Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
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Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
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Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#2> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal).
> holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal.
Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#3> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal). > holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal. Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.
Try holding your mouse* upside-down on the surface of your desk to get the same effect. The point at which the mouse meets the desk will always be the point where the tangent of the curve is horizontal.
*Assuming your mouse is curved on top.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#4> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal). > holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal. Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.
It might help to think of a specific curve. An example would be a simple parabola: f(x) = x^2. At the bottom of the curve (x = 0), the slope (aka tangent, aka derivative) is 0, or a horizontal line.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#5This is why it's important for STEM and tech people to have some understanding of liberal arts. "Understanding" means having perspective, it's easy to get caught up in our world, thought patterns, echo chambers, and biases. I think that's why curiosity is such an important trait, it promotes understanding, not the accumulation of facts. Next time you're at a book store, pick something up on a topic that sounds interesting that's outside of your traditional scope.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#6I really like the graphics in this. I like how "information" and "knowledge" are contrasted in the six squares. This is really what it feels like. Knowledge is structured, tightly connected in predictable ways, whereas information is just a kind of soup, a mess of facts. What the other distinctions are supposed to mean is less clear, but at least they're entertaining. I also really hope that the "knowledge" vs "understanding" plot is accurate. That would be quite encouraging if true. Seems plausible.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#7> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal). > holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal. Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.
Lets use the letter U as your curve: U
One way to imagine the the horizontal tangent is that it's where the curve stops going down (negative slope) and starts going up (positive slope). Well, that is also basically the definition of a local minima, and one of those minima is also the global minima.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#8> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal). > holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal. Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.
If the curve was inclined at that point, it would have to be lower either on the left or the right of it.
Just draw any curve in a piece of paper, you'll see it happening.
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#9> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero (horizontal). > holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal. Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.
This was my "ah-ha" moment as well. I always knew that derivative of the lowest point is 0 but I didn't really understand what it meant. Take any arbitrary curve. Tangent is a line that touches a single point on the curve. Draw a tangent aka pencil touching the lowest point of the curve. It's derivative ie dy/dx apply the formulae to the curve's formulae. It will always be 0 which means it will have no "slope" ie parallel to the x axis
Re: Why Understanding Beats Knowledge
#10I really like the graphics in this. I like how "information" and "knowledge" are contrasted in the six squares. This is really what it feels like. Knowledge is structured, tightly connected in predictable ways, whereas information is just a kind of soup, a mess of facts. What the other distinctions are supposed to mean is less clear, but at least they're entertaining. I also really hope that the "knowledge" vs "under…
Not a psychology researcher and this wasn’t a study so I can’t vouch for “accurate”. Think of that graph as a distillation off my observations and experiences into 4 lines.
The idea I’m trying to share is that understanding compounds. The more you understand, the faster you can gain new understanding. And the more frameworks you have for the world, the faster you can gain knowledge because you need fewer examples to grok something.
For example, once you understand how browser-server communication works, picking up a new library is just a matter of syntax and names. You already know the concepts and what to expect. You might even be able to predict/guess what the functions are called based on knowing what the necessary operations are.