Comment by great_wubwub | Hacker News Reader

Comment by great_wubwub | Hacker News Reader

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> just in time manufacturing has the noted weakness of having slack or resilience in the system

Did you mean 'having no slack or resilience'?

Assuming you did and I understand your point, I disagree with it insofar as it applies to knowledge. Yes, JIT manufacturing of real things can be easily tripped up and it screwed us during the pandemic, but does that apply here? The author is saying "when you figure out what you need to read, go out and get it" rather than "keep a bunch of tabs and bookmarks hanging around in case you need them".

I mean, yeah, I guess if you only read things you can get from the library or in dead tree form, but if you really want to read something there's ebooks and audiobooks galore out there, and if we have a supply chain mess that's so bad that you can't get an electronic book, we're all kinda screwed anyways.

Assuming you did and I understand your point, I disagree with it insofar as it applies to knowledge. Yes, JIT manufacturing of real things can be easily tripped up and it screwed us during the pandemic, but does that apply here? The author is saying "when you figure out what you need to read, go out and get it" rather than "keep a bunch of tabs and bookmarks hanging around in case you need them".

I am an advocate of learning broadly, instead of being narrow. That's not to say you shouldn't learn only the things you found that you need, but that it shouldn't be the only thing you're doing.

Books, I assumed, will be there if you need it.

The just in time example is a great example of why you need to read broadly. If you read about logistics about the pandemic, you would have learned about the weakness of just in time.

If you read just in time, you will miss many ideas because you do not know you need them.

This.

To anyone entering a new topic for themselves, not knowing what you don’t know is the biggest barrier and risk. This is why, for example, cargo cult style development is so fraught with issues.

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