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Getting started with GitGetting started with GitPosted Aug 17, 2007 16:38 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)Parent article: Getting started with Git
As described by the article, the learning curve for Git is shallow, not steep. A learning curve is a graph of productivity on the vertical axis against time on the horizontal axis. A tool with a steep learning curve is one you can learn completely in a few minutes. The article probably means to say metaphorically that learning Git is a steep hill to climb.
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Getting started with Git Posted Aug 17, 2007 18:25 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] Much like hacker or begging the question, this is a lost cause. For better or for worse, "Steep learning curve" has come to mean "very difficult to learn." Perhaps people think that the vertical axis is 1/productivity or difficulty or something.
Getting started with Git Posted Aug 17, 2007 20:33 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] Much like hacker or begging the question, this is a lost cause. I agree, if the cause is getting everyone in to stop using the term incorrectly. But that's not my cause (and if it were, my contribution to it would be too insignificant to justify typing in a comment).
Perhaps people think that the vertical axis is 1/productivity or difficulty or something. I very much doubt that. Anyone who looked deeply enough to see a graph would see the real one. Either they're visualizing climbing a hill or thinking of "steep penalties" meaning "high penalties." There are also people who use "learning curve" all by itself to mean "learning requirement," as in "we'd like to switch, but there's a learning curve." This falls in the same category of using fancy words to sound smarter as "we need connectivity" to mean "we need a connection" or "we'll sell it at a higher price point" to mean "we'll sell it at a higher price."
Learning curve Posted Aug 20, 2007 4:41 UTC (Mon) by pjm (subscriber, #2080) [Link] Without having come from a cognitive psychology background (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_curve), I'd have thought that a learning curve would have the amount learned as the y axis, not productivity.
If a tool requires a lot to be learned before I can be productive with that tool, then I will do a lot of learning early on, so such a graph would indeed be steeper than for a tool requiring very little knowledge in order to be productive in it, where one can afford to take one's time in learning more about it.
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