I really appreciate the post. I wasn’t consciously aware of the phenomenon, and no idea of its name. Still, I feel I didn’t quite get it after reading. I thought I expected a “what to do about it” section that was missing. But then I got to Wikipedia, and the very simple picture at the top of the page completely dissolved the confusion in a way the numeric examples didn’t.
I seem to have a very visual mechanism for understanding stuff (which is kind of strange because my visual memory sucks). I guess the point is that visuals are very helpful for promoting understanding in at least some people. Which isn’t news, but it’s probably useful to remind of it.
I myself tend to rely too much on visual aids, forgetting that people who are not me often don’t interpret them as easily as I do.
I just realized that Eliezer doesn’t use visuals in the sense of graphics in his posts, but I almost always “get” them very quickly. I think his “story-examples” do the job. (When reading a story, I tend to visualize it, sort of “how would this look like in a movie”, which might be why they work for me.)
You know that example that Eliezer gives in the Fun Theory sequence; about how solving a rubik’s cube will be fun a few times, and then you might move onto to solving the general formula for a rubik’s cube of nxnxn… and once you’ve solved that formula, then solving a specific rubik’s cube will be boring.
Perhaps learning follows a similar pattern, in that retention is improved by first learning a specific solution to a specific problem, and then finding the general solution to the problem set.
You know that example that Eliezer gives in the Fun Theory sequence; about how solving a rubik’s cube will be fun a few times, and then you might move onto to solving the general formula for a rubik’s cube of nxnxn… and once you’ve solved that formula, then solving a specific rubik’s cube will be boring.
Although of course actual observation of humans seems to disagree. People move on to practising for speed, competing and solving the cube blindfolded after making a brief glance.
Sure, but you’re getting a different, mostly unrelated kind of fun out of it. Solving a Rubik’s cube is a challenge in puzzle-solving and a little math; speed-solving and blind-solving are challenges in manual dexterity and spatial memorisation. In many ways you’re playing two different games, just using the same tool.
It’s like winning at Civilization versus recreating as accurate a copy of a given historical empire as possible.
It seems learning follows the pattern more strongly than rubik’s cube-solving does. People (generally) don’t practice the same solution to a problem over and over again to get faster at it; they tend to learn more general methods that include the specific problem. Idea is only nebulous, need to think it over more.
It seems learning follows the pattern more strongly than rubik’s cube-solving does.
Definitely. And when it comes to the Rubik’s cube I personally tackled it as a learning problem more than a practical skill—so closer to how Eliezer used it in the example. I learned how to solve the cube in general then moved on. I saved my competitive skill acquisition for martial arts and laser tag. :)
I really appreciate the post. I wasn’t consciously aware of the phenomenon, and no idea of its name. Still, I feel I didn’t quite get it after reading. I thought I expected a “what to do about it” section that was missing. But then I got to Wikipedia, and the very simple picture at the top of the page completely dissolved the confusion in a way the numeric examples didn’t.
I seem to have a very visual mechanism for understanding stuff (which is kind of strange because my visual memory sucks). I guess the point is that visuals are very helpful for promoting understanding in at least some people. Which isn’t news, but it’s probably useful to remind of it.
I myself tend to rely too much on visual aids, forgetting that people who are not me often don’t interpret them as easily as I do.
I just realized that Eliezer doesn’t use visuals in the sense of graphics in his posts, but I almost always “get” them very quickly. I think his “story-examples” do the job. (When reading a story, I tend to visualize it, sort of “how would this look like in a movie”, which might be why they work for me.)
Hmmm. This makes me think of something.
You know that example that Eliezer gives in the Fun Theory sequence; about how solving a rubik’s cube will be fun a few times, and then you might move onto to solving the general formula for a rubik’s cube of nxnxn… and once you’ve solved that formula, then solving a specific rubik’s cube will be boring.
Perhaps learning follows a similar pattern, in that retention is improved by first learning a specific solution to a specific problem, and then finding the general solution to the problem set.
Although of course actual observation of humans seems to disagree. People move on to practising for speed, competing and solving the cube blindfolded after making a brief glance.
Sure, but you’re getting a different, mostly unrelated kind of fun out of it. Solving a Rubik’s cube is a challenge in puzzle-solving and a little math; speed-solving and blind-solving are challenges in manual dexterity and spatial memorisation. In many ways you’re playing two different games, just using the same tool.
It’s like winning at Civilization versus recreating as accurate a copy of a given historical empire as possible.
It seems learning follows the pattern more strongly than rubik’s cube-solving does. People (generally) don’t practice the same solution to a problem over and over again to get faster at it; they tend to learn more general methods that include the specific problem. Idea is only nebulous, need to think it over more.
Definitely. And when it comes to the Rubik’s cube I personally tackled it as a learning problem more than a practical skill—so closer to how Eliezer used it in the example. I learned how to solve the cube in general then moved on. I saved my competitive skill acquisition for martial arts and laser tag. :)