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

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

#741

Post by gadders »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #564
quacked wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I answered you clearly. Ethnic homogeneity is a smoke signal. Ethnic whiteness is exceptional. You're past my line with ascribing what I think and who from in a way that's literally just you ranting your imagination at me. You have no idea my mind on any of these things based on our conversation thus far. Talk about the self report...

>> Ethnic homogeneity is a smoke signal

The Kenyan soccer team doesn't have any white players. Are they racist?

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

#742

Post by gadders »

s5300 wrote: post #666
BuckRogers wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that’s why the Proud Boys say they’re not apologizing for creating the modern world. And the idea is popular. To be clear, many Hispanics agree. Many of their ancestors played a role alongside the rest of their fellow whites. Whites are still admired by Asians as well. This anti-white thing is largely an American phenomenon and other far left folks around the world that are resentful and cannot accept responsibil…

Not sure what fantasy you’re living in where a terrorist group (aside from perhaps the U.S. government) is “creating the modern world” lmao I presume whatever fantasy it is might be a fairly common “master race” one

The "they" when they say "they" created the modern world is not the membership of the organisation, but rather western civilisation/culture.

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

#743

Post by dmak »

sgdpk wrote: post #624
dmak wrote: post #520

This might be a good thread to ask this. I have done all the math in college, but I don't fundamentally understand sine, cosine, tangents, and logs. For sine, cosine, and tangents, I understand how they may correlate on a graph, but that doesn't really give me additional insight into how to apply or use any of this. Similar thoughts on logs, especially when it comes down to O(logn). Maybe someone can direct me to a v…

I don't know exactly from what angle you're looking at this, so let me explain through trigonometry. We know that triangles may be displaced, rotated, flipped and scaled while still looking the same. We have a word for this: we say two triangles are congruent when they are the same up to these operations. This means that there is something intrinsically invariant about triangles. Can we find it? Actually yes! If the…

That's kind of what I mean. It's just a mechanical equation and that's how I understand it. They are all ratios, but is that all it is? what insight can I get from that and why do I care about its application in the workforce? when would I ever need such functions? etc...

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

#744

Post by monero-xmr »

rramadass wrote: post #492
optymizer wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can believe that the world is flat, announce that boldly and stand by your statement. It doesn't mean it's true in reality, only that it's true in your mind. Edit: This is more blunt than I intended it to be. For what it's worth, I happen to agree with you in principle, but I also think you're taking the roof off the car here and boldly claiming that the experience is so much better in the summer. What about wint…

No need to tone it down; You were right in calling out the GP. To dismiss the whole of OOD/OOP so cavalierly just goes to show they don't know what they are talking about. Much of the success of Modern Software is directly due to the wholesale adoption of OOD/OOP in the last few decades.

OOP is successful despite of itself. My point is it’s just an inferior way of programming and there is no reason to use it other than legions of OOP programmers who take it as gospel. Obviously this is an opinion but it’s informed by lots of experience in new and legacy code bases.

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

#745

Post by ezedv »

One concept that took me a while to fully understand was the concept of decentralization in blockchain technology. When I first learned about blockchain, I understood the basic principles of how it worked, but it wasn't until I started working for a blockchain company that the concept of decentralization really clicked for me.

Decentralization is a key feature of blockchain technology, and it refers to the fact that the blockchain is not controlled by a single entity or organization. Instead, it is maintained by a network of computers working together, and every transaction is recorded on a distributed ledger that is available to everyone in the network.

Realizing the potential implications of this decentralization - such as greater transparency, security, and accessibility - was a big moment for me, and it solidified my belief in the power of blockchain to transform industries and the way we do business.

If you're interested in learning more about blockchain and decentralization, I highly recommend checking out Rather Labs (https://www.ratherlabs.com). We're always looking for passionate people to join our team and help drive the adoption of this exciting technology.

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

#746

Post by Swiffy0 »

metadat wrote: post #529
tantalor wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great way to understand complex, new-fangled technologies. Ask "what manual process does this speed up"?

Okay, I'll bite: What manual process does ChatGPT speed up?

The process of aggregating and formatting searchable information from many sources.

When you simply Google something, you're presented with blogs, articles, stackoverflow pages, github repositories, documentation, ... you're still left with the manual process of parsing all of the results, e.g. turning what you've read into runnable code, summarising and taking notes in a format that is easy for you to follow.

Furthermore ChatGPT allows you to have a dialog about the results. Maybe you have two equally interesting results and don't know which one to go with? Usually you'd have to do "sub-googling" in cases like this and once again parse, aggregate and format those results. With ChatGPT you can basically just ask it to expand on the previous results and help you figure out what to do.

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

#747

Post by nobodyandproud »

A bit more light hearted, but I would’ve had far more dates (and one nighters) if I’d smiled more and worked on my small talk.

It only dawned on me many years later that I was:

a. physically attractive to the opposite sex, especially during my teens and twenties, regardless of my ethnicity.

b. my blank expression was intimidating.

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

#748

Post by more_corn »

When I was 12 my wrestling coach was getting his PHD in fluid dynamics. He gave a tour of the lab where he worked. On screen was a simulation. He explained that they fly a plane back and forth through a certain column of air in the stratosphere to get starting data. Then, using his model he predicts what the flow will look like over a period of time. There were specks flowing through the space onscreen. I asked what they were. “Bugs” he said. Six years later I was sitting in the library studying and I slapped my forehead. “Bugs! Of course! Ha!”

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

#749

Post by berniedurfee »

Leg drive when bench pressing. The idea that anything you could do with your legs could possibly help drive the bar upward was always ridiculous.

Many, many years later, I finally found the right combination of articles and videos where it finally made total sense.

Instant improvement and I wished I would have understood it sooner.

The problem is really the name, which leads to a particular mental image, which is incorrect, but difficult to break.

I think naming is important and for me, can cause enough cognitive dissonance that I can’t get past what something is called to understanding very easily.

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

#750

Post by more_corn »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #747

A bit more light hearted, but I would’ve had far more dates (and one nighters) if I’d smiled more and worked on my small talk. It only dawned on me many years later that I was: a. physically attractive to the opposite sex, especially during my teens and twenties, regardless of my ethnicity. b. my blank expression was intimidating.

Everyone should practice being approachable and talking to strangers. Not just for expansion of romantic opportunities but basically every kind of opportunity.
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