# Stalled Rubyist **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 3, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374 "2006-09-03T02:44:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/1 "2006-09-03T02:44:47Z")
Hi Folks, I’m still enjoying Ruby now after about six months of learning ruby and rails together. I’m doing well at continuing my understanding of how to get the most out of Rails, but I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a rut on the Ruby side of things. Specifically, I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where I remember enough of it that I can spend some time looking things up and come up with a reasonable solution to most anything I tackle. What’s missing is the big leap from “I can find the answer and I know it’s there somewhere” to actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many built-in methods efficiently. Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I can re-accellerate my climb to that pinnacle? I suppose I’m looking for an easy way out here. No doubt if I continue to stumble about as half-a-rubyist for another year or two I’ll eventually get most of the way there. I’m looking for a shortcut to the top of the mountain. Anybody know the way? thanks, jp ---
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/2 "2006-09-03T03:23:35Z")
Hi – On Sun, 3 Sep 2006, Jeff P. wrote: > actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many > way? > Ruby longa, vita brevis 🙂 I think one thing is not to think of it > as a mountain; think of it as a landscape, an extraordinarily > interesting one, that you’re exploring and that you’ll probably never > get to the end of. In the long run it’s more engaging that way. As for books, I don’t know what you’ve read yet, but keep in mind that a new edition of Hal F.'s “The Ruby Way” is due out soon. I have a feeling you’ll like it a lot and find it very productive reading. David ---
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/3 "2006-09-03T03:56:45Z")
unknown wrote: > Hi – > > On Sun, 3 Sep 2006, Jeff P. wrote: > > > actually being proficient in the language and using all of the many > > way? > > Ruby longa, vita brevis 🙂 I think one thing is not to think of it > > as a mountain; think of it as a landscape, an extraordinarily > > interesting one, that you’re exploring and that you’ll probably never > > get to the end of. In the long run it’s more engaging that way. > > As for books, I don’t know what you’ve read yet, but keep in mind that > a new edition of Hal F.'s “The Ruby Way” is due out soon. I have > a feeling you’ll like it a lot and find it very productive reading. > > David So David, I got to the “last page of the internet” a few weeks ago. Are you saying that won’t ever happen with Ruby? 🙂 jp ---
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/4 "2006-09-03T04:55:45Z")
Jeff P. wrote: > Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this > rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I > can re-accellerate my climb to that pinnacle? I suppose I’m looking for > an easy way out here. No doubt if I continue to stumble about as > half-a-rubyist for another year or two I’ll eventually get most of the > way there. > > I’m looking for a shortcut to the top of the mountain. Anybody know the > way? Well … yes and no. You’re describing what’s known as the journey from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. You see someone do something, and it looks easy. That’s unconscious incompetence – you don’t know that you don’t know. So you try it and fall on your butt. That’s conscious incompetence. Now you _know_ that you don’t know. 🙂 A lot of people bail out at this point. You appear to have decided to stay with it. You are probably in conscious competence. You can program in Ruby, but you still have to think about it every step of the way.The next step is unconscious competence. It’s built into your way of being … in “muscle memory” … it’s the way you think about programming. And someone can watch you do it and experience his or her own unconscious incompetence. 🙂 But unconscious competence isn’t the pinnacle. If there _is_ a pinnacle, it’s the next step – conscious competence 2. By _teaching_ someone how to do it, you force yourself to make conscious the steps along the way in order to teach it. So … one thing I highly recommend is to write about your path. It doesn’t have to be “public”, like on a blog or a mailing list. But write about learning Ruby. ---
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/5 "2006-09-03T04:11:38Z")
Jeff P. wrote: > So David, I got to the “last page of the internet” a few weeks ago. Are > you saying that won’t ever happen with Ruby? 🙂 By the time you get to the “last page” of Ruby, something even better will have come along, provoked into existence by Ruby’s great example. That’s been my experience over three decades in this business: there’s always something better around the corner, something well worth learning. ---
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/6 "2006-09-04T14:43:26Z")
On Sep 2, 2006, at 5:45 PM, Jeff P. wrote: > know the > way? I know a shortcut. [http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/status.html](http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/status.html) Go grab one of those and improve its documentation. Exploring the standard libraries has been key to increasing my proficiency with the language. – Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net) This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant [http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com) ---
**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/stalled-rubyist/67374/7 "2006-09-03T17:49:13Z")
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote: > Jeff P. wrote: > > > Does it just take a really long time to become really proficient at this > > rich language, or is there a particular book or other means by which I > > But unconscious competence isn’t the pinnacle. If there _is_ a pinnacle, > it’s the next step – conscious competence 2. By _teaching_ someone how > to do it, you force yourself to make conscious the steps along the way > in order to teach it. So … one thing I highly recommend is to write > about your path. It doesn’t have to be “public”, like on a blog or a > mailing list. But write about learning Ruby. Thanks Ed. This sounds like sage advice. best, jp