Hacker News Reader

Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

I learned in college that I didn't learn anything until I worked the problem sets.

(It always seemed like I learned it, but when faced with the problem sets I discovered I hadn't learned anything yet.)

It's the same with everything. You can watch a yootoob video on rebuilding a carburetor all day, but you don't know nuttin until you take it apart yourself.

I decided to learn to ride a dirtbike. I took some personal instruction from an expert, and promptly crashed. Again and again and again. Finally, my body figured out how to coordinate the controls.

Can't learn how to double clutch downshift from watching a video, either.

View on HN

Teaching is hard and training courses are often terrible. IMO, lessons need to consist of multiple (usually hierarchical) examples of (1) specific thing to learn, (2) high level motivation for doing this thing, (3) specifically when to do the thing, (4) specific causes and effects between your actions and observations during the process.

I did a snowboarding course once, and it was largely useless because they didn’t actually explain any of the mechanics of how the board actually worked beyond seesawing mostly-sideways down the ultra beginner slope. It wasn’t until I had a chance to experiment that I started actually figuring out anything useful.

I absolutely taught myself how to double-clutch from YouTube and Initial D, though. :D (Plus copious practice, of course.)

I taught myself how to ride a bicycle, but was baffled for a long time how the bike stayed up. I did some very careful observation of what my body was doing to make it work, and finally figured it out. I've had some difficulty transferring that skill to the dirtbike, and spend a fair amount of practice time just doing figure eights.

Another weird thing. I've been using the same text editor for 40 years. I no longer remember what the commands are - but I can still edit files just fine. Sometimes I watch my fingers to see what the command actually is.

> I no longer remember what the commands are - but I can still edit files just fine. Sometimes I watch my fingers to see what the command actually is.

I learned how to solve the Rubik cube some years ago and I found the same thing. I instinctively know the sequence of steps but I would find it very hard to actually write it down.

> find it very hard to actually write it down

I think this is called the "assumed knowledge problem".

Source: dev who has LARPed as a technical writer.

Or “unconscious competence”?

I drive a stick car. Shifting gears happens smoothly without any conscious thought. Not with the dirtbike.

Every time, I have to stop and think through it step by step. My recent rides have all been constantly up and down shifting, in order to get it properly into muscle memory. I was annoyed that my car shifting skills did not transfer.

NASA Video on how hard it can be to learn to surf

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wn5KqWwP6uQ

Basically lots and lots of lots of practice.

Not sure if you're being witty, but for the unaware, the channel here is that of Tom Sachs, an extremely successful artist who uses the aesthetics of NASA (among other orgs) in order to sort of capture their essence. This is not from NASA.

I'm a little personally split on Tom Sachs as an artist, as he is constantly riding the line between appropriating the aesthetics of respectable institutions and actually emulating their positive qualities.

Just wanted to point out - because I was curious as to why they would post a video about learning to surf - that this is NOT a NASA video. This is from the channel of someone named "Tom Sachs", who happens to be using the NASA logo as his youtube avatar image.

> These films are required viewing for Tom Sachs' studio. They comprise guides to studio practice and documentation of specific projects and installations. The movies represent aspects of the sculptures that exist in time. These films will enhance your experience with the work and are the prerequisite for any studio visit, employment application, or interview. Most were made in collaboration with Van and Casey Neistat.

thanks!! I’m was unaware of that.

The video is really good tho, not that that excuses the logo issue :(

My time on a wakeboard transferred fairly successfully to a snowboard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com