On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 9:30 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm a big believer in "two languages is more than twice as good as knowing one" because when we compare and contrast, see similarities and differences, we get that "stereo" view.

For example, when a Windows user, I'd go over to Linux for awhile and study hard, then come back to Windows really understanding Windows better too.

When you use more than one operating system, you start to get "what's on OS" (I'd also used mainframes and minis, before hobbyist boxes went viral)

When you know more bases than 10, you for the first time start to get "what's a base".

As I was thinking of examples of how learning two languages helps leverage learning each one, I neglected one of my favorites, yet most obscure: to learn XYZ coordinates (at the heart of high school and to some degree code school), learn non-XYZ methods of doing the same things.

For example, we have spherical coordinates (r, alpha, theta)

And now, thanks to a tiny group of developers, we have "IVM coordinates" also known as Quadray Coordinates, where the reference vectors spring from the origin (0,0,0,0) like in the methane atom, to the corners of a regular (or not) tetrahedron (1,0,0,0) (0,1,0,0) (0,0,1,0) (0,0,0,1).

I bring this up because it's also an area in which I've done a lot of Python programming. Those learning XYZ vectors in the code school sense, as objects, could use these other vectors for comparing and contrasting, even just a little, as spice, as grist.

If interested to learn more:

https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/thinking-outside-the-box-dcdd9df4ba69

There's also a Wikipedia entry.

Kirby