I never said Rippetoe was clueless And I'd be willing to wager that even Rippetoe wouldn't say there's only one way to train with NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!
As an aside, his methods apparently aren't working for you. They haven't made you "retard strong" as you put it, just retard smart.
As is so often the case, you are FOS. Rip's Starting Strength program is 6-8wks, and he is adamant about saying that if you ain't doin' it EXACTLY as he suggests, then you're not doing his program.
As for my strength, I fall into Rip's "intermediate" level for strength standards on all the listed lifts, in spite of being 55yo with 200 jumps. I can still run for distance and do 8-10 pullups. I'll take that.
