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I think he got it spot on with the mental model stuff. People fail at programming because they've learned to always use plug-and-play formulas instead of properly understanding what's going on. This approach fails absolutely with programming. There are no shortcuts.


I don't fully understand what's going on. However, as long as someone design the black box carefully, I can figure out what it can't and can do.


Thanks to the law of leaky abstractions, that will always bite you in the end (provided your are doing something complicated enough).

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.htm...


You still have to have a mental model of how the box works. A for loop is effectively a black box too.

It's not about knowing all the details of how it works, it's about making a mental model.




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