I’m pretty sure he was talking about teaching beginners how to ride, not how to become an uber unicycle meister. Many new riders get so distracted by all the different aspects of the unicycle world that they don’t focus enough on learning to ride the thing, and instead might get bogged down by minutiae. Sometimes a good instructor can tell you where to focus your attention, and which things to worry about later.
There are plenty of over thinkers in these forums – we can argue about the most ridiculous or obscure things!
Sorry, not true. It was a process, but not real complicated to figure out how to make stronger unicycles when we kept breaking those old square taper unis. What was actually harder was getting unicycling to a place where an actual market was developed, to help cover the costs of development and make for affordable, high quality and really strong unicycles. People who preferred “simple” just kept riding their oldschool unicycles and doing the oldschool activities (secretly, they started riding offroad and bought the “good stuff” a few years later). 
I will venture to guess that you are not a teacher. Starting simple is not ending simple. But teaching someone to ride a unicycle, in an actual class-like situation, usually involves compromises, generally based around limits on time. The worst thing you can do to a beginner unicyclist is leave them thinking it’s even harder than they thought it was going to be. First we generally try to help new riders get some success; to get to that place where they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. From then they will learn and grow much faster, but if we can’t get them to that point within whatever time is available, they may never try again.
I get it. If we’ve written 7000 (or more) posts on here, how is it we don’t have time to make notes? I didn’t make any notes in my early days of riding either. I think that speaks to one’s personal style, and commitment to the activity. When I was learning, I wasn’t committed at all. My borrowed uni was a piece of crap, and I didn’t have easy access to information (Internet or its predecessors) to help in the process. My motivation didn’t really develop until after I realized I could ride the thing.
I once wrote on these forms, somewhere, a similar quote. I think it was something like “Learning to ride a unicycle is 90% perspiration, 3% inspiration, and 7% refusing to quit.” Something like that, but the original was better…
True. Also, figuring out what’s useful and not, is often the hardest part of all.
And us being unicyclists, about half will vehemently disagree about the art vs. science thing. Some will prove it mathematically. Others will post a video if the most beautiful riding you’ve ever seen. We’re an interesting bunch, and it takes all kinds!
And with that, I will post an “art” picture.
