Zero Reply Threads: Addendum

I'm writing this because when I read over my previous rant, it struck me as too harsh and reactionary. I won't take it down, because I believe it illustrates a valid point, but I need to add clarification.

This subject interests me because I've always believed that it's better to learn why the formula works than to just memorise the formula. Back a couple of years when I was in high school, I worked much harder at sciences than mathematics. Consequently, I got to the point where I simply didn't have the skill to understand the formulas being thrown at me by chemistry and physics. Not cool. I passed a few exams by memorising the answers to key formulas which I correctly guessed would be part of the exams. I did not know how they worked. I lucked out. At that point, my ability to progress further in the sciences I loved was crippled until my math skills came up to par.

It wasn't that I didn't want to learn math. I did, but it was nearly always a struggle. So, I rather gave up and let it slide for years. Finally, I saw concrete, negative results from these decisions. At that point, you better believe that I doubled up on the math. My love of science and mechanics drove me to become better even though it was a terrific struggle.

And for that reason, today I hesitate to answer silly questions because typically there is no learning involved when you give such an answer away. Yes, I want to encourage new users. But more than anything I want them to understand the Why, not just the answer. And to get the Why in the Unix family, you have to read.

Many of us don't like to wade through masses of docs when we just want to accomplish "X" result. Be that printing or scripting, we know the result we want, and we want it now. I'm as guilty as anyone. When you add a Western, media-driven attention deficit to the mix, well, we have a serious issue. Laugh if you like, or call me a prophet of doom, but at the present rate of educationally-inspired decline my culture will be in dramatically serious trouble in 30 to 40 years. (Never mind today's debt load.) I don't know exactly what this will look like, but I do know that people tend toward the lowest common denominator. And when it comes to humans, that's not a pretty sight.

In its own way, I believe that studying the internals of a Unix-family system is fighting the downward trend. Nearly any activity which requires you to go beyond the vapid, NOW mentality is a good thing. And the more young people who find themselves intrigued by these activities, the better. For myself, I must try to balance my frustration today with a long-term view. I don't think anything sums up the balancing act better than an old Proverb: