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Comment by hyperpape | Hacker News Reader

I've increasingly come to value mastering the basics.[0]

A quote from Michael Nielsen in his great article Augmenting Long-Term Memory (http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html) puts it very well:

"Over the years, I've often helped people learn technical subjects such as quantum mechanics. Over time you come to see patterns in how people get stuck. One common pattern is that people think they're getting stuck on esoteric, complex issues. But when you dig down it turns out they're having a hard time with basic notation and terminology."

[0] I suspect individuals who learn things relatively easily may undervalue that skill, because they typically were ahead in school.

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It isn't just the basics that need mastering, but all of it [1]

Adding knowledge to your own knowledge graph requires existing context, without context, there is no place for new knowledge to attach.

Without master, eventually the new knowledge is simply remembered and not fully understood. The knowledge front is a fixed distance from the last fully mastered concept.

It is ok to go slow, who cares how fast shaky knowledge is consumed. You want a building that will stand, not one that was built on time.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_learning

I also tutor/educate. I've fixed people in 1 week, what the education system couldn't accomplish in x years.

I just reach in, and remove the blocks. Once they get it, they are never the same again.

True story, somebody came up to me, who was having severe difficulty. They were studying for their GED (700+ hours in) and couldn't crack it. He asked for my help and I told him I was busy at the moment, but that I could give him 30 minutes in a couple of days - but that I would be happy to talk to him right now for 5-10 minutes. So I basically grilled him for a couple of minutes, then gave him a complete dump on what he needed to do in a highly-abbreviated manner. About a week later, I see him and tell him I'm free to sit with him again if he likes, to which he replies "No, thats not necessary - I passed. I followed your advice." :)

I get people calling me up after decades (for whom I only sat with for 1-3 hours) telling me about how much I changed their lives.

...

I also do "IQ" raising. Just being around me gives you about a 10-12 point jump. The longer the period, the more permanent the results. Takes about a couple of weeks to kick in. Takes about about 1-2 years for full raise (permanent, for life).

And shit, if you give me somebody smart-smart whose open & ethical? :) Like gas, on a fire.

My only real constraints are:

a) I don't put out anything dual-use. b) I don't hack people for harm or personal gain. c) I don't enable crimes, criminals, or unethical people.

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