"At least my $0.02, and from..." <- > <@jamesmunns:beeper.com> At least my $0.02, and from feedback from Tanks at Ferrous who was head of training (and a background in teaching) for a while - it's usually more effective to start from a working system and work DOWN to first principles, than to start from first principles and work UP. > > I'm certain it's not necessarily universal, and many folks (esp embedded I've found) like to start the other way, but it ends up being less effective for most people, often because they struggle to hold all the "leaf concepts" together to make the next step up. > > Often - you want to start from a working system, something where they can see results, and uncover it bit by bit, so they always have a "solid" ground to step back to when necessary, or step forward when they are ready. That's true too. Showing a bad solution has the risk that this is burned in.