[ornornor]

Every time this book is mentioned, I feel like a moron.

I learnt ruby reading books, going through the koans, the rails turorial from M. Hartl... But I could never ever understand the poignant guide to ruby. I mean, I got paid to write ruby for several years so I obviously learnt the language, but I never understood what Why’s book was about or how it could teach me ruby. Just completely went « whoosh! » over my head at the time. And it still does.

[igravious]

By analogy you're pretty much saying that you don't understand Sesame Street -- educational material plus silly gags. What's not to understand? It's a comic, a comic strip whose putative subject matter is the teaching of a particular programming language. What's not to get? Why does that conceptual union go over your head?

If a counting numbers tutorial can be taught by a vampire puppet in a TV show then a programming tutorial can be couched in the form of a comic strip with talking foxes.

Maybe I'm taking you too literally. I mean, are you saying that the Poignant Guide is not to your taste? I'd understand if you were saying that it isn't to your taste. But you don't appear to be saying that -- you appear to be saying that you essentially don't get how the genre is meant to work.

Consider Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Logicomix-Search-Truth-Apostolos-... -- a biographies of Frege, Russell, and Gödel and the history of predicate logic in comic book form …

Or consider The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Bab... -- a history of early mechanical computer science in comic book form …

Or consider Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Sc... -- literary criticism of the comic book form in comic book form!

[npsimons]

> Every time this book is mentioned, I feel like a moron.

Admitting you don't know or understand is the first step to knowledge. And this may not be a shortcoming on your end - many Great Books of literature are well-known to be good enough that you get something out of them upon each reading, hence those lists of "ten books you'd take to a deserted island."

Perhaps there are technical works like that, and this is one of them? Not arguing for obfuscation, just that some concepts don't boil down easily into bite sized chunks, and very often those are the most valuable.

[ornornor]

Maybe. I just wish I could see what people see in this book, at least out of curiosity.

To me, it’s a very convoluted way to learn ruby with a ton of irrelevant comic strips and pop culture references I don’t get that just add to the sizable cognitive load of learning a new language.

[npsimons]

> To me, it’s a very convoluted way to learn ruby with a ton of irrelevant comic strips and pop culture references I don’t get that just add to the sizable cognitive load of learning a new language.

Fair, and to each their own. I do appreciate having cut and dry specs and whitepapers, but too often I feel that we as programmers take things too seriously and take for granted aesthetics. And while aesthetics may be subjective, for me at least, having multiple ways to approach something (like a new (to me) programming language) helps me really wrap my head around it and build a mental model.

[michaelcampbell]

FWIW, I'm in your boat. I never "got" it, though I had some years of Ruby experience under my belt by the time it came out. The whole thing felt rather cultish without ... substance, to me.

But, people I respect love it, so I guess it's just different strokes for different folks, and that's perfectly fine.

[benburton]

You're not alone!