#Making Things More Complicated Then They Need To Be

I’m currently working through the book, Metaprogramming Ruby 2. Great book, really well organized.

I’m not totally through it, but where this huge black hole of scary knowledge existed -

Super hard metaprogrammings stuffz for l33t coderz!

or, put more simply:

Really difficult and hard to approach problems.

something has taken that place.

An understanding of some of the techniques used to solve a specific type of problem. I’ve always ‘known’ that learning to code requires experience and pattern matching of mental models, but I’ve never experienced it firsthand until now.

What happened here was a steady introduction to a previously unknown concept or group of concepts, which has enabled me to apply them, add them to a bank of knowledge that is slowly accumulating.

Making the connection from this current experience, I can look at all the difficult concepts that are slightly scary in my future, and think,

“It’s not scary. I just haven’t learned it yet.”

I blew up how complicated these concepts are, mostly because I had no exposure to them previously.

Funny how reading two chapters in an insightful book will change how you think about all of the work you do.

Can you think of other ways to change misconceptions about ideas/concepts?

I’d love to hear about them! Send me a contact form on the homepage.

Cheers!