I agree, FITYMI is one of the most missunderstood mottos of all time. It has to do with changing one's mental state about something in order to achieve that thing rather than framing someone about what you are capable of.
Basically, he moved across country with his wife (Roberta), because (somehow, IIRC the story) he got hired as a software developer by a company in California - but he had no programming experience.
So - on the long drive from where they lived, he crammed learning how to code from a book for the language (don't recall - maybe cobol or fortran, given the time period), and was able to show up, day one, and code for his job.
At least, that's what little I recall about the story. I probably have a few details wrong. Regardless, its an even more amazing story when you realize this was at a time when Ken would have had no access to a computer until he got to his new employer's office (at the time, desktop PCs were virtually non-existent, and laptops were but a dream of Alan Kay - at best, you had a green-screen terminal, if you weren't submitting card batches)...
> It has to do with changing one's mental state about something in order to achieve that thing rather than framing someone about what you are capable of.
Sounds like there's no misrepresentation at all. Most people treat it as to become delusional of their own abilities or qualities, so functionally they are just tricking themselves in addition to everyone else.
"Changing your mental state" can be just as harmful as outright faking and sometimes there's no difference in outcome at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Williams_(game_developer)
Basically, he moved across country with his wife (Roberta), because (somehow, IIRC the story) he got hired as a software developer by a company in California - but he had no programming experience.
So - on the long drive from where they lived, he crammed learning how to code from a book for the language (don't recall - maybe cobol or fortran, given the time period), and was able to show up, day one, and code for his job.
At least, that's what little I recall about the story. I probably have a few details wrong. Regardless, its an even more amazing story when you realize this was at a time when Ken would have had no access to a computer until he got to his new employer's office (at the time, desktop PCs were virtually non-existent, and laptops were but a dream of Alan Kay - at best, you had a green-screen terminal, if you weren't submitting card batches)...