I wish it hadn't pointed to another silver-bullet app at the end of the article.
Learning Is Remembering
191–200 of 241 posts
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#192There is a difference between remembering something (like a fact) and a deep understanding of a concept. Let me give you an example in programming: I sometimes have to google for the names of functions I've already used a hundred times. Sometimes extremely simple functions (just a while ago it was list.size() in Java), only because I can't remember the name of the function, but of course I understand the concept - th…
Reminds me of Feynman's anecdote about the names of a bird. > See that bird? It’s a brown-throated thrush, but in Germany it’s called a halzenfugel, and in Chinese they call it a chung ling and even if you know all those names for it, you still know nothing about the bird. You only know something about people; what they call the bird. Now that thrush sings, and teaches its young to fly, and flies so many miles away d…
The name is first and foremost a way to attach that deeper knowledge of the bird to a symbol so it can be communicated to others. The name is necessary, but usually tells you very little about the thing it refers to.
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#193I've always felt there is...
1.) Things you know you know
2.) Things you don't know you don't know
3.) Things you know you don't know.
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok how about this more difficult experiment to prove the hypothesis: I'm going to send you a wikipedia page written in chinese. You're going to read it once. For every chinese word you're allowed to look up the meaning on google translate once as you read. You're not allowed to do any other form of learning besides reading. Do you think in this case you'd also not get "lost"?
I think I would get lost, but only due to the vocabulary and translation load and the "once" restrictions - not due to the content of the article itself. In practice I end up reading the same wiki articles dozens of times as I go up and down the link trees, with each pass connecting various ambiguous ideas together. If I could annotate the pages with arbitrary amounts of translation notes as I read them, I could prob…
Ok but the point stands that there is a limit to your working memory. Your limit sounds a lot higher than most peoples but it is still limited otherwise you’d never get lost even if you could only read things once.
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#195I think the software that is promoted here is actually detrimental to "remembering". The core thesis here "Learning is intertwined with memory" was indeed hashed out by psychologists in the 1970 (Craik and Lockhart); It was precisely these two who put forth the "Levels/depth of processing" idea, which emphasized the importance of the encoding process. A more "meaningful" encoding enhances memory. The author not so se…
You review the AIs suggestions which itself is a form of encoding (that is arguably more powerful than the encoding you describe)
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#196I wish it hadn't pointed to another silver-bullet app at the end of the article.
Why? I almost didn’t include a link so am interested to hear your answer
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#197There is a difference between remembering something (like a fact) and a deep understanding of a concept. Let me give you an example in programming: I sometimes have to google for the names of functions I've already used a hundred times. Sometimes extremely simple functions (just a while ago it was list.size() in Java), only because I can't remember the name of the function, but of course I understand the concept - th…
> I sometimes have to google for the names of functions I've already used a hundred times
This is why I have always been terrified of having to do a standard 'whiteboard' coding interview, and really don't want to ever participate in administering them to others. I know if I was ever tested in this way, I would be unable to remember the basic function names in languages I have used daily for years... and yet I have developed sophisticated software tools in these languages with a large global userbase. I fear that in an interview people would decide I am a fraud, and couldn't have really done what I have done when it appears I actually don't even remember the basics. But my mind just doesn't work that way, I can't remember length vs size either, even if I can design a complex algorithm, and turn it into a good piece of software under the actual conditions of work in the real world.
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#198When I was 25, I had a scary stellar memory. I never used a calendar. Never missed any appointments. I could remember exactly what people said in meetings several months ago. I never forgot names. I still almost never forget names, but mostly my memory is gone. Well, because of life.
My advice. Organize yourself. Use as much cognitive offloading as possible. Keep a diary, a document, wiki or whatever. Use calendars, reminders, alarms, Kanban boards and on. Make sure to understand concepts and how things really work. Practice how to spot what is important. Take your time on important things. Learn the tools. Use the tools. Learn how to pick the right tools.
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think I would get lost, but only due to the vocabulary and translation load and the "once" restrictions - not due to the content of the article itself. In practice I end up reading the same wiki articles dozens of times as I go up and down the link trees, with each pass connecting various ambiguous ideas together. If I could annotate the pages with arbitrary amounts of translation notes as I read them, I could prob…
Ok but the point stands that there is a limit to your working memory. Your limit sounds a lot higher than most peoples but it is still limited otherwise you’d never get lost even if you could only read things once.
I don't _feel_ like my working memory is particularly large, but that's also a hopelessly subjective assessment.
Maybe it's more like my working memory can hold more things by aggressively discarding details until I need them - same capacity, but with better lossy compression. Not sure if I could measure that either, but it feels closer.
Re: Learning Is Remembering
#200There is a difference between remembering something (like a fact) and a deep understanding of a concept. Let me give you an example in programming: I sometimes have to google for the names of functions I've already used a hundred times. Sometimes extremely simple functions (just a while ago it was list.size() in Java), only because I can't remember the name of the function, but of course I understand the concept - th…
> I sometimes have to google for the names of functions I've already used a hundred times This is why I have always been terrified of having to do a standard 'whiteboard' coding interview, and really don't want to ever participate in administering them to others. I know if I was ever tested in this way, I would be unable to remember the basic function names in languages I have used daily for years... and yet I have d…
> This is why I have always been terrified of having to do a standard 'whiteboard' coding interview
I too don't like the idea of these, but in the case where you're solving a problem in front of someone I feel like as long as you explain your thought process you'd be generally fine. If you can't remember whether the method is length() or size() or something else just pick one and explain what you're doing. Intelligent interviewers would likely understand that you're familiar with the concepts and would be able to accept your result or let you compile/execute and fix the issue.