What's so wrong with saying "Drupal has a steep learning curve?" Well, it's not the most helpful analogy. And it's one of my pet peeves. I agree, it is a myth. Yes it is.
We have to keep in mind that the curve is not the path, and the initial sensation of difficulty comes from getting one's habits unstuck. Using this tired analogy perpetuates a misunderstanding about Drupal. Instead, I'd like to talk about opening doors, welcome mats, and crossing the threshold. Once you've made it through, you'll see a big difference.
Why?
Because we all want to make Drupal better, and a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. The most egregious errors are made not by people new to web development, but from experienced programmers who sneak into Drupal from a side window and re-write entire parts of Drupal on top of it. These are amazing feats of mis-understanding we see in our Client Advisory Team... and it comes from not understanding the fundamental threshold concepts of Drupal.
Drupal is peculiar- and when you get to know it, it makes a lot of sense. New Drupal users need to get familiar with what are referred to as threshold concepts, to lessen that initial sensation of disorientation. Good trainers can scaffold the learning experience, to bring learners through this process, and teach essential best practices.
At our first Drupal training with our partners, Dataflow in Belgium, Wim Mostrey, the instructor, reported that participants were so surprised "Drupal was easy"! They kept on looking for the complicated way to do things. This is where scaffolding comes in.
