I find people are limited in growth in technology due to them not expanding their skill  despite it not being difficult  so they end up being held back  despite the demand in business and in job marking being in new technology. Technology constantly changes and being valued at corporations is dependent on overcoming ***** steps. This phenomenom can be described by an analogy. If you slowly move your finger up against a balloon, you feel resistance and feel like it is pushing back. You move your hand further still feeling the resistance until it pops and you can move on. These people are really smart and not lazy. The struggle in the first step of learning something new and different and give up. They need to learn to over the *****.  Words I can think of  barrier/friction/glass ceiling/struggle/opposition  Neither describes the face that the friction is just in the beginning. Learning the new thing isn't really hard but the resistance is merely in it being different and new. I guess it is similar to waking up early in the morning or exercising. Initially it is very hard but becomes routine it is easy and become easy.  Two people get given the same task of fishing. One tries to immediately catch  fish with his hands. The other takes his time by making a net. The former could have done the same as it would make fishing so much easier however the friction of doing something different to what his existing methods was, he found to hard .  What do you call (single word or compound word) the initial friction of doing something different or the bias of not wanting to do it because it is different/strange/alien even though it is beneficial once that irrational mental block gets passed. Not a dislike. Almost a phantom resistance but that isn't a recognized phrase. Not a mind block but a mind bubble but that also isn't a recognized phrase
122642
What is the best term to describe the fact that most users have an initial dislike of any change to a UI even though it may really be net better over time?  Note: Question originally appeared
5486
I am a first year PhD student, and it's the fourth week of school. I am taking two classes, doing one grad class TA and doing a lab rotation. I am in Electrical Engineering (Controls and DSP).   I start my day thinking- "I'll go to class from 10 am to 12 pm, solve 5 homework problems from 1 pm- 3 pm, do some TA work from 4 pm to 6 pm, and read a bunch of papers from 7 pm to 9 pm, then cook and sleep. How optimistic.   In reality, when I start the homework problems at 1 pm, I end up having to read a bunch of textbooks to understand stuff in it (I'm doing Convex Analysis), and by the time 3 pm rolls around, I have finished only one problem. Feeling discouraged, I keep at this homework, vowing to stop only when I'm done with my quota of 5. My efficiency starts to drop severely after a few hours, but since I'm in school with my laptop and stuff, I can't go anywhere to 'relax', so I just keep sitting and start redditing or something. And then my concentration further drops when I try to resume real work. This goes on, I miss dinner, I sleep late, and the efficiency just plummets through the week.   My past couple of weeks have been so inefficient, I want to do something about it before it's too late.   In short, my question is, when your work is way too difficult to achieve your goal of the day in your allotted time, do you switch work, or do you keep going? I have always believed that output is more important than input, that is, putting in two hours for each task without achieving much in anything is not as good as putting in, say, eight hours for just one and finishing something in it nicely. However, this strategy of mine is failing me for the first time in my life, because even if I put in eight hours, I am not able to finish anything. The work is so difficult. I'm not complaining, just really need guidance.
72032
My child just entered third grade, and the homework load is much higher this year, with a lot of writing and math drills. It is all work that she can do easily, but it's causing the whole family a lot of pain, because she's have a really hard time just sitting down and doing it — asking many questions about things she clearly actually knows, and getting distracted by the smallest thing going on around her. (Setting up a special quiet area isn't helping, because the distractions could be her pencil or a sudden burst of word association based on something in the lesson.)  So, a page of writing and a couple of pages of math which could be done in fifteen minutes total is taking an hour and a half. She can easily explain the reasoning behind the math problems, but when it comes to writing down what she just said, it's like pulling teeth. She'll slowly write a word, sounding it out in slow motion as she writes each word. And she'll say that she doesn't understand a question, but when she actually gets her mind pointed at it, she can write a great answer. And she's clearly picking up the concepts in class; I have no doubt that she actually understands, which is part of our frustration.  My wife feels like she's just wanting attention, but I think it's more about our daughter's own ability to focus. We both feel that sitting down and working painfully through each question isn't really helping her. That works, but my wife feels like it's just rewarding the behavior, and I feel like it's not really helping her learn any better focus on her own, which, you know, she'll need in actual life. And, we're happy to spend child with our kid, this pretty much the opposite of quality time.  Neither rewards or consequences seem to have any effect, and nor do charts. All of those things basically just seem to add another layer of complication, distraction, and misery. What else can we do?
10638
This is a problem that has haunted me for more than a decade. Not all the time - but from time to time, and always on windy or rainy days, it suddenly reappears in my mind, stares at me for half an hour to an hour, and then just grins at me, and whispers whole day: "You will never solve me..."  Please save me from this torturer.  Here it is:  Let's say there are two people and a sandwich. They want to share the sandwich, but they don't trust each other. However, they found the way how both of them will have a lunch without feeling deceived: One of them will cut the sandwich in two halves, and another will choose which half will be his. Fair, right?    The problem is:  Is there such mechanism for three people and a sandwich?    EDIT: This was roller-coaster for me. Now, it turns out that there are at least two books devoted exclusively on this problem and its variations:          Yesterday, I was in a coffee shop in a small company. We ordered coffee and some chocolate cakes. As I was cutting my cake for my first bite, I felt sweat on my forehead. I thought, 'What if some of my buddies just interrupt me and say: Stop! You are not cutting the cake in a fair manner!' My hands started shaking in fear of that. But, no, nothing happened, fortunately.
27097
Why is insulting other users and giving sarcastic comments such a huge part of the culture on SO? It's the complete opposite of projects like Wikipedia where everybody is exceedingly friendly and helpful.  For example: This response comes from a user with 13k reputation to a question about an interview problem:     There are a fair number of undergraduate CS students who can see this solution       immediately, and it seems they were looking for those students.      If you have any ambition as a C++ programmer, and aren't already intimately       familiar with the data structures and algorithms provided by the STL, you       should learn them now. It seems your competition already has.   This was in response to a genuinely extremely difficult interview problem that did not even ask for a solution using the STL. This seems to me like an unnecessarily unfriendly thing to say. This is just one example of what I think is a major trend.
50887
I am new to Stack  Exchange and I think it's very impressive.  One thing bothers me is that because it is so far down the line, I don't think beginners stand a chance of growing.  As time goes on, more and more questions are being answered and therefore if someone asks something with a really basic answer you can just comment. However, beginners can't comment until they have a reputation of 50. The only way they can build up is by answering questions. But if they answer a basic question long winded, they will be voted down because not so much effort was needed or because its already a duplicate and will lose the bit of reputation they have earned.  Can you tell me the future for beginners?
84783
I had a test today and there was this question : If you are a well-organized person, you .... your time.   a) will manage b) manage   I'd like to know the answer and why?   Thanks in advance.
82607
Example:  A: Hey, do you like to do bungee jumping? B: Um, OK. Haven't done it before, but let's try it.  I'm not looking for adventurous or something similar. That word should also fit in less action-packed activities:  A: I have a new board game. Do you like to play? B: I don't know this game and, actually, I don't like these varieties of games but I'll play. Maybe it's fun.  First I thought about open-minded but I think this means more willing to listen to people, think about their ideas, arguments, ... and accept them (not necessarily agree). What word describes person who is willing to try activities he doesn't know or hasn't experienced before?
77203
I've experienced this way too many times, and the best example I can give is a person who treats you like you have no idea how to do X and who keeps teaching you how to do it. I feel handicapped. Take for example how to play a card game. You know how to play the game because you've played it 5 times. However, there is a person always insists on explaining the game to you - like you are always new to the game - when you don't actually need any help and you just want to think for yourself. Another example situation is doing a repetitive task which you already have experience with, and yet the person continually tries to 'teach' you when you don't need help/already know how to do it. It almost makes you mad because you really don't need help. As an example which recently happened to me:  &quot;Hey, do you remember how to start the wood chipper?&quot; &quot;Yes I do&quot; &quot;Okay, well, let me show you one more time&quot;  Again, is there a term for someone who does this?
44006
Someone asked me why I am looking for a new job while I am currently working. This got me thinking if there is a idiom that says something about it being wise to not leave your current job until you have another sure thing lined up etc.
60377
Today I had some time and felt like writing a relatively good answer on Stack Overflow; explaining both the underlying mechanisms and good practices, unlike usual declarative answers in a "do that" style.  It took me like an hour of time, $50 if I were free lance. It'll bring me nothing but 3-5 occasional views, and - if I get lucky - some ignorant comments.  You know, it's quite discouraging.  Instead of pride for the job that was done, I feel frustrated. I know, this answer may offer help to the OP, if he ever notices it (being already satisfied with other answers).  So the only fate the answer will meet is to sink forever, below thousands other questions, falling like snow.  So, being a programmer, I am thinking of efficiency. It's a waste of time to spend so much effort to answer one question when there is no way to [actually] reuse it. So, I wouldn't do it again but just turn back into short answers mode without explanations.       Seeing other answers, I don't think I am only one with such feeling.  The current policy is driving knowledgeable and educational users away, yet it attracts inexperienced ones in numbers. Ones who will tell you to use [some technology] which they never have laid their hands upon. Ones who write answers just because they have learned some "good practice" from other questions, and this "knowledge" becomes an endless source of rep points.  The idea of Stack Overflow is rotten. It was excellent when trees were high and traffic was low.  It turned bad now; it has become a honeypot for all the "enthusiast programmers" of the world, eager to share their 2 cents faster than you can say the word "close".  You're killing a great resource. Despite all the nice words and proper declarations, it discourages the reuse of the knowledge. And encourages fast on-site answers.  Of course, the rules will tell you contrary. It's all nice and proper (if you don't mind it's strict mutual exclusivity). But mechanically, technologically it works in the way I described.  I tried to write a tag wiki. You know, it was biggest waste of time in my life. As a matter of fact, it is not a wiki at all; you can't even link to a certain section. Not to mention that nobody ever has the idea to read tag wikis.  Reference questions? Don't make me laugh. There is no good mechanism to store and categorize links. Favorites, although intended for the different purpose, are a chunk of crap when you want to use it as a reference. So, you can't compete with 30-seconds answers: a question will get 5 answers before you can even find an appropriate link.  Okay, I can organize links myself but, there are some problems:   I am just a human. I cannot remember everything I am just a human and I cannot answer questions at rate of 1 qpm. One person cannot fight the Tide. It's helpless. When technology makes people writing fast [incomplete] answers -  no good will of proper declarations can do a thing.  Even if a question gets finally closed, it won't hurt anyone - the hydra grew two more already.   You'll call me a brute for insulting honest users and innocent volunteers, but that's fact: There are much more inexperienced users than experienced ones. And inexperienced users have much more spare time to hang over than experts who have their job to do. So, from that fact we can conclude that most of the answers on Stack Overflow have a low quality. Nobody cares. But I do.   There should be a technical way to limit the activity of not-so-knowledgeable-yet-eager-to-answer users. There should be a technical preference for the closing a question over answering it (have a silly answer for the silly question? welcome to comments). There should be a technical solution to accumulate and structure knowledge, a system that lets you choose a good answer instead of writing it by hand.   That's the only way. Otherwise Stack Overflow will remain an automated dispenser of bad practices.  Well, I just felt like letting it out again. Thank you for reading.
51634
Is there an idiom available, that is exactly opposite to "Cake walk" or "Child's play"? I am looking for something exactly synonymous with "Very difficult" or "strenuous".   Example Sentence:      This task is really _______(difficult).
51917
This seems to be a common enough occurrence that it would merit its own phrase. I imagine it might be some sort of subset of Murphy's Law. But it's specific enough that Murphy's Law doesn't quite address it.  Do you know when you are banging your head against a wall for hours trying to fix something? And then when you finally give up and try to get someone else to come fix it (or even just look at it to see that it's broken), it's working perfectly as if nothing had ever happened? And at this point, you're just trying to convince the other person that it was broken in the first place.  It'd at least take some of the frustration out of the experience if you could both just laugh about &lt;insert the phrase for it here&gt;. But as it is now, I basically have to go through the whole paragraph above to say it, and at that point the joke is kind of lost.
50230
SO has helped me so much in times of need. It is crazy - sometimes I am having a huge issue with a program I'm working on at school or work, and I post it on SO and the answers come quickly and easily. Lots of time it's a typo, while others it's a deep misunderstanding of mine. I wonder how I can fit in here at Stack Overflow. How I can contribute. In fact, I feel such a “beginner”, I don't even know where to look half the time. But I see there is now a place for /Programmers/ which leads me to wonder if there can be a site for beginners - and strictly beginners. Beginners post in Stack Overflow, and only beginners can post answers. Meaning, you must ask a question in the beginners forum in order to answer one. Or something, I'm not sure, I just want a place to connect with others who are just starting out how to learn about programming, and want to get the chance to answer other beginner questions so I can learn more (you learn 40% of what you do and 90% of what you teach). What do you all think about this?
47017
Take this paragraph for example: I am a follower, not a leader. Hell, I'm not even that good of a follower either, just someone who will do your bidding for the right price. Even then, if it doesn't benefit me -- or put you in debt to me -- I won't do it.
96589
Hi I am a perfectionist electrical and electronics student who struggles with studying because I cannot focus on the subject or context as I cannot let go of the questions or details that trouble me. I always feel like I must be an expert regarding the subject and be able to answer all the questions that one might raise no matter how stupid or unrelated those questions are. That is why I am not academically successful and satisfied. What mindset should I adopt to overcome this situation? I feel totally frustrated and hopeless. I tried out psychological help but it keeps coming over and over.
94634
I will begin with a disclaimer, I am not an English native speaker, but I can speak fluent English and understand English in almost all research papers I read.   However, occasionally I come across some papers published in peer reviewed journals  with ridiculously complicated sentence structure using relic non-technical vocabulary that no one in the past century has heard of!   Here is one of my favorites:     The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and an antagonistic depth quest locally.   Whatever that means!  Don't get me wrong, the content of such papers can sometimes be informative, but I can't help but get frustrated over such over complication in language! I can spend days trying to decipher what the author was trying to convey and I occasionally give up on the entire paper.  So my question is, why do authors feel the need to hide their amazing ideas/contributions behind such language barrier? Would it hurt to write the paper in a simple fashion such that any reader with the required technical background can understand it?      auth'rs, wherefore thee doth this?