Dummie's Books and Idiot's Books
I don't hate many things (except lima beans), but I despise the Dummie's and Idiot's line of books. Why? At least three reasons:
1. Philosophically, I believe that buying any of these books plants a seed in your head that you are not intelligent enough to figure out a subject (you can now get this abomination of a series on everything from marriage to cooking, and computers to stamp collecting). I believe that NO human being is incapable of learning and learning does NOT start with admitting that you are dumb. Dumb (in the sense of these books) is defined as "not having the capability to process data". By that very definition, it is a waste of money to buy the books in the first place. The entire premise is counter productive to learning.
2. Take a look at some of these books, and you will notice that there is way too much prose. The books try to make the subject humorous and light and often are written in a story fashion that is counter to how adult learners learn.
3. Because they are written more as stories than learning text books, folks who purchase these books often either shelve them because they aren't conducive to learning or they feel that they can't understand them. If I had a nickel for every time I hear someone exclaim, "I bought the Dummie's book and it was so hard to read that I felt even dumber and more frustrated", I would be in Forbe's Top 100 richest Amercians.
My blood pressure rises just thinking about the subject.
Many other good books are available for learning any subject. In the computer arena, I strongly encourage you to learn to navigate the help provided in every program (some are better than others), but they can answer many of your questions. Or, I like to recommend the "Visual Learning Series or Guides" of books. This series provides many well document screen shots of the program you want to learn about and makes finding what you are looking for easier. One other series I recommend is the "Step-by-Step" series from Microsoft Press.
You will get so much further with these books and online help than messing with Dummie's and Idiot's books.
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Dummies & Idiots books
Yo Rick,
It may very well be that the Dummies & Idiot’s books are not good resources. I willingly (and humbly) bow to your FAR greater knowledge (than mine) of computers. And, in the interests of full disclosure, we do own two or three Dummies books and one Idiot's book, although we seldom use them. In addition to that, as a music teacher, I have the same visceral repulsion to the deceptive oversimplification found in “Play Guitar In 7 Days" books as you do the Dummies & Idiot’s computer books. Nobody ever said deception doesn’t sell. The lemming-like popularity of One-Ring “government” is certainly proof enough of that hypothesis!
For me, it is not a matter of teaching philosophy at all. If it were, as a teacher myself, I would instantly agree with you 100%. However, for me, the Dummies/Idiot's concept is purely a marketing ploy, in which the titles were, and are, intended to make the consumer think, "if these books are so simple, straightforward, and user friendly that even dummies and idiot's can learn the subject matter from them, since I am not remotely a dummy or an idiot, a smart person like me will surely be able to learn the subject matter with very little or no effort."
I suspect the massive success of the marketing plan (millions, if not tens of millions, sold), combined with the fact that even many otherwise "smart" people have been sucked into buying the books, serve as proof that my "market-oriented" assessment of the situation, might be more accurate than your "philosophy-oriented" assessment.
This, of course, in NO WAY goes to the substantive merits, or lack thereof, of the books. In that area, particularly in view of your own excellent teaching skills, I instantly bow to your expertise.
As a hardcore free-market, anti-government, anti-group-think realist with a libertarian-leaning (aka classical individual-freedom-loving "liberal" in the mold of John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty") world view, I thought one of your students and/or friends should try to help you keep your blood pressure down around safe levels. My way of doing that is to suggest that basing your critique of Dummies/Idiot's purely on philosophy appears to be a little more "touchy-feely" than I would have expected from a tough-minded free-market guy such as yourself! Can't stand Dummies/Idiot's? Then write better books and outsell Dummies/Idiot's in the marketplace! Your friends and students, indeed the whole "newby" world, will beat a path to your door and make you filthy stinking RICH! Of course, the down side of that eventuality is that we would be losing out on a whole LOT of fun because we would learn so much from your books that we would no longer need to come to your classes! :-)
All the best,
John Wilkenson
Dummie's Books
My big problem with any of the Dummie's Books that I have read is that they talk about things that I already know and do not cover the things that I am trying to find out about.
Dummie's Books and Idiot's Books
Good Morning, Rick!
I enjoyed reading this article, and, although I've looked at very few Dummie and/or Idiot Books, I agree with much of what you have to say. Certainly, thinking I'm a dummie or an idiot doesn't help me learn. As to points two and three, I think you're over looking the fact that people learn in different ways. Some appreciate pictures and few words; others appreciate a dialogue or a narrative. Keep in mind that life is a narrative and much of what we live is a story. Actually much of learning was in story form - until academics came up with the essay. You prefer the minimum amount of prose; some others need a frame work, a narrative, for learning. You prefer pictures; some others prefer a story.
I enjoyed reading your effective article! And I appreciate your website! Thanks for all you do to help us computer users learn! BTW, I think in your classes you give us more than the pictures. You give us the pictures within a narrative . . . . I wonder if the authors of the dummies/idiots books give us tooooo much narrative and not enough meat. I think you're a master at providing just the right amount of both for learners.
I'm going to check out the "Visual Learning Series or Guides" and "Step-by-Step" soon. Thanks for the tips!
Judy
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