Re:Stop Learning Frameworks
by bellweather49 on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @04:05AM
(#18714284)
Thankyou for this.
I've often thought of learning in terms of "learning trivia" vs. "understanding
concepts", but had never applied the word "trivia" to learning programming facts.
I'm a hobbyist, rather than a professional, so I learn what I want, while aiming
for comprehensive knowledge. Over time, I have become bored with learning frameworks
and libraries, and have become much more interested in learning standards.
The phrase I have ringing in my head is "don't learn APIs", which is rather
like your "don't learn trivia", but I think "trivia" captures the essence of it
better. To be a little more nuanced about it, I think the thing to avoid is learning
APIs for things that are not either standards, or defacto standards of long-standing.
Of course, learning APIs is necessary, but everytime I find myself wading through
API documentation, I stop and ask myself whether it will still be relevant in
a few years time; often the API will change, or even worse (I'm thinking of React
here), the whole ecosystem will probably have disappeared in 5 years time.
This talk[1] makes a similar case.
Obviously, if someone wanted to pay me to learn and use React, that would be a
different matter.
I've often thought of learning in terms of "learning trivia" vs. "understanding concepts", but had never applied the word "trivia" to learning programming facts.
I'm a hobbyist, rather than a professional, so I learn what I want, while aiming for comprehensive knowledge. Over time, I have become bored with learning frameworks and libraries, and have become much more interested in learning standards.
The phrase I have ringing in my head is "don't learn APIs", which is rather like your "don't learn trivia", but I think "trivia" captures the essence of it better. To be a little more nuanced about it, I think the thing to avoid is learning APIs for things that are not either standards, or defacto standards of long-standing.
Of course, learning APIs is necessary, but everytime I find myself wading through API documentation, I stop and ask myself whether it will still be relevant in a few years time; often the API will change, or even worse (I'm thinking of React here), the whole ecosystem will probably have disappeared in 5 years time.
This talk[1] makes a similar case.
Obviously, if someone wanted to pay me to learn and use React, that would be a different matter.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7n2xnOiWI8