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learning curves
learning curves
Posted Nov 3, 2005 20:35 UTC (Thu) by roelofs (subscriber, #2599)In reply to: The return of Minix by giraffedata
Parent article: The return of Minix
The steep learning curves are the pleasant ones. The learning curve is the graph of productivity on the vertical axis versus time on the horizontal access.
Interesting definition, but not really consistent with common usage--namely, that steep learning curves are the unpleasant ones. The implied graph as used by most people does put time on the horizontal axis, but "cumulative stuff learned (before being able to accomplish anything useful)" is what goes on the vertical one. Productivity would be kind of a thresholded thing--zero (or negative) until the level of learning reaches some relatively high value, then increasing.
Not to be pedantic or anything... :-)
Greg
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learning curves
Posted Nov 3, 2005 22:29 UTC (Thu) by eli (subscriber, #11265) [Link]
The implied graph as used by most people does put time on the horizontal axis, but "cumulative stuff learned (before being able to accomplish anything useful)" is what goes on the vertical one.Better:
y = "total knowledge"
x = "things you can do"
Time required to learn how to do the next thing is a function of the change in y, depending on how long it takes you to learn.
A "user friendly" system in the usual meaning would have a shallow slope starting at the origin. The problems usually occur later: either the slope gets worse later, or the line just stops too soon, when you just can't do what you need to do. It might look like y=.25x^2
An "expert friendly" system, if you will, starts out steep or even y>0, but after the initial investment of effort requires little additional effort to increase what you are able to accomplish. An example of that would be vim. It would have a graph like y=sqrt(x)+5.
learning curves
Posted Nov 4, 2005 3:55 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]
It's not only an interesting definition, but the original one, and the only one that makes semantic sense. The learning curve was invented by industrial engineers to describe mathematically the effect of making a change to a process (new worker, new machine, new rules, etc.).But I agree that most non-IEs use "steep learning curve" to refer to a shallow one. We'll have to file it with all those other things where the majority uses a term incorrectly. E.g. "IDE" as an alternative to SCSI; "LUN" as a thing you put files on; "mortgage" as a loan.
I don't think they actually envision any graph, though. I think they envision climbing a hill.