A Defense of Precise Terms | Bill Been

[stef]

Whatever you’re going to do in life, approach it as a professional. A professional has more than a cursory grasp of the details of his profession. A professional has taken the time to learn the precise language associated with the skilled practice of his profession. A professional airline pilot like me dang sure needs more than a basic grasp of his job.*

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[Nockian]

Or, if you aren't prepared to read and learn, then hire a professional coach, otherwise just hack at it piecemeal achieving nothing, until you either give up, or hurt yourself.

[Skeg]

Great article! Precisely the reason for my starting to use the SS system is because it was so detailed and precise. As with all things, learn to do things right if you want optimal success. Being 65, I wanted a professional approach to getting stronger as mistakes leading to injuries take a lot longer to overcome as compared to when I was 25.

[Bestafter60]

I think many people stumble upon Starting Strength, willing to try something new, about 50% certain it will give them a few new bits of info as they construct their own personal method.

When I started reading the book 6 years ago, I recall reading with great initial interest, but flipping ahead through that "wall of text" and thinking, "damn, I've gotta read all this before I can even start lifting?". And because I had no way of knowing that this time I had stumbled onto the "one true method" that is SS, I was lucky that my curiosity and attention span, intrigued by the extraordinarily thorough explanatory text, got me through it all.

In the software business we have many complex applications that require a massive investment of time to master. We provide new users with a section called "Getting Started", which gives them a small dose of information and some simple tasks so they experience a modicum of success, and rely on that success to inspire them to master all the complexity that follows.

I think that if SS were written along the general lines of "What you need to know to Deadlift", and "Close the book and do it now", followed by "Why this method is best", where the practical biology and bio-mechanics were explained as they are currently, we'd have a lot more recruits successfully engaging.

[stef]

I think that if SS were written along the general lines of "What you need to know to Deadlift", and "Close the book and do it now", followed by "Why this method is best", where the practical biology and bio-mechanics were explained as they are currently, we'd have a lot more recruits successfully engaging.

Perhaps they could skip to the "Learning to XXXX" section for each lift and the "Learning the Lifts" in Programming?

Nope, I really don't think this is it at all, BA60.