Stalled Rubyist

[Jeff Pritchard]

Hi Folks,
I'm still enjoying Ruby now after about six months of learning ruby and
rails together. I'm doing well at continuing my understanding of how to
get the most out of Rails, but I feel like I've hit a bit of a rut on
the Ruby side of things.

Specifically, I feel like I've gotten to a point where I remember enough
of it that I can spend some time looking things up and come up with a
reasonable solution to most anything I tackle. What's missing is the
big leap from "I can find the answer and I know it's there somewhere" to
actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many
built-in methods efficiently.

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?

thanks,
jp

 

[dblack]

Hi --

Hi Folks,
I'm still enjoying Ruby now after about six months of learning ruby and
rails together. I'm doing well at continuing my understanding of how to
get the most out of Rails, but I feel like I've hit a bit of a rut on
the Ruby side of things.

Specifically, I feel like I've gotten to a point where I remember enough
of it that I can spend some time looking things up and come up with a
reasonable solution to most anything I tackle. What's missing is the
big leap from "I can find the answer and I know it's there somewhere" to
actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many
built-in methods efficiently.

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?

Ruby longa, vita brevis I think one thing is not to think of it
as a mountain; think of it as a landscape, an extraordinarily
interesting one, that you're exploring and that you'll probably never
get to the end of. In the long run it's more engaging that way.

As for books, I don't know what you've read yet, but keep in mind that
a new edition of Hal Fulton's "The Ruby Way" is due out soon. I have
a feeling you'll like it a lot and find it very productive reading.


David

--
David A. Black | (e-mail address removed)
Author of "Ruby for Rails" [1] | Ruby/Rails training & consultancy [3]
DABlog (DAB's Weblog) [2] | Co-director, Ruby Central, Inc. [4]
[1] http://www.manning.com/black | [3] http://www.rubypowerandlight.com
[2] http://dablog.rubypal.com | [4] http://www.rubycentral.org

 

[Jeff Pritchard]

Hi --


Ruby longa, vita brevis I think one thing is not to think of it
as a mountain; think of it as a landscape, an extraordinarily
interesting one, that you're exploring and that you'll probably never
get to the end of. In the long run it's more engaging that way.

As for books, I don't know what you've read yet, but keep in mind that
a new edition of Hal Fulton's "The Ruby Way" is due out soon. I have
a feeling you'll like it a lot and find it very productive reading.


David

So David, I got to the "last page of the internet" a few weeks ago. Are
you saying that won't ever happen with Ruby?

jp

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

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.

 

[Eric Hodel]

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?

I know a shortcut.

http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/status.html

Go grab one of those and improve its documentation. Exploring the
standard libraries has been key to increasing my proficiency with the
language.

 

[Jeff Pritchard]

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.

Thanks Ed. This sounds like sage advice.

best,
jp