Intellectually, a beginner knows that on SS5x5, adding 5lbs per workout, 15lbs per week, it's cartoonish to think that at the end of the year they'll be lifting 780lbs. They know this, but abstractly.

Bad programs are ones which leave the beginner utterly bewildered by this realization, with no idea at all what to do. They weren't exposed to the virtue of laziness, and struggle as they try to discover it in a state of baffled frustration.