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451 points birdculture | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.735s | source
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ants_everywhere ◴[] No.43979348[source]
A learning curve measures time on the x axis and progress on the y axis.

A flat learning curve means you never learn anything :-\

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alpinisme ◴[] No.43979525[source]
You may be able to draw one that way but it completely neglects the way people use the term ordinarily “a steep learning curve” is not an easy to learn thing.

In point of fact, I think the intended chart of the idiom is effort (y axis) to reach a given degree of mastery (x axis)

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1. ants_everywhere ◴[] No.43979678[source]
I don't think the idiom has in mind any particular curve. I think it's just another case of a misuse becoming idiomatic without any meaning beyond the phrase taken as a unit. E.g.

- another think coming -> another thing coming

- couldn't care less -> could care less

- the proof of the pudding is in the eating -> the proof is in the pudding

It's usually not useful to try to determine the meaning of the phrases on the right because they don't have any. What does it mean for proof to be in a pudding for example?

The idiom itself is fine, it's just a black box that compares learning something hard to climbing a mountain. But learning curves are real things that are still used daily so I just thought it was funny to talk as if a flat one was desirable.

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2. psychoslave ◴[] No.43981414[source]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_curve
3. azornathogron ◴[] No.43984120[source]
(not related to your overall point)

> - another think coming -> another thing coming

Fascinating. I had never come across this before. I've only ever seen people use "another thing coming".

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4. prmph ◴[] No.43987280[source]
What “steep learning curve” is getting at is a situation where a lot of learning needs to occurs in a short time to make any meaningful progress.

It is not in opposition to a flat learning curve, but a gentle one

5. nchmy ◴[] No.44019854[source]
Likewise. And, yet, I've thought about this for a while now and looked up a bunch of articles and I still think that "thing" is completely - if not more - appropriate.

I fully understand and use "think" as a noun - eg have a think - but when I say "you have another thing coming", there's no expectation or implication that they're going to rethink anything in the future. People often don't do that. Instead, I'm simply implying that reality is going to turn out to be very different (and probably negative/unfavourable for them) than they think/expect.

It's the equivalent of saying "watch out - youve got something else/other than you expect coming to you".

In fact, it even shifts the rethink from sometime in the future to now - "rethink this now, as it's not going to turn out how you expect" And, moreover, it's often said as a final warning "I'm doing you a favour right now by warning you - it's the only generosity you're going to get from me in this matter".