Comment on Less Wrong Book Club and Study Group

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:59:36 GMT

I'd agree that my real fluency only came later, after I also got some practice writing. But I disagree that tackling a difficult but intrinsically rewarding work isn't a good way to enter a previously unknown domain of knowledge.

I thought so as well, for many years, and it cost me dearly. The problem with math is that the more elementary tools won't be even mentioned in advanced specialized books, and are not necessary to parse them. The only efficient way to obtain them is to study from the ground up. Until recently, I was getting along on ability to parse more advanced texts relatively fine, but remained much weaker and near-sighted than I could have been. This made much of my previous study a waste of time, only moderately helping me to recapture the territory now.

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