Genuinely curious, what is it about these things that she is disdainful. I ask because I there I imagine two scenarios. The first scenario has an expert not recognizing the potential for powerful abstraction to augment an individual's effort. I have run across this attitude in programmers sometimes--they say things like "C++ is the new assembly." The second scenario is has a layman not realizing the ignorance of their effort. I have run across this problem in new agers who get a little knowledge about string theory and believe the universe's sympathetic vibrations can be felt by the soul. A string theorist would rightly scoff at their conclusion.