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Answer is simple - we think we know it. Once you think you know something it immediately all excitement and interest disappears. But can you really know anythin

Answer is simple - we think we know it. Once you think you know something it immediately all excitement and interest disappears. But can you really know anything absolutely, fully in this Universe? Someone involved into science should answer what grows more with study - knowledge or realization of one's own ignorance? Someone said "I know only one thing - I know nothing", to me this is the most profound understanding of the limitation our knowledge has.

saagarjha 7y ago
I don’t really think this is true. Actually, personally I find it difficult to diversify my interests: I like a couple of specific topics and spend most of my time learning about those, and it’s somewhat difficult for me to look into things that would be useful to know but I haven’t done much work with.
- mapcars 7y ago
  >things that would be useful to know Again, I'm not talking about usefulness - it's altogether another dimension. >I find it difficult to diversify my interests Try a simple thing - pick anything outside of your interests and ask all sorts of questions about it to yourself, to see how much you really don't know. Some examples could be - where does it come from? who invented it? under what circumstances? how come it has this color/size/shape/feeling? how come it's this material? how come it takes this time? I promise - you will discover all sorts of strange, funny and fascinating stories which you could not imagine. This is a way to spark interest.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    > I promise - you will discover all sorts of strange, funny and fascinating stories which you could not imagine. This is a way to spark interest. Oh, I don’t have a problem finding interesting topics outside of what I already know: I spend too much time on Wikipedia reading random articles already. The issue I have is that I can’t bring myself to be interested in things I should cultivate an interest in, like machine learning or databases.
    - mapcars 7y ago
      >things I should cultivate an interest in It's only you who defines these things. It seems that currently you find random Wiki articles more worthy than machine learning or databases. You think it is not so, but do not discard what you are actually doing as "bad habit", "lack of discipline" or something - see that this is not coming from nowhere, this is what you want on some level.
croon 7y ago
That's not true for me, I know very little electrical engineering/low level programming/embedded devices etc and wish I knew more, and yet I can't muster enough inherent interest to learn more. But I'm generally very curious about stuff and regularly read news/studies/documentation and get lost in wiki holes, but for a lot of useless stuff I don't really have a use for. So this is definitely an issue for me. I do profile myself and work as a generalist, and am good at trivia games, so I've managed to deal with it. But I would like to get better at specializing in things.
- tomashubelbauer 7y ago
  For me, the reason I can't seem to be able to get started with electronics is that I know I have a much smaller scope of where I can take the project from the start. If you build something good, but it looks home-made, it will be perceived as cute, not cool. Manufacturing is what makes or breaks this. But paying for expensive equipment or outsourcing manufacturing is not feasible for hobby projects. In software, I can make a hobby site people will mistake for a real product, and if it by chance takes off, it is easier to make it into one. Making toys which look like real products is easy in software, that's what SV seems to be all about. In hardware, I feel like this is much more difficult to do. And that's discouraging, even though I know it should not be, because the learning experience alone is worth it.
- mapcars 7y ago
  >But I'm generally very curious about stuff and regularly read news/studies/documentation and get lost in wiki holes Well this is it, the curiosity comes when you know there is something you don't know. >but for a lot of useless stuff I don't really have a use for That's a different matter, usefulness depends on billion factors around us and things which you consider useless might very well one day define your life.
  - croon 7y ago
    > Well this is it, the curiosity comes when you know there is something you don't know. But your original post stated the opposite: > Answer is simple - we think we know it. Once you think you know something it immediately all excitement and interest disappears. Which is what I responded to. Did you leave out a negative? And to your second point: Yes, it's not too unusual that I've gotten use out of previously pointless information.
taneq 7y ago
I don't think that it's "we think we know it". I'm absolutely sure I don't know as much as I need to about, say, SOAP (not my usual wheelhouse but current project requires it) and I'm equally sure I am really not curious about it. I'm super curious, though, about a whole bunch of things that I really don't need to know anything about with any urgency. New SpaceX launches, how to build CNC milling machines, ultralight aircraft... I know plenty about these and it's never enough.
WhompingWindows 7y ago
I'd contend you only know something if it's contained within a very rigid and small box that you can easily hold within your mind. Like, I can learn all about a sample dataset, but my real-world SQL data sources are vastly dirty and have tons of edge-cases I learn about from week to week. For 99.9999% of things, there is simply too much depth and breadth to ever hold that information-box in your mind.

saagarjha 7y ago

I don’t really think this is true. Actually, personally I find it difficult to diversify my interests: I like a couple of specific topics and spend most of my time learning about those, and it’s somewhat difficult for me to look into things that would be useful to know but I haven’t done much work with.

mapcars 7y ago
>things that would be useful to know Again, I'm not talking about usefulness - it's altogether another dimension. >I find it difficult to diversify my interests Try a simple thing - pick anything outside of your interests and ask all sorts of questions about it to yourself, to see how much you really don't know. Some examples could be - where does it come from? who invented it? under what circumstances? how come it has this color/size/shape/feeling? how come it's this material? how come it takes this time? I promise - you will discover all sorts of strange, funny and fascinating stories which you could not imagine. This is a way to spark interest.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  > I promise - you will discover all sorts of strange, funny and fascinating stories which you could not imagine. This is a way to spark interest. Oh, I don’t have a problem finding interesting topics outside of what I already know: I spend too much time on Wikipedia reading random articles already. The issue I have is that I can’t bring myself to be interested in things I should cultivate an interest in, like machine learning or databases.
  - mapcars 7y ago
    >things I should cultivate an interest in It's only you who defines these things. It seems that currently you find random Wiki articles more worthy than machine learning or databases. You think it is not so, but do not discard what you are actually doing as "bad habit", "lack of discipline" or something - see that this is not coming from nowhere, this is what you want on some level.

croon 7y ago

That's not true for me, I know very little electrical engineering/low level programming/embedded devices etc and wish I knew more, and yet I can't muster enough inherent interest to learn more. But I'm generally very curious about stuff and regularly read news/studies/documentation and get lost in wiki holes, but for a lot of useless stuff I don't really have a use for. So this is definitely an issue for me. I do profile myself and work as a generalist, and am good at trivia games, so I've managed to deal with it. But I would like to get better at specializing in things.

tomashubelbauer 7y ago
For me, the reason I can't seem to be able to get started with electronics is that I know I have a much smaller scope of where I can take the project from the start. If you build something good, but it looks home-made, it will be perceived as cute, not cool. Manufacturing is what makes or breaks this. But paying for expensive equipment or outsourcing manufacturing is not feasible for hobby projects. In software, I can make a hobby site people will mistake for a real product, and if it by chance takes off, it is easier to make it into one. Making toys which look like real products is easy in software, that's what SV seems to be all about. In hardware, I feel like this is much more difficult to do. And that's discouraging, even though I know it should not be, because the learning experience alone is worth it.
mapcars 7y ago
>But I'm generally very curious about stuff and regularly read news/studies/documentation and get lost in wiki holes Well this is it, the curiosity comes when you know there is something you don't know. >but for a lot of useless stuff I don't really have a use for That's a different matter, usefulness depends on billion factors around us and things which you consider useless might very well one day define your life.
- croon 7y ago
  > Well this is it, the curiosity comes when you know there is something you don't know. But your original post stated the opposite: > Answer is simple - we think we know it. Once you think you know something it immediately all excitement and interest disappears. Which is what I responded to. Did you leave out a negative? And to your second point: Yes, it's not too unusual that I've gotten use out of previously pointless information.

taneq 7y ago

I don't think that it's "we think we know it". I'm absolutely sure I don't know as much as I need to about, say, SOAP (not my usual wheelhouse but current project requires it) and I'm equally sure I am really not curious about it. I'm super curious, though, about a whole bunch of things that I really don't need to know anything about with any urgency. New SpaceX launches, how to build CNC milling machines, ultralight aircraft... I know plenty about these and it's never enough.

WhompingWindows 7y ago

I'd contend you only know something if it's contained within a very rigid and small box that you can easily hold within your mind. Like, I can learn all about a sample dataset, but my real-world SQL data sources are vastly dirty and have tons of edge-cases I learn about from week to week. For 99.9999% of things, there is simply too much depth and breadth to ever hold that information-box in your mind.