3 ms·

> I continue to struggle with the notion that expertise is merely pattern-recognition. It seems too simple — there has to be more. I think people struggle with

> I continue to struggle with the notion that expertise is merely pattern-recognition. It seems too simple — there has to be more. I think people struggle with that because almost all cognition is at some level pattern recognition. Identifying your mom's face as a baby is pattern recognition. A dog learning to sit is pattern recognition. A mathematician finding the integral of some really difficult function is pattern recognition. A chess grandmaster playing is pattern recognition. So I think this statement is correct, but it is pretty close to a tautology and hence not that helpful.

solotronics 7y ago
I have a ton of trouble recognizing peoples faces or names, especially out of the usual context. But I can remember programs I wrote in detail 10 years ago, network protocols, RFCs/IEEE standards. I think I have decent recall and pattern matching in some areas at a great expense of some other things. It took me until I was in my 20s to know what order the months are in a year. Another anomaly, my hobby besides computers is cars and I can identify every make and model and most years of almost every car on Earth. The name of my neighbors? Not so much. Brains are weird.
- thereisnospork 7y ago
  ime a lot of the ease of pattern recognition and recall comes down to interest. It's likewise easy for me to recall how and why a 302 differs from a 351 or a 460 but I couldn't tell you which letters proceed/follow 'j' without sounding it out in my head. My solution has just been to fake it, if I can convince myself e.g. that my neighbors' names and faces are interesting/important than remembering them becomes almost impossible not to.
- FatDrunknStupid 7y ago
  Same. Exactly. Scary!
Engineering-MD 7y ago
I think in this meaning “pattern recognition” begins to mean semantic reasoning. Which begins to mean all thought, and so everything can be seen as pattern recognition. I feel there is a useful difference from what I see as real pattern recognition (identifying a letter) vs understanding and utilising the meaning in the words.

solotronics 7y ago

I have a ton of trouble recognizing peoples faces or names, especially out of the usual context. But I can remember programs I wrote in detail 10 years ago, network protocols, RFCs/IEEE standards. I think I have decent recall and pattern matching in some areas at a great expense of some other things. It took me until I was in my 20s to know what order the months are in a year. Another anomaly, my hobby besides computers is cars and I can identify every make and model and most years of almost every car on Earth. The name of my neighbors? Not so much. Brains are weird.

thereisnospork 7y ago
ime a lot of the ease of pattern recognition and recall comes down to interest. It's likewise easy for me to recall how and why a 302 differs from a 351 or a 460 but I couldn't tell you which letters proceed/follow 'j' without sounding it out in my head. My solution has just been to fake it, if I can convince myself e.g. that my neighbors' names and faces are interesting/important than remembering them becomes almost impossible not to.
FatDrunknStupid 7y ago
Same. Exactly. Scary!

Engineering-MD 7y ago

I think in this meaning “pattern recognition” begins to mean semantic reasoning. Which begins to mean all thought, and so everything can be seen as pattern recognition. I feel there is a useful difference from what I see as real pattern recognition (identifying a letter) vs understanding and utilising the meaning in the words.