Antoon Pardon writes: > Op 15-07-16 om 08:06 schreef Marko Rauhamaa: >> >> Common usage among educated speakers ordinarily is the yardstick for >> language questions. > > But educated about what exactly? > > Each time someone talks about "a steep learning curve" in order to > indicate something is difficult to master, he is using it wrong, > because actual steep learning curves indicate something can be > mastered quickly. > > Now I suspect most people who talk about steep learning curves are > educated, they just aren't educated about learning curves and so I > think common usage among educated speakers is inadequate as a yard > stick.
I think I see your point, but I think it's also easy to think the axes of the metaphor so that it makes sense: c , o , s , t . . l e a r n i n g First two steps l-e plain sailing. Next two steps a-r steep climb. Cost is the effort that makes the learner experience the learning as steep. (Spending more *time* without ever paying much attention may not be the best of ideas - it may be the worst of ideas - if the goal is to learn but it still fits the graph: cost goes up for little or no gain.) Perhaps more proper to call that a cost-to-learn curve or something? But when it becomes unwieldy, it gets shortened to something shorter, and here the more informative component has won. Maybe. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
