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Exactly. We're taught those things that Google can give us faster than our brain can recall, like "Capital of Peru???? https://hackernoon.com/learning-to-code-f

by amrrs 9y ago

Exactly. We're taught those things that Google can give us faster than our brain can recall, like "Capital of Peru???? https://hackernoon.com/learning-to-code-focus-on-when-rather-than-how-264bd45d1b77 https://hackernoon.com/learning-to-code-focus-on-when-rather...

majewsky 9y ago
Reminds me about a segment on Last Week Tonight where they showed a map of South America, with one country highlighted as Peru. And John Oliver said, "Peru! A country you care so little about you didn't even realize this isn't Peru... [Highlight changes to another country] THIS is Peru." And he's got a point. There's not much advantage to knowing the precise locations of all countries on earth, unless you're working in foreign policy etc.
- emodendroket 9y ago
  In fact one reason so many people have such confused ideas about foreign politics is a lack of understanding of geography. Consider: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/14/upshot/if-americans-can-find-north-korea-on-a-map-theyre-more-likely-to-prefer-diplomacy.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/14/upshot/if-ame...
  - majewsky 9y ago
    I think they got their causation backwards. A working understanding of how foreign policy works is correlated with a higher education level is correlated with being able to find countries on a map.
    - emodendroket 9y ago
      How is someone supposed to understand foreign policy if they think North Korea is in Australia?
emodendroket 9y ago
http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/LookItUpSpring2000.pdf http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/LookItUpS... By not having the information in your head, you are less able to know what to search for and less able to contextualize and make sense of information you do turn up in a Google search. Of course that doesn't mean that search is useless. But let's face it; if you and a random guy off the street were both asked to program something in a language you'd never used before, you would be much more able to handle the task because you'd understand what questions to ask (what's the modulo operator? how do you write a loop?) while the other guy flailed around trying to understand the basics.

by amrrs 9y ago

majewsky 9y ago

Reminds me about a segment on Last Week Tonight where they showed a map of South America, with one country highlighted as Peru. And John Oliver said, "Peru! A country you care so little about you didn't even realize this isn't Peru... [Highlight changes to another country] THIS is Peru." And he's got a point. There's not much advantage to knowing the precise locations of all countries on earth, unless you're working in foreign policy etc.

emodendroket 9y ago
In fact one reason so many people have such confused ideas about foreign politics is a lack of understanding of geography. Consider: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/14/upshot/if-americans-can-find-north-korea-on-a-map-theyre-more-likely-to-prefer-diplomacy.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/14/upshot/if-ame...
- majewsky 9y ago
  I think they got their causation backwards. A working understanding of how foreign policy works is correlated with a higher education level is correlated with being able to find countries on a map.
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    How is someone supposed to understand foreign policy if they think North Korea is in Australia?

emodendroket 9y ago

http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/LookItUpSpring2000.pdf http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/LookItUpS... By not having the information in your head, you are less able to know what to search for and less able to contextualize and make sense of information you do turn up in a Google search. Of course that doesn't mean that search is useless. But let's face it; if you and a random guy off the street were both asked to program something in a language you'd never used before, you would be much more able to handle the task because you'd understand what questions to ask (what's the modulo operator? how do you write a loop?) while the other guy flailed around trying to understand the basics.