On training

One phrase that is absolutely guaranteed to drive me into a (possibly internal) foaming rage is “I haven’t been trained on specific technical skill”. Just as good is “I need training on specific technical skill”. Why is this so annoying?

Umm. Well. There’s a whole Internet out there of information. There are libraries. There’s even wikipedia. There’s lots of ways that you can learn if you want to find out how to do something. None of them involve me learning it for you first. If you say “I need training on specific technical skill” you’re telling me that you have abdicated the responsibility for your own learning. Good for you. It doesn’t make it my problem. (Yes, I know. It’s hard work. Tough. There is no royal road to geometry.)

The one currency that (oh $DEITY) knowledge workers have is the things they know how to do. If you’re telling me to train you, you’re telling me that you don’t have the wit to learn yourself.

This is motivated, somewhat, by “We need training in R”. Sorry, you don’t. What you need is to use it. Use it badly. Realise how you’re using it badly, why’s your code unmaintainable, why can’t it be re-used. What can you do to make it better? Talk to someone, ask them, iterate. At some stage, if you’re talking to me, I will direct you to SICP.

But don’t either stop learning or expect me to do it for you. I can’t.