Greetings

Was pondering the whole "it is good to learn the manual skills
first" school of thought, and made the analogy to writing vs
keyboarding. Not a smart statement to make in the hearing of an early
childhood education specialist B-). She pointed out that children at
that age learn "though the hand." They need to use their hand to make
the shape as part of how they learn the letters. "So much for that
idea."

OTOH, for the vast majority of users, be it word processing, CAD,
machine operator, operating an automobile, microwave, etc - knowing
the history beyond the very basic outline is not needed. As far as
keyboarding goes, all you need to know is "the layout is a legacy from
the early mechanical typewriter layouts."
Same with drafting - you don't need to know how to set an ink pen
in order to use AutoDesk, Catia, Solidworks, etc. Just know that line
thickness and their meanings were settled (in Court). You do not need
to know about descriptive geometry to understand the origins of 3rd
Angle projection vs 1st angle projection, just know that they are
there.
Likewise, while I am attempting to learn astronomy without clocks
or telescopes, that doesn't mean when I want to look at the moon, or
Mars, I don't grab a telescope. Same for in the shop. Having used
hand tools for construction "I understand why power tools were
invented."

There is the saying that the user knows enough to accomplish the
task at hand, the expert knows all the relevant parts of the subject*;
and a scholar knows all that and the rest, too.

tschus
pyotr

*as a one time computer lab rat/monitor/ student assistant, I learned
early that a "guru" is just someone with one more trick than you.


tschus
pyotr
--
pyotr filipivich
We didn't have these sorts of problems when I was a boy,
back when snakes wore shoes and dirt was $2 a pound,
if you could find it. We had to make our own from rocks!