Why Understanding Beats Knowledge • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#21

Post by kempbellt » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 6:11 PM UTC

thisispete wrote: post #14

Does not apply to tech interviews.

Absolutely applies to tech interviews.

Interviewed at a company that wanted to hire me a PHP web dev. I mentioned right out of the gate, "I have zero PHP experience and most of my roles have been back-end/infrastructure related, but since we are chatting, here are examples of similar projects in other languages. And I'll also discuss a bit about my understanding of web development in general".

Hired and started within the week and had a very productive working relationship with them for quite some time.

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#22

Post by replicant » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

A very formulaic article, start with an anecdote that could fit many other articles (it seems Feynmann always shows up when we are talking about learning), refer to some Twitter conversation, add a formula or graph which provides no insight, sprinkle memes everywhere and that's all.

In the end, it seems the entire article can be summarised to, "it is all good to google for some recipes to solve your problems, but you also should care about some deeper understanding". Is there anything else to it?

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#23

Post by randompwd » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 8:37 PM UTC

Vmody2 wrote: post #5

This is why it's important for STEM and tech people to have some understanding of liberal arts. "Understanding" means having perspective, it's easy to get caught up in our world, thought patterns, echo chambers, and biases. I think that's why curiosity is such an important trait, it promotes understanding, not the accumulation of facts. Next time you're at a book store, pick something up on a topic that sounds intere…

> This is why it's important for STEM and tech people to have some understanding of liberal arts

What has "an understanding of liberal arts" got to do with this? Sounds like an unnecessary reach.

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#24

Post by BerislavLopac » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 9:18 PM UTC

stakkur wrote: post #15

But knowledge is understanding. We often mislabel 'information' as 'knowledge'. But information is just information. A 'knowledge base' is no such thing; it's an information base. Knowledge is not 'memory of facts'. Knowledge == information + understanding. Wisdom == information + understanding + experience. Example: Python syntax is information. Understanding and using Python syntax is knowledge. Knowing when Python…

Obligatory meme: https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/12946008718971699...

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#25

Post by Swizec » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #24

stakkur wrote: post #15

But knowledge is understanding. We often mislabel 'information' as 'knowledge'. But information is just information. A 'knowledge base' is no such thing; it's an information base. Knowledge is not 'memory of facts'. Knowledge == information + understanding. Wisdom == information + understanding + experience. Example: Python syntax is information. Understanding and using Python syntax is knowledge. Knowing when Python…

Obligatory meme: https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/12946008718971699...

I used that in the article :)

Wish I could figure out the original source. Do you know?

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#26

Post by stakkur » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 10:09 PM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #24

stakkur wrote: post #15

But knowledge is understanding. We often mislabel 'information' as 'knowledge'. But information is just information. A 'knowledge base' is no such thing; it's an information base. Knowledge is not 'memory of facts'. Knowledge == information + understanding. Wisdom == information + understanding + experience. Example: Python syntax is information. Understanding and using Python syntax is knowledge. Knowing when Python…

Obligatory meme: https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/12946008718971699...

Along those lines, this is more or less where I was trying to get: https://ecolabsblog.com/2010/11/29/data-information-knowledg...

Basically, these are the same as the building blocks of library and information science.

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#27

Post by manjalyc » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 10:28 PM UTC

Vmody2 wrote: post #5

This is why it's important for STEM and tech people to have some understanding of liberal arts. "Understanding" means having perspective, it's easy to get caught up in our world, thought patterns, echo chambers, and biases. I think that's why curiosity is such an important trait, it promotes understanding, not the accumulation of facts. Next time you're at a book store, pick something up on a topic that sounds intere…

I get your premise, but that has nothing to do uniquely with liberal arts.

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#28

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Aug 30, 2020, 3:41 AM UTC

stakkur wrote: post #26

BerislavLopac wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory meme: https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/12946008718971699...

Along those lines, this is more or less where I was trying to get: https://ecolabsblog.com/2010/11/29/data-information-knowledg... Basically, these are the same as the building blocks of library and information science.

[deleted]

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#29

Post by 666damo » Sun, Aug 30, 2020, 3:46 AM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #25

BerislavLopac wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory meme: https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/12946008718971699...

I used that in the article :) Wish I could figure out the original source. Do you know?

I think this is the original source... https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2014/01/22/information-vs-kn...

Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge

#30

Post by rstuart4133 » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 12:21 AM UTC

stakkur wrote: post #15

But knowledge is understanding. We often mislabel 'information' as 'knowledge'. But information is just information. A 'knowledge base' is no such thing; it's an information base. Knowledge is not 'memory of facts'. Knowledge == information + understanding. Wisdom == information + understanding + experience. Example: Python syntax is information. Understanding and using Python syntax is knowledge. Knowing when Python…

> But knowledge is understanding.

Yes, at some level both are just memorising something. But in the way I like to think about it, they are different things.

For example, you could figure out if someone is overweight by memorising a whole pile of weight & height stats. If someone height 170cm and they are over 75kg, they're overweight. If they are 180cm and over 81kg they're overweight, and so on. That's knowledge.

But if you understand being overweight is a statement about height versus weight, and memorise the formula for BMI you've compressed all that knowledge into a few bytes worth. That's understanding. Both are just memorising something.

Taken a bit further, what AI's turn the knowledge encoded in whole pile of specific examples (the training data) into a understanding (ie, a formula encapsulating the knowledge).