Antoon Pardon writes: > Op 15-07-16 om 10:40 schreef Jussi Piitulainen: >> 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 > > Only for someone who is not very familiar with how we graphically > represent results. The cost/effort is always put on the X-ax because > that is what we directly control and also because that is what always > increases. You can't unspent time in trying to master something. We > make this choice because we want a mathematical function. > > What if you have a set back? How do you show that on your graph?
Nice points, thank you. You may be simply right on this, and I may have learnt something. > Ask people if they prefer a steep or shallow pay check curve. Most > seem very quick in choosing for the steep curve. I'm not at all sure how I would answer. By asking what is meant? Because to me it sounds like a trick question to begin with. There's an old story they tell in my family about a child who begs for bread from a house. The lady of the house asks if they want a one-hand slice (yhe käe leipä) or a two-hand slice (kahe käe leipä), and when the poor hungry child asks for the two-hand slice, they get a slice so thin that it needs to be held with both hands. That's mean. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
