I'll be the dumb one to ask: what do you mean? Is this that making a mistake that costs a lot is the best teacher, because you only have to mess it up once to learn it forever?

[–] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 hours ago

Pretty sure they mean people don't learn something again when they already learned it. Once you learn how to do something, willingness to learn it again but a different way dries up, and so you stick to bad habits as long as they 'work'

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 hours ago

It's a mantra about teaching people and then expecting them to forget it. Doesn't work. They'll default to what they already know.

My freshman English teacher got married in October and I called her by her maiden name the entire year.

Like all programming mantras, it's not universally true, but it's annoyingly reliable. It reflects the shape of the human brain.