> Folks seems to lack a kind of basic economic perspective.
I agree with most of what you said, but this seems a bit ironic.
Your suggestions almost exclusively involve large investments of time with little established proof that they are efficient. Do you genuinely believe reading RFC 2616 "cover to cover" is an efficient way of solving the specific problems they came across?
I would wager most developers wishing to be "really good" actually have a concrete desire like a greater paycheque or employer in mind. If that is true, I doubt reading someone's booklist necessarily is their fastest pathway, and their economic perspective is exactly what stops them doing so.
A person that spends considerable portion of their time really learning new things will initially be slower at their work than people who only do work.
But over time this person will be getting better and better and better and at some point they will be able to do their job on the fraction of their time while still keeping momentum and learning more.
This has been my experience.
I have been spending 3/4 of my working hours learning new things for the past about 17 years after I realised this. The actual work takes a very tiny part of my day.
Software development really is a knowledge sport. Writing code is actually pretty small part of the task -- knowing what to write is the important part. If you are able to "write down the answer" so to speak, without spending much time getting there, you can be 10 or more times productive than everybody else, easily.
I agree with most of what you said, but this seems a bit ironic.
Your suggestions almost exclusively involve large investments of time with little established proof that they are efficient. Do you genuinely believe reading RFC 2616 "cover to cover" is an efficient way of solving the specific problems they came across?
I would wager most developers wishing to be "really good" actually have a concrete desire like a greater paycheque or employer in mind. If that is true, I doubt reading someone's booklist necessarily is their fastest pathway, and their economic perspective is exactly what stops them doing so.