From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-09-03T11:54:39+09:00
Subject: Re: Stalled Rubyist

Jeff Pritchard wrote:
> Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this 
> rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I 
> can re-accellerate my climb to that pinnacle?  I suppose I'm looking for 
> an easy way out here.  No doubt if I continue to stumble about as 
> half-a-rubyist for another year or two I'll eventually get most of the 
> way there.
> 
> I'm looking for a shortcut to the top of the mountain.  Anybody know the 
> way?

Well ... yes and no. You're describing what's known as the journey from
unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. You see someone do
something, and it looks easy. That's unconscious incompetence -- you
don't know that you don't know. So you try it and fall on your butt.
That's conscious incompetence. Now you *know* that you don't know. :)

A lot of people bail out at this point. You appear to have decided to
stay with it. You are probably in conscious competence. You can program
in Ruby, but you still have to think about it every step of the way.The
next step is unconscious competence. It's built into your way of being
... in "muscle memory" ... it's the way you think about programming. And
someone can watch you do it and experience his or her own unconscious
incompetence. :)

But unconscious competence isn't the pinnacle. If there *is* a pinnacle,
it's the next step -- conscious competence 2. By *teaching* someone how
to do it, you force yourself to make conscious the steps along the way
in order to teach it. So ... one thing I highly recommend is to write
about your path. It doesn't have to be "public", like on a blog or a
mailing list. But write about learning Ruby.