Errors vs. Bugs and the End of Stupidity

[celandine13]

"A pianist has to believe in telekinesis.  You have to believe you have the power to move your fingers with your mind."

I learned that from Phil Cohn, my piano teacher's piano teacher.  Once in a while, when I was in high school, she'd arrange for me to have a master class with him.  He was a diminutive man who looked exactly like Dr. Strangelove,

Comments

Primacy

[poddster]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_learning#Primacy

When giving me a new piece to try, my old drum teacher would make me play it reallllly slowly. He did this because, although he didn't know the name of the phenomenon, he knew that once your muscles and brain 'learn' something it's very difficult to unlearn it. Most of the mistakes I made as a young drum player were due to my muscles "just doing it" even though my brain said other wise, because I'd previously made mistakes whilst rushing through things that then became set in stone.

Lesson: Take it slow and learn it correctly the first time. This applies to everything from drums to politics.

Please keep sharing your thoughts.

[ext_1413077]

That was a very very interesting read. I found it because someone submitted it to www.reddit.com/r/programming .

[ext_226279]

This is a good article, but it would be better if it didn't use "schizophrenia", which is an actual condition that affects some people, as a metaphor for something else. I don't have schizophrenia, but I am bipolar, and I feel othered when people describe themselves as "a little bipolar about bagels" (or whatever) because they like bagels sometimes and dislike them at other times. To them, it's just a metaphor, but to me, it's my life, which they are taking and trivializing for their own point.

I realize that this is part of a quote, but I think you could use the quote while also bracketing the problematic nature of using disabled people's lives as metaphors to prove points that aren't about disability (at least, if you think it's problematic).

I'd like to be able to link this, but I don't feel like I can do so while it begins in an ableist way. Which is too bad, since I think the main point (that it's more useful to think about debugging one's issues than to think of oneself as irreparably "stupid") is an anti-ableist one.

[celandine13]

Ok, good point. It was a distracting word and there's really no reason for me to trivialize real problems over a metaphor.

[ext_226279]

Thanks!

Human Error Theory

[ext_1416787]

This is a really great post

A bug in your theory

[ext_1416863]

I got here from one of your friends. I actually enjoy your analysis, however I see a bug. What if something is actually a gift and it is just called a disability