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The military, well the British Army which is my only experience (not strictly true [1]), does suck at training. I mean really suck. Most knowledge is pumped dow

by meaty 14y ago

The military, well the British Army which is my only experience (not strictly true [1]), does suck at training. I mean really suck. Most knowledge is pumped down via training manuals written by people detached from the equipment or scenarios or is done via assimilation. That inevitably ends up with people who have ascended to a higher rank due to ass-licking giving years out of date advice to lower ranks. At the end of the day, it's a pyramid of process and chaos. Thank fuck I had the chance to resign my commission (cuts cuts cuts) before I got shipped to Iraq. I'm saying that you cannot learn any skill to a reasonably merchantable level in 10 weeks. Regarding hyperbole, we haven't forgotten "Rails Is a Ghetto" yet... [1] My background is EE, particularly RF comms. I took the technical lead on a project and had to write training guides for the US military to use certain communications equipment. The mantra amongst the specifications was "dumb it down so a brain damaged monkey could operate it".

zedshaw 14y ago
So, you get to say something incredibly invalid and easily disproven like "you can not learn any skill in 10 weeks" because I wrote an essay in 2008? Four years ago? Let me guess, you aren't very good at this whole logical argument thing which why you're just wrong here. Again, merchantable skill is subjective and based on the free market, so no, I could learn a "merchantable" skill in 2 hours. Cleaning toilets comes to mind as one very such skill. You're just wrong. It's possible to learn skills in 10 weeks of 8-10 hour days, and learn them well. It's possible to become a junior programmer in that time. It's possible to learn a ton of different skill in that time. You actually meant mastering these skills, and just refuse to admit it.
- meaty 14y ago
  No that's not what I suggested. Read it again a couple of times, carefully. I think it was a logical and concise argument. Perhaps a better statement is: "any semi technical skill takes way more than 10 weeks to become productive and not a risk". Are you happy now?
  - dools 14y ago
    I still disagree. There are a shitload of very technical skills you can learn in 10 weeks proficiently enough to produce valuable work. Risk management is up to the employer.

by meaty 14y ago

zedshaw 14y ago

So, you get to say something incredibly invalid and easily disproven like "you can not learn any skill in 10 weeks" because I wrote an essay in 2008? Four years ago? Let me guess, you aren't very good at this whole logical argument thing which why you're just wrong here. Again, merchantable skill is subjective and based on the free market, so no, I could learn a "merchantable" skill in 2 hours. Cleaning toilets comes to mind as one very such skill. You're just wrong. It's possible to learn skills in 10 weeks of 8-10 hour days, and learn them well. It's possible to become a junior programmer in that time. It's possible to learn a ton of different skill in that time. You actually meant mastering these skills, and just refuse to admit it.

meaty 14y ago
No that's not what I suggested. Read it again a couple of times, carefully. I think it was a logical and concise argument. Perhaps a better statement is: "any semi technical skill takes way more than 10 weeks to become productive and not a risk". Are you happy now?
- dools 14y ago
  I still disagree. There are a shitload of very technical skills you can learn in 10 weeks proficiently enough to produce valuable work. Risk management is up to the employer.