"If we really want to become smarter, we will have to resort to the hard work of building more effective representations within the existing processing capabilities of our brain. Modern neuroscience backs me up here (e.g. summary in nice NPR interview); the process of compiling our experience into higher and higher order patterns that we use to structure future experience is what makes the judgement of experts more efficient than that of a novice (not always more effective, as the higher order patterns can also limit our generative abilities)."
You can be a very effective developer (at least in certain contexts) without building robust mental representations which allow you to assimilate newer techniques easily. And there can be cases where this is an advantage.
So more concretely, people recommend learning tools like Lisp, to give your mind mind practice with a more abstract, meta way of working. (So you can explore and rejigger new ideas without necessarily writing a classical compiler and idiosyncratic language from scratch.)
"If we really want to become smarter, we will have to resort to the hard work of building more effective representations within the existing processing capabilities of our brain. Modern neuroscience backs me up here (e.g. summary in nice NPR interview); the process of compiling our experience into higher and higher order patterns that we use to structure future experience is what makes the judgement of experts more efficient than that of a novice (not always more effective, as the higher order patterns can also limit our generative abilities)."
You can be a very effective developer (at least in certain contexts) without building robust mental representations which allow you to assimilate newer techniques easily. And there can be cases where this is an advantage.
So more concretely, people recommend learning tools like Lisp, to give your mind mind practice with a more abstract, meta way of working. (So you can explore and rejigger new ideas without necessarily writing a classical compiler and idiosyncratic language from scratch.)