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For your analogy, he couldn't write "hello world" in C before writing the article. Before finishing the article, he was able to write software better than the v

by jimmyk 16y ago

For your analogy, he couldn't write "hello world" in C before writing the article. Before finishing the article, he was able to write software better than the vast majority of developers. While writing the article, he received training and advice from the person who trained the best developers. I'd sure pay attention.

pge 16y ago
I have to disagree - your assessment would suggest that at the end he was more fit than the vast majority of people that try to be fit, and that his teacher was the best in the world. My point was simply that he did not have a frame of reference to evaluate the quality of the fitness program he took on relative to other programs with competent instructors (since his lack of fitness demonstrated that he had never had any competent instruction). To keep the analogy from the original post, do you trust a first year CS student to tell you the best way to learn coding? That student finally had a competent teacher and went from zero to writing a lisp compiler in C. What he doesnt realize is so did every other first year college CS student, and they may have had an entirely different curriculum and experience. And they are all at the beginning of a journey, not the end. If the article were written by a pro athlete, for example, that had experimented with lots of different fitness regimes over that course of a life in which he was clearly successful in being fit, I would take it a lot more seriously, just as I would be more interested in hearing about the best methods of learning to write commercial applications from long-time practitioners that had trained many teams over the years in production environments.
- joebadmo 16y ago
  I think you have to consider the intended audience, though. Seemed to me he was addressing people who had idly dabbled in working out, but quit because they weren't seeing results or were intimidated, and people who chase fad exercises and spend ineffective time in modern gyms. So, in the analogy, I guess it would be for people who have tried to learn to code but couldn't get past basic syntax , and coders who are always chasing the latest language/platform but never really learned the fundamentals...? The analogy might be starting to fail at this point.
- jimmyk 16y ago
  The author does have a few indicators that his teacher was in the top tier; the teacher trained special forces troops, the best mountain climbers, and ski racers. These are people who you can trust to be among the best trained in general fitness. And in the end the author was vastly more fit than the majority of people trying to be fit. The majority of people trying to be fit go to the gym once in a while, do a few cardio exercises, and go home. He was among them before meeting with this guy. He's still well below a lot of people, like professional athletes, but the people he is still below only represent a small fraction of the population. I get your point though. He still can't say whether or not his trainer is the best or if his ideas are the best. What he can say, though, is that his trainers ideas are much better than those of the typical gym trainer at a franchise gym. This article is clearly not targeted at Michael Phelps. It's targeted at the average gym-goer.

by jimmyk 16y ago

pge 16y ago

I have to disagree - your assessment would suggest that at the end he was more fit than the vast majority of people that try to be fit, and that his teacher was the best in the world. My point was simply that he did not have a frame of reference to evaluate the quality of the fitness program he took on relative to other programs with competent instructors (since his lack of fitness demonstrated that he had never had any competent instruction). To keep the analogy from the original post, do you trust a first year CS student to tell you the best way to learn coding? That student finally had a competent teacher and went from zero to writing a lisp compiler in C. What he doesnt realize is so did every other first year college CS student, and they may have had an entirely different curriculum and experience. And they are all at the beginning of a journey, not the end. If the article were written by a pro athlete, for example, that had experimented with lots of different fitness regimes over that course of a life in which he was clearly successful in being fit, I would take it a lot more seriously, just as I would be more interested in hearing about the best methods of learning to write commercial applications from long-time practitioners that had trained many teams over the years in production environments.

joebadmo 16y ago
I think you have to consider the intended audience, though. Seemed to me he was addressing people who had idly dabbled in working out, but quit because they weren't seeing results or were intimidated, and people who chase fad exercises and spend ineffective time in modern gyms. So, in the analogy, I guess it would be for people who have tried to learn to code but couldn't get past basic syntax , and coders who are always chasing the latest language/platform but never really learned the fundamentals...? The analogy might be starting to fail at this point.
jimmyk 16y ago
The author does have a few indicators that his teacher was in the top tier; the teacher trained special forces troops, the best mountain climbers, and ski racers. These are people who you can trust to be among the best trained in general fitness. And in the end the author was vastly more fit than the majority of people trying to be fit. The majority of people trying to be fit go to the gym once in a while, do a few cardio exercises, and go home. He was among them before meeting with this guy. He's still well below a lot of people, like professional athletes, but the people he is still below only represent a small fraction of the population. I get your point though. He still can't say whether or not his trainer is the best or if his ideas are the best. What he can say, though, is that his trainers ideas are much better than those of the typical gym trainer at a franchise gym. This article is clearly not targeted at Michael Phelps. It's targeted at the average gym-goer.