John Lato wrote:
I sort of agree with this, with some very large caveats.
Well, yes. If you don't know what a feature does, then you won't know that it solves the problem you have.
However, there's a lot to be said for both intellectual curiosity and learning for the sake of knowledge. Just because you may never need to use a feature doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to understand it.
There is that. However, in my experience, most of the advanced techniques tend to be described in language beyond my comprehension. (And most examples seem overly complex - although maybe that's just a reflection of the fact that simple problems don't require sophisticated techniques in the first place.) Having a specific problem to solve can be quite helpful. Unlike an example, you already understand what the problem is, and why it can't easily be solved any other way.