TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: About that learning curve From:Kelly Hoffman <kelly -at- NASHUA -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 2 Sep 1994 09:37:04 -0400
Fred M Jacobson <fred -at- BOOLE -dot- COM> writes about steep learning curves:
> This reminded me that a thinking colleague asked me a few week ago
> how the learning curve is plotted. If it's like this:
>
> | /
> | /
> knowledge | /
> | /
> |/
> |_______
> time
>
> a "steep" learning curve implies learning a lot in a short time -
> _not_ what this expression usually means.
Actually, I think that's *exactly* what it means.
You have a short time to learn something (in order to be productive at
a new job, for example), and the amount of knowledge you have learn in
that time is huge. Hence, the graph above. As a result, you have a
lot of hard work to do in that short time in order to climb that steep
slope.
Would you rather climb a hillside like the one above, or this one?
(within the limits of ASCII graphics ;-)
|
knowledge | ___
|__--
|_______
time
kkh
--
Kelly K. Hoffman kelly -at- nashua -dot- hp -dot- com
Learning Products Engineer
Hewlett-Packard, Network Test Division "Reading the manual is
One Tara Blvd., Nashua, NH 03062 admitting defeat."