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Comment by randcraw | Hacker News Reader

Just as "there is no royal road to mathematics", no AI can do your learning for you. The need for memorization of essential math identities (like multiplication tables and use of fractions) or rules of grammar (like verb conjugation or use of anaphora) will never be enhanced by AI. There is an essential role for good old fashioned rote learning that can't be avoided. To pretend AI will not impede that learning is a fool's errand, literally.

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I do not see the point of either of your examples of rote learning. What do you lose if you do not know the? You will pick up enough of multiplication tables through doing maths, native speakers of a language will conjugate correctly without memorising (you do need to do it if learning foreign languages). Anaphora is a technique which cannot really be rote learned - and most people to try to use it do so badly and just sound repetitive.

> You will pick up enough of multiplication tables through doing maths

You will not do maths casually until you have memorized enough multiplication to make it not torture. You will not pick up multiplication from using a calculator any more than you will pick up programming from using a computer.

> native speakers of a language will conjugate correctly without memorising

They do not. They have memorized, through massive, constant, and forced practice, and now they conjugate correctly. The alternative of consulting a computer every time they need to speak is not a realistic one.

> You will not pick up multiplication from using a calculator

Sure you will, at least assuming we're still talking about memorizing multiplication tables here and not how to do long division or the like. I don't think algebra or even basic calculus has any convincing need to involve rote memorization.

I've ended up unintentionally memorizing many things due to frequently needing to consult various lookup tables.

> conjugation

Competent ones will. Wrong conjugations usually "sound" wrong to me even when I haven't seen them before and that's in English of all things.

Both observably false. I know people who are counter examples.

Doing maths is not torture if you do not know multiplication tables if you have a calculator.

Native speakers of a language do not memorise conjugations through forced practice, they memorise through hearing them repeatedly from others.

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