http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/01/02/leaky-abstractions-hockey-stick-learning-curves/ The blog of John D. Cook Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:42:11 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/01/02/leaky-abstractions-hockey-stick-learning-curves/comment-page-1/#comment-11862 Dan Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:48:56 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/?p=1194#comment-11862 Knowing that next layer down is a big advantage. I haven't touched Assembler code in 20+ years, but the fundamental knowledge of how computers work has helped me understand problems on numerous occasions. The same goes for statistical theory (probably background theory in most fields). I don't need to pull out the textbooks for everyday work, but I know where to look when difficult problems pop up. Knowing that next layer down is a big advantage. I haven’t touched Assembler code in 20+ years, but the fundamental knowledge of how computers work has helped me understand problems on numerous occasions.
The same goes for statistical theory (probably background theory in most fields). I don’t need to pull out the textbooks for everyday work, but I know where to look when difficult problems pop up.

]]> http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/01/02/leaky-abstractions-hockey-stick-learning-curves/comment-page-1/#comment-11802 bart raguso Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:03:10 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/?p=1194#comment-11802 The problem with the turtles all the way down idea is that unless we define a center or rely on the intuitive wisdom of older greybeards who have achieved a global perspective, we are destined to live in a hall of mirrors. People who are programmers and the rest of us in general need to have a "big picture outlook" to function well. If we never ackowledge the relationship between ourselves and our world (how we use our tech, how it affects our interactions, and what we really want to do with it), we will never, I repeat, never leave the Hall of Mirrors. The problem with the turtles all the way down idea is that unless we define a center or rely on the intuitive wisdom of older greybeards who have achieved a global perspective, we are destined to live in a hall of mirrors. People who are programmers and the rest of us in general need to have a “big picture outlook” to function well. If we never ackowledge the relationship between ourselves and our world (how we use our tech, how it affects our interactions, and what we really want to do with it), we will never, I repeat, never leave the Hall of Mirrors.

]]> http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/01/02/leaky-abstractions-hockey-stick-learning-curves/comment-page-1/#comment-11685 munin Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:02:54 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/?p=1194#comment-11685 I think this was true until interpreted languages became mainstream / "fast" enough that they were a viable alternative to a lot more programming problems. Web site programmers still do not need to go far at all down the abstraction stack. Now with python you can write full applications and knowing what a "register" does is pretty useless to your operation as a python programmer. I think this was true until interpreted languages became mainstream / “fast” enough that they were a viable alternative to a lot more programming problems. Web site programmers still do not need to go far at all down the abstraction stack. Now with python you can write full applications and knowing what a “register” does is pretty useless to your operation as a python programmer.

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