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Gunnar_Zarncke comments on Stupid Questions December 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: Gondolinian 08 December 2014 03:39PM

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Comment author: Toggle 09 December 2014 06:37:29PM *  16 points [-]

Reminds me of something Scott said once:

And when I tried to analyzed my certainty that – even despite the whole multiple intelligences thing – I couldn’t possibly be as good as them, it boiled down to something like this: they were talented at hard things, but I was only talented at easy things.

It took me about ten years to figure out the flaw in this argument, by the way.

Comment author: Gunnar_Zarncke 09 December 2014 09:34:42PM *  5 points [-]

This reminds me of my criteria for learning: "You have understood something when it appears to be easy." The mathematicians call this state 'trivial'. It has become easy because you trained the topic until the key aspects became part of your unconscious competence. Then it appears to yourself as easy - because you no longer need to think about it.