I Don't Understand • Hacker News Board

Re: I Don't Understand

#91

Post by sophacles » Mon, Dec 17, 2012, 5:24 PM UTC

derleth wrote: post #79

almost wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely. Asking questions is how you turn a lecture from a poor substitute for just reading about the subject into something far better. From the other side I find it incredibly useful to get questions while speaking and I wish I was better at encouraging them. When writing a talk you have to write for some imaginary audience who won't ever quite match your actual one. But if you can get them to start asking…

> Any tips from anyone here for making people feel more inclined to ask questions? Become more of an asshole. There are probably more eloquent ways of phrasing that, but I want something that will stick in your mind when you're actually on the spot, and that works. The idea here is to stop caring quite so much about what others want and what others will think of you. If you constantly worry that you're interrupting t…

Yes, when I'm talking about something to a group of people, I like questions, they let me know where I need to be more in depth and where I an keep glossing. However, a good answer from a presenter is in fact "I will cover that in a bit (a few slides, or whatever)", and part of being a good questioner is temporarily accepting "I don't understand this one thing" and working around it. Sometimes it turns out that a bit of understanding falls out of understanding other, surrounding bits of knowledge first. Being a good questioner/learning isn't just about understanding everything instantly or when you first notice you don't understand, but rather noting the places where you need clarification, and paying attention for things that fill in that knowledge.

Re: I Don't Understand

#92

Post by lostlogin » Mon, Dec 17, 2012, 5:55 PM UTC

joshuacc wrote: post #49

11001 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you are supposed to know it.

Especially if you are supposed to know it. Saying, "I don't know" is one of the best ways to learn it.

I agree with both side of this. Having someone ask me to explain the same thing multiple times per week, and most recently asking where my answer is written down for everyone to see is frustrating (not written down because it is basic knowledge that underpins everything we do, and we all hold a qualification that says we know this stuff, if he wasn't to remember, he can write it down). Basic workflow issues and understanding of problems that have never been considered by this person lead to everyone else getting irritated. All sorts of things have been tried. Workplace tutorials, performance appraisals, direct conversation, indirect conversation, mentoring, keeping a note book of problems and solutions. Untrainable, as this person has an unwillingness to acknowledge a need to learn.

Re: I Don't Understand

#93

Post by avmich » Mon, Dec 17, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

Just last week I've practiced "I don't understand" again. Now I don't particularly like jeopardizing my position at work, but looks like that question wasn't met well. A manager running the meeting (plans for next year) frowned upon a person who seems to be not understanding what he was talking before. In retrospect, I might missed some explanations - didn't quite get them at the time he gave them, possibly didn't pay enough attention - but that was the reason for my question!

The matter was important to "get". Hard to say if the annoyance was justified... but the result is this question may also backfire, even if it shouldn't.

Re: I Don't Understand

#94

Post by thewisedude » Tue, Dec 18, 2012, 1:35 AM UTC

There are multiple levels in which I agree with the above sentiment. Some of my teachers had these quotations to encourage questions!

1) If you say you dont understand, you may appear to be a fool for a few minutes, if you pretend to understand (while you dont)... you are a fool for life.

2) To learn something knew, you have to set your ego(pretending to know lest you appear ignorant) aside and start humbly with basics.

Re: I Don't Understand

#95

Post by lilsunnybee » Tue, Dec 18, 2012, 2:13 AM UTC

Background and what social class you came from play a very big role in this too. While an upper class kid may feel perfectly entitled to say 'i don't understand' in any situation, this behavior is often implicitly if not more overtly discouraged for people from lower class backgrounds. When you say 'i don't understand', the unspoken subtext is 'i don't understand: this is important, and my understanding is definitely worth whatever time it takes for you to explain it to me personally, regardless of whether anyone else is having a problem or not'.

Equality among people academically and vocationally needs to be backed up by strong support and activism for greater social and economic equality. Otherwise trivial efforts to promote more participation are a farce, and nothing is ever going to change.

Re: I Don't Understand

#96

Post by chernevik » Tue, Dec 18, 2012, 2:27 AM UTC

mleonhard wrote: post #68

chernevik wrote: post #60

I am but an egg. Very new as a developer, not particularly good. The smartest programmer in my workspace frequently looks for me when he's trying to solve something hard. There are a dozen people around us, at least, who are better able to _solve_ whatever problem he's working on. But they don't ask as many questions. I ask a lot of questions. Midway through explaining stuff he's solved his problem. And meanwhile I'v…

Where do you work?

My email is in profile, hit me there

Re: I Don't Understand

#97

Post by keithpeter » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 10:45 PM UTC

JadeNB wrote: post #86

keithpeter wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. I'm a teacher and I like students who ask me to re-explain or re-present a step in an argument. In fact, I use techniques designed to find out how much my students know and 'how they know it'. I teach fairly basic Maths, and different students learn the basics in different ways. I'd like a student who could articulate which step in a complex argument is the issue even more! I usually ask follow up questions to…

> In fact, I use techniques designed to find out how much my students know and 'how they know it'. I teach fairly basic Maths, and different students learn the basics in different ways. This sounds interesting. Could you talk more about it?

OK, take a question like 'which is bigger, one fifth or one third or one half'. Some people just know the bigger number on the bottom of the fraction means that is smaller, for unit fractions. Other people have to visualise the fractions as a pizza and compare the slices. A few people have to take an actual value like 30 and work out the values of each of the fractions. They all solve the problem, but the 'way they know' is different.

A longer example is at

http://sohcahtoa.org.uk/pages/maths_algebra-revision-card-so...