Your characterization of "Green" as some sort of unbiased, scientific refutation of "Orange" is pure propaganda. "Orange" is obviously biased, but cites and provides links to many excellent articles. "Green" picks a couple of these to criticize and then claims to have refuted "Orange". Follow the links and see for yourself. "Green" even states outright, "... my beliefs are that ... [many] alcoholics get sober on their own, and many succeed through AA." Does "Green" provide numbers? Statistics? Anything useful? No, just his "beliefs." And THAT is the fundamental problem of AA and the problem discussed in the blog. Reliance on belief in the face of science is at the core of what's wrong with AA.

Why does AA work? It's a dumb question, because AA actually doesn't work. The real data show that you're better off WITHOUT going to AA meetings. People have a better success rate kicking their addiction on their own. The fundamental problem is that AA works for a minority of people, but those who are in AA are those very people ... so they're convinced it works, and they push the program on everyone. http://religionvirus.blogspot.com/2010/04/christian-shocker-god-based-aa-program.html

I'm 58. Started programming in 1969 in high school. Got my B.S. in 1978, Masters in 1985. They didn't even have "object oriented programming" in 1985, not to mention about a dozen other major technologies. Yet I'm still at the top of my game because I constantly buy books, adopt new technology and educate myself. There's no other way. A foundation in real computer science (not just programming, but algorithms, data structures, design patterns, analysis of programs, etc.) is critical. With that, you can adapt to new technology quickly. It's not easy, but it's part of what you signed up for. Go for it.

You guys have completely lost track of every web usability lesson. This "improved" navigation is a perfect example of geeks gone wild, of an open source project run by a bunch of programmers with no idea what usability even means. Slashdot now has a "user interface" that is completely at odds with every standard on the web. This is so counterintuitive it's unbelievable. The idea that you should "RTFM" is boneheaded. The comments you're getting in this thread are ALL FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE FIGURED OUT YOUR NON-STANDARD INTERFACE. Normal web users may be trying to read this, but they'd quickly become frustrated and depart, their comments unheard. Do you guys even read Jacobsen? Do you even know what a hyperlink is? The web has standards, boys. Get used to it. Work with it. But don't invent your own.