But what happens when companies and institutions value productivity and tool knowledge more than conceptual understanding ? Well, I believe a lot of the problems in modern commercial software can be attributed to that exact problem. Just imagine how many bugs and security concerns can be attributed to a lack of simple conceptual understanding .... See more

Putting it bluntly, on-demand learning is excellent for learning tools, but it sucks at learning concepts .

On the other hand, preliminary learning is quite bad for learning tools but is the only way of learning concepts .

If something is worth taking away from this article, it is that taking the time to do preliminary learning really pays off in the long run . Maybe in the moment, it seems like waste of time. But trust me, that’s the productivity trap. When companies and individuals acknowledge the importance of conceptual understanding , many of the problems... See more