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Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

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Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#41

Post by megaman821 »

jackpirate wrote: post #13
tpatke wrote: post #5

I think about Spolsky's post on programmer productivity quite often [1]. I think the most interesting part of the post is when he says, "The mediocre talent just never hits the high notes that the top talent hits all the time." Obviously, I wonder if I am a programmer who can hit the high notes and, if not, what it will take to get there. When I read a post like this, I try to apply it to making myself a better progr…

It's very easy for us to forget about variance and standard deviation of programmer productivity when all other factors are equal. Let's imagine we have 1000 of the world's best programmers working for a year on creative projects. All of them will try something innovative. Only some of them, however, will succeed. Who succeeds is a function of what projects they were working on. And that, is almost purely random and…

People attribute almost everything to luck to feel better about their own lack of success. Luck plays a minor role. Intelligence and tenacity are much more important. If luck was the main factor nearly all successful programmers would come from China or India since they have the most entrants in the "lottery" for successful programmers.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#42

Post by franticpedantic »

megaman821 wrote: post #41
jackpirate wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very easy for us to forget about variance and standard deviation of programmer productivity when all other factors are equal. Let's imagine we have 1000 of the world's best programmers working for a year on creative projects. All of them will try something innovative. Only some of them, however, will succeed. Who succeeds is a function of what projects they were working on. And that, is almost purely random and…

People attribute almost everything to luck to feel better about their own lack of success. Luck plays a minor role. Intelligence and tenacity are much more important. If luck was the main factor nearly all successful programmers would come from China or India since they have the most entrants in the "lottery" for successful programmers.

You argue that intelligence and tenacity are more important than luck, but then it follows that since China and India have the most entrants, the only explanation for their lack of proportional success is lack of intellence and tenacity relative to Americans(I'm not saying you think this, I'm just noting it follows from your argument).

I would argue luck does play a big role, and that they weren't lucky enough to be born into a country with the standard of living, educational resources, and number of tech jobs that Americans have is the major differentiating factor.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#43

Post by wccrawford »

silentscope wrote: post #36

"Education is the wisdom wrung from failure." I really couldn't disagree with this more. No doubt, failure is important in learning. However, to be educated or have an education, at the end of the day, you need to get something right. Personally, I don't learn by failing fifty times and never succeeding. I don't learn how to lose weight if I try fifty diets and never lose a pound. I don't learn how to talk to a girl…

On top of that, it's perfectly possible to learn without ever having made a mistake in the first place! I've learned plenty of things perfectly the first time, and didn't need a mistake to lock it in.

So mistakes are only half the key to learning.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#44

Post by dacilselig »

Having a Bsc in psychology, I can remember that this was one of those concepts that I picked up from my classrooms and have used for myself. I believe that you could expand on this and say something similar about your athletic abilities. Being from Canada, I've played a lot of hockey and would be told that I was quite good. Having that thought in my head stagnated my ability as a player. It would be mean that when I had a bad game, I would question put blame on other factors and not myself. After reading this article, it made me realize that my self-perception about being a good hockey player was not a good way of seeing myself. After having a bad game, I shouldn't feel bad but rather I focus on finding a way to improve my weaknesses.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#45

Post by jaredmck »

megaman821 wrote: post #41
jackpirate wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very easy for us to forget about variance and standard deviation of programmer productivity when all other factors are equal. Let's imagine we have 1000 of the world's best programmers working for a year on creative projects. All of them will try something innovative. Only some of them, however, will succeed. Who succeeds is a function of what projects they were working on. And that, is almost purely random and…

People attribute almost everything to luck to feel better about their own lack of success. Luck plays a minor role. Intelligence and tenacity are much more important. If luck was the main factor nearly all successful programmers would come from China or India since they have the most entrants in the "lottery" for successful programmers.

Successful people attribute almost everything to their own intelligence, willpower or hard work to feel better about themselves. Luck is extremely important for any individual trial - once you get up to a large sample size, sure, your traits will win out - but many people will never reach such a sample size in their entire life.

When I see "fail fast", what I really think is: "increase your sample size".

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#46

Post by orbitingpluto »

Why do I sometimes learn faster?

1.) When I've had a decent night's sleep. 2.) When I've made efforts taken to manage stress. 3.) Coffee!!!! (Dyn-a-mit-eh!) 4.) When I'm just in interested in why I made a mistake. 5.) Active presence of mind that I should be focusing on the task at hand. 6.) When I'm interested in the material. 7.) When I don't give a damn how about smart or dumb I might think I am. 8.) Removal of any negative influences at the moment. (PHB)

And most importantly,

9.) When I've exercised that same day.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#47

Post by david927 »

wallflower wrote: post #3

"Most people say it's easier to pick up languages when you're younger," says David Green, of University College London, who specialises in bilingualism. "But people can learn languages at any point in their lives. Being immersed in a language is important. Personality is a contributing factor too - not being able to tolerate feeling foolish from making inevitable errors will make learning a new language a difficult p…

David Green is wrong. It's easier to pick up languages when you're younger. Noam Chomsky discovered that the brain is specifically geared to learn languages around 3 to 6 years old. Kids at that age get the language in a way that you'll never get after.

But people can learn languages at any point in their lives

Of course. I learned German, from nothing to fluency, in my twenties; and the same with Czech in my thirties. But if you ask me, for example, how a German or Czech name sounds, my answer won't match with native speakers. You can get all the definitions, make no mistakes in the grammar, but you won't understand it at a deeper level. A language is way to express a culture, and the culture is gigantic and ineffible compared to the language.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#48

Post by ajross »

crusso wrote: post #29
ajross wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's just a straw man arguing for the opposite extreme. It's even better established that consistent failure and lack of praise anticorrelates with educational achievement. The point is balance and sanity, not policy flamage.

Speaking of straw men... Did you read what I posted or make up something in your mind based upon your preconceptions? All I said was that praise should be deserved. When you disconnect someone's mental model from reality, it has consequences.

When you start your post with a phrase like "folly" that "litters the corpse of the American educational system", I think it's a little disingenuous to claim that "all" you said was that praise should be deserved. You have an axe to grind, and you picked up a stone from this article to do it. But the article isn't about broad education policy, it's about very narrow findings in psychology. So yes, your post looks to me like a poorly-informed, knee jerk flame.

History, if you will, is littered with the corpses of people who thought they knew exactly how to fix the american educational system (or whatever: pick your policy obsession, it's all the same).

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#49

Post by netmau5 »

It's great to see a formalized study validate some of my long-held beliefs. For me, the biggest drawback of being self-critical has been "what if I draw the wrong conclusion from this mistake?" Some people call it tenacity: to try again and again after failure. But I think it's paranoia. The thought that I learned and will now stand-by something completely wrong due to a flaw in reasoning is a frightening path towards ignorance.

Re: Why Do Some People Learn Faster?

#50

Post by le_isms »

franticpedantic wrote: post #42
megaman821 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People attribute almost everything to luck to feel better about their own lack of success. Luck plays a minor role. Intelligence and tenacity are much more important. If luck was the main factor nearly all successful programmers would come from China or India since they have the most entrants in the "lottery" for successful programmers.

You argue that intelligence and tenacity are more important than luck, but then it follows that since China and India have the most entrants, the only explanation for their lack of proportional success is lack of intellence and tenacity relative to Americans(I'm not saying you think this, I'm just noting it follows from your argument). I would argue luck does play a big role, and that they weren't lucky enough to be…

intelligence, tenacity and opportunity?
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