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I wonder if DS would have a different tone now if the leading figure would be somebody else more focused in making things intuitive and understandable. I've the

I wonder if DS would have a different tone now if the leading figure would be somebody else more focused in making things intuitive and understandable. I've the feeling that many DS concepts, after you understand them, you say like: wow that was really not very well explained in the books I read.

noahl 7y ago
Making a concept intuitive and easy to understand is extremely difficult to do. A person who could do this would probably have to understand Paxos better than Lamport does. I wouldn't assume that Leslie Lamport doesn't want his algorithm to be understood. It's just that explaining things is really, really, really hard. (This is also why teaching is an incredibly difficult profession.)
- perennate 7y ago
  Making an explanation intuitive takes time and effort, but I don't think it requires the explainer to have a better understanding of the concept than another person. They probably must have a good understanding of the concept, but once there is a good enough understanding, I think it's more a matter of finding the right way to explain it. Lamport's original Paxos paper (https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf) is notoriously difficult to understand because he decided to write the whole paper as an archeological survey report. Writing an explanation more intuitive than that isn't difficult even with only a basic understanding of Paxos -- just avoid the whole island and Parliament thing. His later paper (https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf) is much more clear.
  - sabujp 7y ago
    reading the paxos-simple.pdf it seems it's very much like blockchain
- stingraycharles 7y ago
  Not necessarily. Sometimes it takes a person who’s involved with “laymen” to explain a solution in simple terms that resonates well with them. This is why being a good teacher is not at all the same trait as being a good researcher: they’re two very distinct skills.
hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
We could start making things more intuitive and understandable by realizing not everyone on this site is versed in the same technology, and thus we should spell out/explain our acronyms and technical lingo before using them. Data Science? Distributed Storage? Distributed Systems?
- johncmouser 7y ago
  Agreed. No idea what DS stands for in this context.
  - amoshi 7y ago
    It's Distributed Systems, the context is Paxos after all...
    - P0l83q4p1Hw3Ul 7y ago
      No idea what Paxos is.
holdenk 7y ago
I'm starting with a book designed to teach kids Apache Spark using garden gnomes ( http://www.distributedcomputing4kids.com/ http://www.distributedcomputing4kids.com/ ) and depending on how that goes I want to branch out and do some other topics.

noahl 7y ago

Making a concept intuitive and easy to understand is extremely difficult to do. A person who could do this would probably have to understand Paxos better than Lamport does. I wouldn't assume that Leslie Lamport doesn't want his algorithm to be understood. It's just that explaining things is really, really, really hard. (This is also why teaching is an incredibly difficult profession.)

perennate 7y ago
Making an explanation intuitive takes time and effort, but I don't think it requires the explainer to have a better understanding of the concept than another person. They probably must have a good understanding of the concept, but once there is a good enough understanding, I think it's more a matter of finding the right way to explain it. Lamport's original Paxos paper (https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf) is notoriously difficult to understand because he decided to write the whole paper as an archeological survey report. Writing an explanation more intuitive than that isn't difficult even with only a basic understanding of Paxos -- just avoid the whole island and Parliament thing. His later paper (https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf) is much more clear.
- sabujp 7y ago
  reading the paxos-simple.pdf it seems it's very much like blockchain
stingraycharles 7y ago
Not necessarily. Sometimes it takes a person who’s involved with “laymen” to explain a solution in simple terms that resonates well with them. This is why being a good teacher is not at all the same trait as being a good researcher: they’re two very distinct skills.

hn_throwaway_99 7y ago

We could start making things more intuitive and understandable by realizing not everyone on this site is versed in the same technology, and thus we should spell out/explain our acronyms and technical lingo before using them. Data Science? Distributed Storage? Distributed Systems?

johncmouser 7y ago
Agreed. No idea what DS stands for in this context.
- amoshi 7y ago
  It's Distributed Systems, the context is Paxos after all...
  - P0l83q4p1Hw3Ul 7y ago
    No idea what Paxos is.

holdenk 7y ago

I'm starting with a book designed to teach kids Apache Spark using garden gnomes ( http://www.distributedcomputing4kids.com/ http://www.distributedcomputing4kids.com/ ) and depending on how that goes I want to branch out and do some other topics.