Curious Omission In New-Style Formats

[Jussi Piitulainen]

Antoon Pardon writes:

> Op 15-07-16 om 10:40 schreef Jussi Piitulainen:
>> Antoon Pardon writes:
>>
>>> Op 15-07-16 om 08:06 schreef Marko Rauhamaa:
>>>> Common usage among educated speakers ordinarily is the yardstick for
>>>> language questions.
>>> But educated about what exactly?
>>>
>>> Each time someone talks about "a steep learning curve" in order to
>>> indicate something is difficult to master, he is using it wrong,
>>> because actual steep learning curves indicate something can be
>>> mastered quickly.
>>>
>>> Now I suspect most people who talk about steep learning curves are
>>> educated, they just aren't educated about learning curves and so I
>>> think common usage among educated speakers is inadequate as a yard
>>> stick.
>> I think I see your point, but I think it's also easy to think the axes
>> of the metaphor so that it makes sense:
>>
>> c      ,
>> o     ,
>> s    ,
>> t . .
>>  l e a r n i n g
>
> Only for someone who is not very familiar with how we graphically
> represent results. The cost/effort is always put on the X-ax because
> that is what we directly control and also because that is what always
> increases. You can't unspent time in trying to master something. We
> make this choice because we want a mathematical function.
>
> What if you have a set back? How do you show that on your graph?

Nice points, thank you. You may be simply right on this, and I may have
learnt something.

> Ask people if they prefer a steep or shallow pay check curve. Most
> seem very quick in choosing for the steep curve.

I'm not at all sure how I would answer. By asking what is meant?
Because to me it sounds like a trick question to begin with.

There's an old story they tell in my family about a child who begs for
bread from a house. The lady of the house asks if they want a one-hand
slice (yhe käe leipä) or a two-hand slice (kahe käe leipä), and when the
poor hungry child asks for the two-hand slice, they get a slice so thin
that it needs to be held with both hands. That's mean.