What I think I'm hearing from Glen is that while it's nice to use power-planers and router tables to shape wood, one should know how to use the right type of hand-plane, chisels, and scrapers in case you lose electric power.
In terms closer to most on the list - programming in the scripting language du
jour is fine for productivity, but just in case it falls out of fashion and
loses support, you should be able to fall back on a HLL, and, just in case,
assembly.
In both of my examples, learning the more primitive methods means that one
learns the foundational knowledge that makes using the modern methods easier
and higher in quality.
Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager
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On Feb 13, 2014, at 2:40 PM, glen wrote:
>
> TL;DR -- but you asked...
>
> Well, I was being purposefully provocative, of course. When serious, I
> advocate agnosticism. Use everything as often as you can.
>
> For me, it's less about diversity and more about core skills. In my
> experience (which is admittedly peculiar), the primary skill is the
> ability to try something out, figure out the basic use cases, then move
> on to the next tool. If your purpose is to get something done, then use
> the first tool you try/learn that actually works. Do the job; move on.
> If, however, your purpose is to understand, then use as many tools as
> you can, taken to the extent of some predefined test.
>
> RE: platforms. It seems to me platforms are primarily a way to avoid
> learning, especially the more closed they are. Ease of use is the bogey
> man. It's the scapegoat upon which all platform closures hang their
> debt to society. This is why I cringe when I hear things like "They
> [Apple's devices] are also the easiest to learn to use and the most
> durable." This is antithetic to what I would teach a child. If you
> always/only use the easiest tools to use, then you're only hurting
> yourself. And you're setting yourself up to be exploited by nefarious
> agents.
>
> Sure, it's OK to (mostly) use easy to use tools... but only AFTER you've
> become at least adequate at using the other tools in the same domain.
> (In fact, anyone who claims something like OS X is the easiest or most
> intuitive OS is just ASKING to be grilled about, say, the difference
> between Gnome 3 and Unity. And if they show _any_ hint that they know
> those aren't operating systems, then we get to grill them on Plan 9 or
> the Hurd ... or maybe VMS if I'm feeling generous.) My point being that
> ubiquity = ignorance.
>
> If I were to try to write it down, it would read more like a book for
> kindergarten. Pay attention. Poke everything that looks like it'll do
> something when you poke it. Don't be afraid to break it. Actually, try
> to break it. You learn more about a thing by learning what breaks it
> than by doing what it's supposed to do. ("Bending" is the real
> cognitive target, of course. http://www.moogfest.com/circuit-bending)
> You learn even more if you try to fix it after you broke it.
>
> Anyway, my main point is that if you want to "survive" the next "mass
> extinction" event, learn the _domains_ and their use cases. The
> devices/tools that implement the use cases are interchangeable and
> largely irrelevant.
>
>
>
> On 02/13/2014 11:49 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
>> Good points. But diversity? Do you buy into that?
>>
>> I certainly use services outside of Google. Twitter mainly (have but don't
>> use Facebook) but many forums which are not Google Groups.
>>
>> I try to use cross platform apps where possible. Sublime, for example, as
>> a text editor. Chrome/Firefox. Terminal w/ standard CLI. Dropbox
>> (mac/windows/linux) for files. iOS apps that are cross platform for the
>> most part, although my cant-live-without-it Italian dictionary is iOS only
>> and they tell me that it's the best choice for their market. Possibly iOS
>> folks are more willing to pay? They seemed sincere.
>>
>> The article was about survival in a limited extent: how to deal with being
>> jerked around by the demise of a popular service or platform.
>>
>> How do you deal with it? Could you teach a non-techie to follow your lead?
>> Would write down a simpler set of rules that are easy to follow?
>
> --
> ⇒⇐ glen
>
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