111–120 of 193 posts
I had a coworker who made a sport of telling people things. Once he'd flipped the bozo bit on someone, he took a certain sardonic delight in predicting outcomes that they would promptly reject... and then face-plant directly into. Sort of like the Oracle in the Matrix, only cynical, or perhaps more like Willy Wonka. "I wouldn't do that, I really wouldn't."
This article has found its way to the HN homepage multiple times, and every time I wonder if it’s because of the poorly worded and misleading title, combined with the phenomenon of HN users not actually reading the article and just saving it because the title looks interesting. The article would be much better titled as, “It’s more difficult to explain new concepts to people than you think it is.”
A PoC that is too rough around the edges has the risk that less imaginative people will not get it.
But a PoC that is too polished risks being confused with an end product and people may start to focus on implementation details rather than the concept.
This is the anarchist theory of the unity of means and ends: you can't tell people anything, including what a better society looks like (nor can you impose it on anyone). You have to try to build and live that society in the present in order to even "get it" yourself. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchopac-means-and...
Of course, these anarchist projects all fail (like Occupy) or have murder rates significantly above baseline society (like CHAZ) so this shows… something.
In the context of software if you want to build something you will need a team. A team requires funding. I'm excited for AI tools like GPT/Copilot/etc. to be that team. If the price is reasonable no one needs to have enough wealth to employ other knowledge workers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When I was in college, it took me two years to realize that I could have easily gotten As and Bs (instead of Bs and Cs) in my various math classes, physics, chemistry, etc. had I simply bothered to do my homework properly--or, to put it differently, had I only properly applied the knowledge which I passively acquired by reading the associated textbook sections. I took this realisation to the extreme and decided to…
>I often struggle with large classroom learning: the pace is either too slow and I get distracted or too fast and I can't keep up. Yes, this is my biggest gripe with learning as well. It's so individual that you almost need one teacher per student.
Well, it was astonishing when I read the news. Now, at the end of this crazy week, all I can think is "well of course they are!"
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If you wouldn’t mind, could you elaborate your point about mathematical being painful?
I don't have a great way to put it in words, but the intuition is that you are putting enormous mental energy into something that doesn't give anything back. Being able to solve heat equations doesn't make you warm. Other subjects are the same, obviously, but when writing a history essay you can BS and not think too hard and skate by with a C. With a math problem, if it's difficult for you, you need to really put you…
That discrepancy between the goal (photorealism, or at least beauty) and the result (ugly art) is very painful for me, to such a degree that it discouraged me from putting much effort into art, despite my love for it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course, these anarchist projects all fail (like Occupy) or have murder rates significantly above baseline society (like CHAZ) so this shows… something.
Like what is this comment? Why do people with an extremely narrow view of some political topic or politcal movement like anarchism/communism/immigration policies/etc. start posting something that dismissive. Like as if they where actually talking about the same thing, without realizing that they dismisse a delusional idea of something which has no to little to do with what the other person was talking about.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When I was in college, it took me two years to realize that I could have easily gotten As and Bs (instead of Bs and Cs) in my various math classes, physics, chemistry, etc. had I simply bothered to do my homework properly--or, to put it differently, had I only properly applied the knowledge which I passively acquired by reading the associated textbook sections. I took this realisation to the extreme and decided to…
Classroom experience is so rarely useful, the ONLY time you benefit is when either a) you already studied the subject and the professor is good and mentions something tangential/extra credit, or b) the classroom size is small, so when you don't understand something you can say so without fear of class disruption and the teacher can spend more time tailoring their curriculum to their class. Otherwise yes, you are ofte…
> I’m totally convinced that a new idea or a new plan or a new technique is never really understood when you just explain it. > People will often think they understand, and they’ll say they understand, but then their actions show that it just ain’t so. Isn't this the very reason that homework assignments exist? When I was in college, it took me two years to realize that I could have easily gotten As and Bs (instead o…
Absolutely. It is also why I will never understand why it is considered a virtue (especially in the maths and physics community) to set assignments without exemplary solution. I'm not asking to give this exemplary solution to students right away, but it should definitely exist and be given when students have shown honest effort and especially to weaker students that are struggling.
Instead the "left as an exercise to the reader" mentality is celebrated when in reality - in my opinion - it is almost always just a convenient excuse for the laziness of the professor at the expense of their students.