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You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

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Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#101

Post by atomicnature »

Bhilai wrote: post #93
atomicnature wrote: post #10

I've always thought that people underestimate the mental acuity needed to find simple truths within complex systems and to use them to achieve useful results. Especially in academia, many professors, who are wedded to particular models, go so far as to dismiss simplicity without sufficient consideration. It was not always this way. Among the older philosophers, you can observe a strong affinity for simplicity. Figure…

I am not sure why people think of complexity as something bad or undesirable. Everything I can think is extremely complex and probably cannot be explained in simple terms without missing much of the context and beauty behind it. In my opinion, its not simplicity, its actually the complexity that adds beauty and meaning to everything.

When it comes to experiencing things, complexity is good. Good music, beautiful nature, complex story, that's all nice.

When it comes to getting things to work, to make things happen, to understanding things... our major bottleneck is the "size of human skull", your cognitive limits.

Descartes gives the example of visualizing a chain made up of many links... at any point, you can only look at say, maximum 4-5 links, you can never see all the links at the same time. That is, in fact, it is impossible for a human to "see a whole chain"! You are "making it up", even with such a simple operation as "see". Therefore, due to such horrendous limits to cognition, you are forced to implement some sort of simplification mechanism.

So the context of discussion is (2) not (1). The people interested in making things happen in the world, to obtain correct/useful/functional/practical viewpoints, tend to gravitate towards simplicity by necessity. There is no other option.

Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#103

Post by seanhunter »

atomicnature wrote: post #65
marcosdumay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simplicity does surely survives better. But you clearly do have a biased picture on your head. That claim that current people value it less than ancient people is not only baseless, but quickly dismissable just by reading those genius you quote.

Consider this argument: what % of people are in "academia" these days vs the previous centuries out of their own volition? Right now, there is an incentive to go into college, and it so happens that all sorts of people participate in the knowledge-creation process. And a bulk of the people participating in academia - are they really there for the sake of curiosity, to the pursuit of truth, etc? I'd bet that an indivi…

I don't think that argument survives scrutiny. If you pick an arbitrary activity, the % of people these days that are doing that activity is gonig to be very different from previous centuries. That's just because the structure of society is very different from previous centuries. I don't think it's valid to try to draw any other inferences from there.

Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#104

Post by diracs_stache »

JackMorgan wrote: post #53
sokoloff wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also sometimes think most people could train to be an entry-level dev over a summer. Yet that seems demonstrably wrong. I wonder if it’s similar to how a musician can’t comprehend how I can barely hear a beat.

I train software engineers with the apprentice model, and it takes about 500 hours to train a person to be able to get hired as an entry level full stack engineer. Maybe not in today's market where even talented engineers are struggling. But over the last sixteen years I've trained sixteen engineers who all still work in the industry. I use TDD, a list of projects that gradually increase in difficulty, multiple langu…

What is the application for the training? I don't need payment or job placement but damn if my software engineering abilities don't need a boost (EE/physics background)

Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#105

Post by circlefavshape »

Pannoniae wrote: post #78
nick222226 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it true that their friends ghost after graduation? I thought they would have more contact through Snapchat etc. Do you have personal acquaintances who had that happen. Im older, 30s but I felt that friend contact really fell off after moving away from SF former room mates and startup friends.

I am 20. All my high school friends have just stopped replying after leaving school. (even the ones promising to keep contact) In university, social life is non-existent. Dating? It's in the category of "don't even think about that". So yup, there's a reason why most of us are utterly lonely.

Why wouldn't you even think about dating?

Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#106

Post by atomicnature »

seanhunter wrote: post #103
atomicnature wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider this argument: what % of people are in "academia" these days vs the previous centuries out of their own volition? Right now, there is an incentive to go into college, and it so happens that all sorts of people participate in the knowledge-creation process. And a bulk of the people participating in academia - are they really there for the sake of curiosity, to the pursuit of truth, etc? I'd bet that an indivi…

I don't think that argument survives scrutiny. If you pick an arbitrary activity, the % of people these days that are doing that activity is gonig to be very different from previous centuries. That's just because the structure of society is very different from previous centuries. I don't think it's valid to try to draw any other inferences from there.

You are not even engaging with my argument, let alone "scrutinize" it :)

To meaningfully engage, you must study the history of education systems, how it evolved, what was the situation of scholars in the past and now. If you study those things a bit more, then my argument may make more sense to you.

Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#107

Post by seanhunter »

voxl wrote: post #21
atomicnature wrote: post #10

I've always thought that people underestimate the mental acuity needed to find simple truths within complex systems and to use them to achieve useful results. Especially in academia, many professors, who are wedded to particular models, go so far as to dismiss simplicity without sufficient consideration. It was not always this way. Among the older philosophers, you can observe a strong affinity for simplicity. Figure…

How do you not cringe at a comment that so matter-of-factly states that our modern researchers all have this assumed negative propensity that somehow the wisend researchers, thinkers, and leaders of the past did not have. You must be speaking of personal experience, because otherwise your comment is completely ridiculous. But if you are, you certainly have no personal experience with historical figures. So how can yo…

Yeah it's a very common generalisation. Modern researchers all think the same thing, people in the past used to think something different.

"The days of old have turned to dust" as it says in the Epic of Gilgamesh (ie one of the earliest surviving works of literature includes a moan than things are not as good as they used to be).

Re: You don't need to work on hard problems (2020)

#109

Post by nick222226 »

Pannoniae wrote: post #78
nick222226 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it true that their friends ghost after graduation? I thought they would have more contact through Snapchat etc. Do you have personal acquaintances who had that happen. Im older, 30s but I felt that friend contact really fell off after moving away from SF former room mates and startup friends.

I am 20. All my high school friends have just stopped replying after leaving school. (even the ones promising to keep contact) In university, social life is non-existent. Dating? It's in the category of "don't even think about that". So yup, there's a reason why most of us are utterly lonely.

I lost most of my high school friends pretty quickly once gone to college but have managed to keep 2 good ones into my 30s, messaging or having a phone catch up with each anywhere from 1 to 5 times a year. In college the social life was pretty accessible through clubs, fraternities, study groups or dorm common rooms. My most steadfast friends have been from high school and from startups after college. They say "shared struggle breeds friendships" or something like that.

Though in my generation ghosting was considered much more rude (or at least seemed less common), you at least had to try to politely deflect a message or phone call.

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