I have always wondered exactly how this works. Whenever there's some maths area I'm struggling with, I only struggle with it while that area is the focus of study. Eigenvalues were a mildly unspeakable horror when I was learning specifically about Eigenvalues, but they suddenly became trivial when the I was asked to use them on a new unspeakable horror.
I don't remember any progressive improvement. It's as if I was asked to step up my game, and all the prerequisite knowledge just fell into line without any complaint. This pattern has existed throughout my maths education all the way back to basic algebra and I can't really find a satisfactory explanation for it. No other subject of study behaves like this.
I always said, "I've always been bad at math. I'm just bad at different math every year."
Math divides into "way too hard" and "trivial" -- the good news is that the "trivial" pile grows over time.
If this post is inappropriate, I apologize.
I stumbled upon this site after reading "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality". The story so far has really moved me on multiple levels and sent me here in a quest to learn more about rationality as a philosophy/way of thinking about the world. I have read Ayn Rands published works and loved the stories and most of the message. The characters always seemed like titans that were far and above me, but now, I've seen a character that is a bit more approachable.
I've started to go through the "Map and Territory" section of the "Core Sequences" and this whole project and community makes me ecstatic. I'm currently working my way through the Bayes's Theorem article with some success. The more I read, the more I realize I may have a problem.
I'm pretty dumb.
Is higher level reasoning "use it or lose it" ? I like learning new things and love reading but any new ideas require a ton of thought and re-reading. I think I have enough interest to keep plugging away at it, but I'm not sure I'm going at things the right way. Is there a "Kid's Table" for lesswrong.com?
For "Priors": I'm 28 years old, white male, married, no children, poor economic upbringing, solid emotional upbringing, currently lower to middle class, high school diploma, US Navy, currently a civilian electronics technician, raised Baptist currently Agnostic/Atheist (recently).
I guess that's it. Thanks!
--John