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Stalled Rubyist

Jeff Pritchard

9/3/2006 12:45:00 AM

Hi Folks,
I'm still enjoying Ruby now after about six months of learning ruby and
rails together. I'm doing well at continuing my understanding of how to
get the most out of Rails, but I feel like I've hit a bit of a rut on
the Ruby side of things.

Specifically, I feel like I've gotten to a point where I remember enough
of it that I can spend some time looking things up and come up with a
reasonable solution to most anything I tackle. What's missing is the
big leap from "I can find the answer and I know it's there somewhere" to
actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many
built-in methods efficiently.

Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this
rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I
can re-accellerate my climb to that pinnacle? I suppose I'm looking for
an easy way out here. No doubt if I continue to stumble about as
half-a-rubyist for another year or two I'll eventually get most of the
way there.

I'm looking for a shortcut to the top of the mountain. Anybody know the
way?

thanks,
jp

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

6 Answers

dblack

9/3/2006 1:22:00 AM

0

Jeff Pritchard

9/3/2006 1:57:00 AM

0

unknown wrote:
> Hi --
>
> On Sun, 3 Sep 2006, Jeff Pritchard wrote:
>
>> actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many
>> way?
> Ruby longa, vita brevis :-) I think one thing is not to think of it
> as a mountain; think of it as a landscape, an extraordinarily
> interesting one, that you're exploring and that you'll probably never
> get to the end of. In the long run it's more engaging that way.
>
> As for books, I don't know what you've read yet, but keep in mind that
> a new edition of Hal Fulton's "The Ruby Way" is due out soon. I have
> a feeling you'll like it a lot and find it very productive reading.
>
>
> David

So David, I got to the "last page of the internet" a few weeks ago. Are
you saying that won't ever happen with Ruby? :)

jp

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

Paul Lutus

9/3/2006 2:08:00 AM

0

Jeff Pritchard wrote:

> So David, I got to the "last page of the internet" a few weeks ago. Are
> you saying that won't ever happen with Ruby? :)

By the time you get to the "last page" of Ruby, something even better will
have come along, provoked into existence by Ruby's great example. That's
been my experience over three decades in this business: there's always
something better around the corner, something well worth learning.

--
Paul Lutus
http://www.ara...

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

9/3/2006 2:55:00 AM

0

Jeff Pritchard wrote:
> Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this
> rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I
> can re-accellerate my climb to that pinnacle? I suppose I'm looking for
> an easy way out here. No doubt if I continue to stumble about as
> half-a-rubyist for another year or two I'll eventually get most of the
> way there.
>
> I'm looking for a shortcut to the top of the mountain. Anybody know the
> way?

Well ... yes and no. You're describing what's known as the journey from
unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. You see someone do
something, and it looks easy. That's unconscious incompetence -- you
don't know that you don't know. So you try it and fall on your butt.
That's conscious incompetence. Now you *know* that you don't know. :)

A lot of people bail out at this point. You appear to have decided to
stay with it. You are probably in conscious competence. You can program
in Ruby, but you still have to think about it every step of the way.The
next step is unconscious competence. It's built into your way of being
... in "muscle memory" ... it's the way you think about programming. And
someone can watch you do it and experience his or her own unconscious
incompetence. :)

But unconscious competence isn't the pinnacle. If there *is* a pinnacle,
it's the next step -- conscious competence 2. By *teaching* someone how
to do it, you force yourself to make conscious the steps along the way
in order to teach it. So ... one thing I highly recommend is to write
about your path. It doesn't have to be "public", like on a blog or a
mailing list. But write about learning Ruby.

Eric Hodel

9/3/2006 4:33:00 AM

0

On Sep 2, 2006, at 5:45 PM, Jeff Pritchard wrote:

> Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at
> this
> rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I
> can re-accellerate my climb to that pinnacle? I suppose I'm
> looking for
> an easy way out here. No doubt if I continue to stumble about as
> half-a-rubyist for another year or two I'll eventually get most of the
> way there.
>
> I'm looking for a shortcut to the top of the mountain. Anybody
> know the
> way?

I know a shortcut.

http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/s...

Go grab one of those and improve its documentation. Exploring the
standard libraries has been key to increasing my proficiency with the
language.

--
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://blog.se...
This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant

http://trackmap.rob...



Jeff Pritchard

9/3/2006 3:50:00 PM

0

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> Jeff Pritchard wrote:
>> Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this
>> rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I
>
> But unconscious competence isn't the pinnacle. If there *is* a pinnacle,
> it's the next step -- conscious competence 2. By *teaching* someone how
> to do it, you force yourself to make conscious the steps along the way
> in order to teach it. So ... one thing I highly recommend is to write
> about your path. It doesn't have to be "public", like on a blog or a
> mailing list. But write about learning Ruby.

Thanks Ed. This sounds like sage advice.

best,
jp

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....