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Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
21–30 of 66 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#22> Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
No. We are far better off now.
But yes, we are stuck.
It's like "HN now is worse than the old days" meme. It's not worse but it hasn't matured along with the exponential growth of the internet.
We are stuck at Wikipedia. TikTok is probably the "best" successor to Wikipedia. Teaching people how to use a saw over Wikipedia telling people saws exist. We can do better.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#23> many young people don't want to spend months pulling their hair off to get a deeper understanding of what they do Every generation says this about the next generation, and yet here we are with scientists in their 30s making huge advancements in things like mRNA vaccines. If you think that laziness (what you're implying this is) will be the end of the world, there are many things that are far more urgent. No high-te…
>and yet here we are with scientists in their 30s making huge advancements in things like mRNA vaccines
mrna vaccines are several decades older than the people you are likely thinking of, and by many estimates the return on pharmacological research per dollar invested, as a rough metric of scientific productivity, has slowed by two magnitudes.
>No high-tech industry is collapsing because they can't find enough STEM graduates.
civil and nuclear engineering would like to disagree. Shortages are so severe that retirees are routinely brought back these days.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#24Statistically, the opposite is happening: human knowledge is becoming deeper . The arc of human knowledge throughout history bends towards specialization : never before in human history have so many people been educated in so many different subdomains, each different in methodology, discipline, and scope. This is evinced by rising numbers of postgraduate degrees, increasing diversity in academic specialization, etc.…
>> Statistically, the opposite is happening: human knowledge is becoming deeper.
Do you have a source to point to? (honestly wondering)
>> to converse intelligently about things outside one's area of expertise
Just had this conversation the other day. 90% of my old college teachers (engineering) could talk about and explain in depth many many topics out of their field (philosophy, history, geography and what not). That's not the case today.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#25If there is such a need, people will create incentive so somebody will digging into this knowledge. This is easy actually, the incentive could be money, honor etc.
I think incentives are there already, but more and more people start to say "we will leave this to the boring people who love books, and we get all the fun". They are not built in a way that helps them read a large book for example. They don't appreciate attention to details. They don't know how to find joy in something like that, they don't know how to value someone like Dennis Ritchie for example. If you told them…
Anti-intellectualism was much more popular with kids of past generations than it is of "Gen Z."
The youngest are not the generation that came up with the "math isn't cool", "nerd", etc. archetypes.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#26My day to day assumption is for nearly anything I want to do, someone else in the relevant domain has already done the deep dive and it's a variety of premature optimization for me to over invest.
If it's important, or my domain, or something interesting, sure, I'll dig in deeper. However, we live at a time where vast expertise is a few clicks away, so I find it's usually more valuable to know how to find and analyze someone else's solution than to create my own.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#27> many young people don't want to spend months pulling their hair off to get a deeper understanding of what they do Every generation says this about the next generation, and yet here we are with scientists in their 30s making huge advancements in things like mRNA vaccines. If you think that laziness (what you're implying this is) will be the end of the world, there are many things that are far more urgent. No high-te…
>and yet here we are with scientists in their 30s making huge advancements in things like mRNA vaccines mrna vaccines are several decades older than the people you are likely thinking of, and by many estimates the return on pharmacological research per dollar invested, as a rough metric of scientific productivity, has slowed by two magnitudes. >No high-tech industry is collapsing because they can't find enough STEM g…
> civil and nuclear engineering would like to disagree. Shortages are so severe that retirees are routinely brought back these days.
This has to do with funding shortfalls. Looking at the current political/economic landscape, I would practically be an idiot to invest time in trying to become a nuclear engineer rather than getting deep knowledge of a subject that capital holders have shown more interest in rewarding.
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#28Statistically, the opposite is happening: human knowledge is becoming deeper . The arc of human knowledge throughout history bends towards specialization : never before in human history have so many people been educated in so many different subdomains, each different in methodology, discipline, and scope. This is evinced by rising numbers of postgraduate degrees, increasing diversity in academic specialization, etc.…
>> Statistically, the opposite is happening: human knowledge is becoming deeper. Do you have a source to point to? (honestly wondering) >> to converse intelligently about things outside one's area of expertise Just had this conversation the other day. 90% of my old college teachers (engineering) could talk about and explain in depth many many topics out of their field (philosophy, history, geography and what not). Th…
I think it is important to remember not to value judge these sorts of widespread skills. Does it matter today that I can't shape a flint or ride a horse?
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#29There is no stopping of "current" mode. Yet.
When presenting my PD work for the young guns, I UX them to unconsciousness:)
Scratching the surface of a given topic and focusing on comfortable for them communication is the key. I always let the door be open for the deeper questions without selling my "extra" knowledge or experience. They have to be the stars in the room, knowledgeable professionals have a critical way of thinking which is "annoying" and "unproductive".
Be soft, forgiving, friendly, and willing to learn the "new trends" without asking questions. Just tell you deeper knowledge to take back seat.
My only hope is in the recession. Maybe if we are lucky things will reach a critical point and all the "unicorn magic", "empty words", "big ideas" will meet reality. And we know that reality has no sense of humor or "culture fit". :)
Re: Ask HN: Is the world suffering from shallow knowledge?
#30Statistically, the opposite is happening: human knowledge is becoming deeper . The arc of human knowledge throughout history bends towards specialization : never before in human history have so many people been educated in so many different subdomains, each different in methodology, discipline, and scope. This is evinced by rising numbers of postgraduate degrees, increasing diversity in academic specialization, etc.…
>> Statistically, the opposite is happening: human knowledge is becoming deeper. Do you have a source to point to? (honestly wondering) >> to converse intelligently about things outside one's area of expertise Just had this conversation the other day. 90% of my old college teachers (engineering) could talk about and explain in depth many many topics out of their field (philosophy, history, geography and what not). Th…
I've had a similar experience. I think this loss of generalization is (dishearteningly) most visible in CS departments: many of my CS peers were openly scornful or disdainful of their liberal arts requirements, which in turn were diluted to ensure that mediocrity or inattention would not filter them out of their degrees. The end result: thousands of yearly graduates qualified to program (and by virtue bring money and renown back to the department), and nothing else.
Edit: And to be clear, these were not stupid people, and there is an important sense in which they were right to be scornful: the classes were clearly not intended to challenge them. I don't believe that particular blame can be levied on them.