[convolvatron]

not necessarily. there is a bottom up school of thought that encourages people to noodle around and construct primitives by playing in the domain, and then interactively composing those primitives into larger and larger systems.

[preseinger]

Yeah, that's true. It's a judgment call for sure, but I've always found that angle on things to be self-subversive. The best programmers I know are all bottom-up learners, not top-down.