Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

tcd.ie

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 75 posts

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#51

Post by eyelidlessness »

belugacat wrote: post #45
eyelidlessness wrote: post #44

My own experience: I play guitar, I like to think I play very well and lots of people have praised my playing. I do it in bursts, spending lots of time playing and practicing and recording for a stretch of some months then I… don’t play at all. Life makes that cadence happen as much as anything, but all of my significant strides forward in technique and creative breakthrough have come shortly after breaking long dry…

I’ve been taking drawing classes and been trying to draw everyday for the last ~6 months, during the holidays I didn’t draw for 10 days due to being with family, when I got back to it it shocked me how much I had improved.

It’s so great when it happens! I’m glad you took a break and came back to big improvements.

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#52

Post by thaumasiotes »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #50
thaumasiotes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Jin [...] wuxia [...] Zhang Wuji [...] taichi [...] Zhang [...]. One of these things is not like the others. Why spell "taichi" that way?

Why do you feel the need to point out a tiny error when a Chinese person is going to the effort of romanising their own language so that we can all read it?

It's unlikely to be an error; no one is going to confuse ji with chi. I wanted to know the thought process. I was expecting something along the lines of "I was using 'taichi' as an English word, not a Chinese word".

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#53

Post by marttt »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #44

My own experience: I play guitar, I like to think I play very well and lots of people have praised my playing. I do it in bursts, spending lots of time playing and practicing and recording for a stretch of some months then I… don’t play at all. Life makes that cadence happen as much as anything, but all of my significant strides forward in technique and creative breakthrough have come shortly after breaking long dry…

I have experienced something similar in my general learning patterns -- and, being 35+, I don't think this has always been like that. Might well be that information overload etc has actually amplified this kind of impulsive learning sprints ("learning in bursts") for many of us.

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#54

Post by temp12913231 »

The brain does garbage collection when you sleep. Probably it does an even wider reorganization when you leave some neural circuits unused for some time.

Personally, with gaming, I had some improvements coming from restarting a habit but psychologically it is harder to suck more at something and working to get to your former performance. I have seen it in a lot of gamers. They get gud, for some reason they grow tired and leave, they return, they wonder at how out of shape they are, they play a while and leave again when they realize how much they have to work to get to top tier. Ofc I am not referring to games based on the amount of time and money you waste on them, but skill based old school FPS shooters.

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#56

Post by k_sze »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #52
AussieWog93 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel the need to point out a tiny error when a Chinese person is going to the effort of romanising their own language so that we can all read it?

It's unlikely to be an error; no one is going to confuse ji with chi. I wanted to know the thought process. I was expecting something along the lines of "I was using 'taichi' as an English word, not a Chinese word".

Well, when you put it that way, it's pretty much like you said: "taichi" as an English word. I've always known "taichi" instead of "taiji" in English, even though I know the correct pinyin.

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#57

Post by rhapsodic »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #44

My own experience: I play guitar, I like to think I play very well and lots of people have praised my playing. I do it in bursts, spending lots of time playing and practicing and recording for a stretch of some months then I… don’t play at all. Life makes that cadence happen as much as anything, but all of my significant strides forward in technique and creative breakthrough have come shortly after breaking long dry…

I have experienced exactly what you're describing. I want to find out what the minimum effective layoff time is, however, so I can do it deliberately rather than randomly, and hopefully maximize the rate at which my playing progresses.

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#58

Post by BearsEatBeats »

cercatrova wrote: post #12

Isn't this similar to dropout in machine learning neural networks? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_(neural_networks)

would dropout be considered forgetting or learning to use as little information needed to get the right answer?

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#59

Post by eyelidlessness »

rhapsodic wrote: post #57
eyelidlessness wrote: post #44

My own experience: I play guitar, I like to think I play very well and lots of people have praised my playing. I do it in bursts, spending lots of time playing and practicing and recording for a stretch of some months then I… don’t play at all. Life makes that cadence happen as much as anything, but all of my significant strides forward in technique and creative breakthrough have come shortly after breaking long dry…

I have experienced exactly what you're describing. I want to find out what the minimum effective layoff time is, however, so I can do it deliberately rather than randomly, and hopefully maximize the rate at which my playing progresses.

I don’t know if it works that way. I vouched for your comment because I think it’s a bummer it was dead, but I can’t say I’ve ever used breaks or falling out of practice as leverage and I don’t think it would be healthy for me to think of it like that.

Enjoy taking a break. It’s good for you, or at least necessary when you need to. Be present and grateful when you come back from a break and see improvements. And build on that if you feel like you have the momentum then.

Re: New theory proposes ‘forgetting’ is a form of learning

#60

Post by eyelidlessness »

marttt wrote: post #53
eyelidlessness wrote: post #44

My own experience: I play guitar, I like to think I play very well and lots of people have praised my playing. I do it in bursts, spending lots of time playing and practicing and recording for a stretch of some months then I… don’t play at all. Life makes that cadence happen as much as anything, but all of my significant strides forward in technique and creative breakthrough have come shortly after breaking long dry…

I have experienced something similar in my general learning patterns -- and, being 35+, I don't think this has always been like that. Might well be that information overload etc has actually amplified this kind of impulsive learning sprints ("learning in bursts") for many of us.

This definitely shifted for me with age, with (again for me I don’t want to overgeneralize) bigger improvements and bigger gaps as I aged. I don’t think I could seriously describe playing guitar well until I was in my late 20s and couldn’t say it with much confidence until my mid 30s.

As far as information overload, it was my late-mid 30s when I was diagnosed with ADHD, and I have a lot of sensory sensitivities. I barely even listen to music right now.

Post reply on HN