Learning curves

Minimum viable whatever, experience curve, worse is better, PC-losering, Postel chaos, Burkean engineering

2020-02-03 — 2024-03-13

Wherein a ten-year ascent for mastery of musical instruments is traced, individual and organisational paths are compared, and social impediments to skill diffusion are noted.

culture

economics

faster pussycat

institutions

mind

networks

standards

technology

Various brief notes on ease and mastery. Getting good with practice, at an individual and organisational scale.

1 Individual learning curves

Figure 2: Approximate 10-year learning curve for various instruments in “lutherie” (Jordà 2004)

The Lisp Curse:

The consequences of this divergence in needed talent and effort cause The Lisp Curse:

Lisp is so powerful that problems which are technical issues in other programming languages are social issues in Lisp.
Learning Curve: Theory, Meaning, Formula, Graphs [2022]
Limits of the Learning Curve

2 Organisational learning curves

Where are my damn learning curves? - by Brian Potter

3 References

Ebbinghaus. 1885. Über Das Gedächtnis: Untersuchungen Zur Experimentellen Psychologie.

———. 1913. “Our Knowledge Concerning Memory.” In Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology.

———. 2013. “Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology.” Annals of Neurosciences.

Jordà. 2004. “Instruments and Players: Some Thoughts on Digital Lutherie.” Journal of New Music Research.

Murray-Browne. 2012. “Balancing Creative Freedom with Musical Development.”

Wright. 1936. “Factors Affecting the Cost of Airplanes.” Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences.