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

Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 946 posts

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#291

Post by passion__desire »

krosaen wrote: post #123

The Kalman filter. I felt like I understood it watching some videos but it always turned out I didn't really understand it well enough to put it to use or explain it to others. Gaining a better understanding ultimately just took a lot of time playing with the equations and understanding how measurement and process noise/uncertainty get incorporated into the Kalman gain, and how that in turn affects the updated state…

> This is a case where memorizing the equations (with the help of Anki) helped me reflect on them and keep everything in my head long enough to improve my understanding.

Dr. Mark Colyvan once preparing for his test couldn't understand a proof. So he went ahead and tried to memorize it anyway but in the process of memorizing he understood the proof so he had no need to memorize it now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqYh1h2t8WU

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#292

Post by iddan »

Someone once told me he derives his self-confidence from the dialogue with himself. It took me a few years to understand it:

1. A clear dialogue with oneself is establishing certainty about the inner self

2. Certainty with the inner self enables one to see the outside in a clear way

3. That clarity contributes to confidence in one's actions.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#293

Post by bcrosby95 »

fortituded0002 wrote: post #196

1. Everyone is the main character in their own story. This manifest in all sorts of ways - from people not being there when you need them the most, from friends dying off as soon as proximity changes, to how and why get people get promoted in jobs. This isn't necessarily bad, but if you don't know how to navigate this it can be quite painful and confusing. 2. Representation matters. I knew this for a long time, but i…

I've noticed #2 with my 4 year old. She won't do anything unless there's a girl doing it. My other kids don't seem to care though.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#295

Post by rajin444 »

fortituded0002 wrote: post #196

1. Everyone is the main character in their own story. This manifest in all sorts of ways - from people not being there when you need them the most, from friends dying off as soon as proximity changes, to how and why get people get promoted in jobs. This isn't necessarily bad, but if you don't know how to navigate this it can be quite painful and confusing. 2. Representation matters. I knew this for a long time, but i…

> 2. Representation matters.

Strange, I had the opposite encounter. I realized the only thing keeping me from doing things was myself. There are definitely real barriers (hiring quotas, affirmative action, etc.) but without artificial constraints the only thing stopping you is you. You might feel a little uncomfortable but that's something easily overcome - and almost like a superpower when you realize you can overcome an external locus of control.

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#298

Post by hyperthesis »

sowbug wrote: post #249
nathias wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mine is the opposite, you can't get anywhere in life with the perspectiveless perspective

Maybe it works best as a blend of looking out for yourself and looking out for the group. Or, cynically, maybe it's effective to adopt the group-first mentality once you have the personal momentum from years of being self-centered.

observe selflessly, act selfishly

Re: Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?

#300

Post by brunooliv »

The biggest one has to be design patterns in OO design!

I was fortunate to have a great teacher which taught OOP by focusing on design patterns, dynamic dispatch, composition over inheritance, etc, etc, the really foundational concepts.

I was too young and naive to fully understand all the concepts, I just thought writing Java was cool! Ah.

Many years later, I really realized how to apply design patterns to solve real problems in a large production codebase and it all clicked then and in retrospect that teacher was really amazing, I just was too naive to realize it back then...

Post reply on HN