse, how do we know we’re not just deluding ourselves to try to convince ourselves that we didn’t waste time learning - or justify time spent doing something we enjoy(ed)? I’ve been learning Scala on and off for a while and it _feels_ better and more correct than Java, but maybe I just want it to be better and more correct than Java.

Chlorus 7y ago

"“Yeah, medicine seems really powerful, but med school is hard and I’ve got patients to treat.”" Isn't that in fact the case, and why we have nurses, RPNs & medics? "Sorry, I can't give you this flu shot - I've gotta finish med school first"

mattnewport 7y ago

This occurs in medicine too. One of the primary problems we're trying to help solve for our customers is that they introduce medical devices (for orthopedic surgery) which in theory have many benefits over older devices but which have a learning curve for surgeons. Surgeons often don't feel they have the time to invest in learning the new device when they already have experience with an older device and are confident in their use of it, even if they are sold on the potential benefits of the newer device once they get past the learning curve.

kamaal 7y ago
Perfectly an acceptable reason as long as you know how to use the older devices well. Here we are talking about people refusing to move beyond beginner phase.