Hacker News Reader

Comment by herodotus | Hacker News Reader

I always imagined that a steep learning curve was metaphorically like a hill that took increasing energy with increasing slope. Turns out that the axes of a learning curve are learning on the y axis and experience on the x axis. So if the curve is steep, you learned stuff quickly. Many other good examples in the article. May the steep curve be with you.

View on HN

Steep learning curve just means learning quickly, usually I’ve heard it used for being /forced/ to learn quickly, as a type of hardship.

I disagree with the article that “steep learning curve” implies something learned easily, and neither does it imply something difficult to learn. It refers solely to rate of learning. Other interpretations are innumerate.

I have only ever heard 'steep learning curve' used to indicate that learning efforts have very small returns initially (think about 'how much you know' on the Y and 'competency' on the X)

Everyone seems to assume the curve starts to shoot up at x=0. I always imagined the steep learning curve's steepness as starting at x>0, thereby creating some stalling or slow growing plateau requiring the bulk of the effort before you reach a certain point where there's a huge, rewarding jump (some "aha" moment) that releases all the build up tension. Compare A (constant, please mentally unjag it) vs B (steep):

    |    A  _.-----
    |     _/ /
    |   _/  /
    | _/   /
    |/    / 
    |----'  B
    +--------------

Somehow I managed to read your ascii plot without reading twice.

There could be delayed steepness, but I think most people would use "steep" to refer to those moments of struggle and effort along the way, rather than the "aha" feeling of suddenly elevated knowledge after the jump. I don't think there's a term for the latter, except maybe a "satisfying" learning curve.

I've begun to use the term "friendly", as it is unambiguously positive.

I think the popular perception of a learning curve is difficulty vs time.

Using the "hill" metaphor, the X-Axis would be "progress in carrying out the task" vs the Y-Axis "effort spent struggling to figure out what you need to do next".

I.e. a steep curve means a high ratio of time spent looking for answers / reading docs; a flat curve means you're proceeding with the task feeling productive.

I've mostly seen the term in regards to game design i.e. a game having a steep learning curve means that it's hard to get into because it requires the player to have a lot of understanding about the game's mechanics before the player is able to realize his/her intentions inside the game with predictable outcomes.

In that context having a "not so steep" learning curve can help players ease into a vast, previously unknown, ruleset much easier by introducing it piece by piece, instead of literally overwhelming the player by throwing all of it at him/her at once.

If i say that windsurfing "has a steep learning curve" i mean that to make progress, to move along the X, you must learn faster, move more quickly up the Y. It isnt that you do learn quickly, just that steady progress on one axis requires faster movement on the other. It's really three dimensional: experiance, knowledge, and the speed at which you want to move along those two.

That's not the common usage, though. What I hear most (and usually mean when I use the phrase) is that the initial phases of learning the basics is very difficult, but then after you have those down, moving on through more advanced material is comparatively easy.

The difference between the two meanings has been explained on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_curve#"Steep_learning...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com