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I understand this thought process, but in my opinion it's the wrong way to think about software concepts.You cannot really tell someone that the way their brain learns is the "wrong way". Different people's brains are wired differently and thus need to learn in different ways.
> Understanding what a bridge is doesn't mean knowing how to build one, and in fact tying your understanding to a certain implementation of a bridge just limits your ideas about what is, in fact, an abstract concept.
Software development is about more than just understanding what something is. It's about understanding how to use it appropriately. For some people, simply being told "you use it this way" is enough. Other people like to understand the mechanics of the concept and can then deduce for themselves the correct way to use it.
I also fall into that category. While I'm not comparing my capabilities to Bright's I do very much need to understand how something is built to have confidence I understand how to use it correctly.
Neither approach is right nor wrong though, it's just differences in the way our brains are wired.
> There's a reason why computer science professors explain concepts at a high or abstract level and don't jump into implementation to help students understand them.
Professors need to appeal to the lowest common denominator so their approach naturally wouldn't be ideally suited for every student. It would be impossible to tailor classes to suit everyone's need perfectly without having highly individualised lessons and our current educational system is designed to function in that way.
> If an idea stays abstract in your mind, it gives you more flexibility with how you apply it and more ways to find use out of it. But it does take a mindset shift, and is an actual learned skill, to be able to see something as purely abstract and accept that how it's made doesn't matter.
The problem here is that abstract concepts might behave subtly differently in different implementations. So you still need to learn platform specifics when writing code on specific platforms, even if everyone took the high level abstract approach. Thus you're not actually gaining any more flexibility using either approach.
Also worth noting that your comment suggests that those of us who like to understand the construction cannot then derive an abstract afterwards. Clearly that's not going to be true. The only difference between your approach and Bright's is the journey you take to understand that abstract.