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It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

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Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#21

Post by mywittyname »

imbnwa wrote: post #2

As a mediocre frontend dev, this hits hard. I bought a bunch of texts to up my DS&A and college level math skills as I'd like to eventually be able to excecute on 3D animation in the browser, but the books end up sitting on my desk as I consider I'm too old/there're too many people who _do_ have these skills already, etc.

Math can be hard to learn independently.

Luckily, the math for rudimentary 3d is pretty accessible and well documented. There are tons of quality libraries out there for doing linear transformations, so you likely won't need to learn the nuts & bolts unless you really want to. As a bonus, working in 3d is the best way to build an intuition for a lot of linear algebra subjects.

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#22

Post by genjipress »

smoldesu wrote: post #17

Carmack hit the nail on the head again. In high school, I had lots of incredibly smart friends who all turned their nose up at the idea of learning how to program. The only person I knew who seemed interested was a sophomore who was retaking his freshman math class. Despite that, I humored him and taught him the basics of Linux one afternoon. The next week when I saw the kid, he was talking about an FTP server he had…

In one of the other forums I hang out on, people come in all the time asking if programming is a good way to make tons of money. These people typically dabble for a little bit, get bored, and move on. The ones who just like to mess around, to play with programming, they flourish.

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#23

Post by noizejoy »

imbnwa wrote: post #2

As a mediocre frontend dev, this hits hard. I bought a bunch of texts to up my DS&A and college level math skills as I'd like to eventually be able to excecute on 3D animation in the browser, but the books end up sitting on my desk as I consider I'm too old/there're too many people who _do_ have these skills already, etc.

Just keep looking for different niches until you find one that intrigues you enough to get into it without thinking about money. Maybe that niche isn’t even programming.

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#24

Post by ivansavz »

smoldesu wrote: post #17

Carmack hit the nail on the head again. In high school, I had lots of incredibly smart friends who all turned their nose up at the idea of learning how to program. The only person I knew who seemed interested was a sophomore who was retaking his freshman math class. Despite that, I humored him and taught him the basics of Linux one afternoon. The next week when I saw the kid, he was talking about an FTP server he had…

> I still get mad about it, [...] never done anything as cool as that.

Quite the contrary, you should feel proud. IMHO, the real metric of success in life is not what you have achieved, but what your "students" have achieved, so in that metric you're the boss!

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#25

Post by d0gsg0w00f »

imbnwa wrote: post #2

As a mediocre frontend dev, this hits hard. I bought a bunch of texts to up my DS&A and college level math skills as I'd like to eventually be able to excecute on 3D animation in the browser, but the books end up sitting on my desk as I consider I'm too old/there're too many people who _do_ have these skills already, etc.

Never measure yourself by others. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday. You'll always be happier with yourself than you were yesterday and eventually you'll look up and realize someone is looking up to you.

This is especially relevant now as we have instant exposure to the best of the best of any field simply by opening a social media app.

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#27

Post by RandomLensman »

GDC7 wrote: post #3

That's because the educated don't want to just "do" , they want to be successful at it. The most ambitious want to be "world class good at it" . Hence nothing gets ever started because it seems like an unsurmountable mountain to climb. But there is a silver lining. The possibility of exploring social relationships. With regards to social relationships it doesn't really matter if you are having a party in Beverly Hill…

There are also now a wide range of surrogate activities for doing that come with way less risk of failure than doing: planning the doing, managing the doing, strategizing about doing, ...

Not everyone likes taking risks and dealing with failures (and there will always be some - even if it us just on the way to success).

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#28

Post by mrlanderson »

smoldesu wrote: post #17

Carmack hit the nail on the head again. In high school, I had lots of incredibly smart friends who all turned their nose up at the idea of learning how to program. The only person I knew who seemed interested was a sophomore who was retaking his freshman math class. Despite that, I humored him and taught him the basics of Linux one afternoon. The next week when I saw the kid, he was talking about an FTP server he had…

Interesting. Can you elaborate on the last sentence you wrote? Where is it from?

Re: It is easier to educate a Do-er than to motivate the educated

#29

Post by kurikuri »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #9
GDC7 wrote: post #3

That's because the educated don't want to just "do" , they want to be successful at it. The most ambitious want to be "world class good at it" . Hence nothing gets ever started because it seems like an unsurmountable mountain to climb. But there is a silver lining. The possibility of exploring social relationships. With regards to social relationships it doesn't really matter if you are having a party in Beverly Hill…

> That's because the educated don't want to just "do" , they want to be successful at it. I've actually observed the opposite. For a non-insignificant number of people, it seems like their university degree is seen primarily as a piece of paper that allows them to demand a high wage while actively avoiding mental or physical exertion.

> a piece of paper that allows them to demand a high wage while actively avoiding mental or physical exertion

I’d argue that the piece of paper is more for a semi-secure livable wage than a high wage, with or without physical exertion. From my anecdotal subgroup, I’ve yet to meet a person who expects (let alone: hopes for) high wages (above $25/hr) as a result of their degree.

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