[cavDXF]

One passage made me a bit mad:

"[...], but for now it is enough to observe that people who don’t know how to use a particular tool very well are being told to throw that tool away and learn to use an entirely new one on the grounds that it will enable them to do things that they could have done at least as well with the old one – which is (when you think about it) a little peculiar if the aim is really to help people with their writing, and not (heaven forbid!) simply to evangelise for a community’s preferred way of doing things."

I'm sorry, but this is a bad argument and the worst life advice in the article. It's the same students in school tell all the time, when they question why they should learn math, though they are set to become an artist or editor or anything that seemingly does not involve math. You particularly go to college or university to learn NEW things. Even if they are things you probably won't need in the future and are seemingly obsolete.

While he does have a point that (La)TeX Users fetishize their tool of use, most of his arguments can be used on Word or any WISIWYG tool, too. The example he gives in point 4 is so arbitrarily chosen and his minimal example he thinks is better is just as ambigious and confusing as the LaTeX one. Most comments already mention what the author's real problem: Preference of tool.

[kutkloon7]

Well, I don't agree with the author of the article in that I do think that Latex does offer an advantage in many of the use cases. In any case, any student in STEM is supposed to write some reports, and LaTeX is the only choice that makes sense, since there are not many other options with the same support for mathematical typesetting.

However, you're twisting his words a bit. He says that it's not good to learn a new tool if you have an old one which can do the job. Not that you should avoid things for which you need new tools.

I'm all for learning new skills and ideas. However, I hate learning new tools. The ideas in web development are not hard at all. However, there is an idiotic amount of trendy tools and programming languages, and that is something I would object to, because it costs a lot of people a lot of effort.

[madez]

I never went to school or university to learn obsolete or unnecessary things.

Math, starting from a certain point, is useless for most people, still it is required to be learnt. Math might be a good tool to measure how good a person can think abstractly, but if it's used for that, then be honest and say so.

I wonder what would change in society if we forced all children to learn an instrument as intensive as we force them to learn math.

[svckr]

- complains about people being told to use a different tool

- goes on to tell people to use a different tool

[TheSpiceIsLife]

> It's the same students in school tell all the time, when they question why they should learn math, though they are set to become an artist or editor or anything that seemingly does not involve math.

I never finished high school. Went on to study a bit of nutrition. I work in my trade (metal fabrication) operating a laser cutter, doing a lot of 2D CAD work. I can rebuilt a car engine or build a house, including all electrical and plumbing and brickwork. I've built boats, sailed, dived, I ski, rock climb, occasionally draw a thing with a pencil. I can bash out a simple tune on a piano. I can pull a decent shot of coffee on a commercial grade espresso machine.

Please tell me which bit of your useless math I didn't do has limited me in anyway I care about?