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I wish more explanations would go like this: iteratively. It's much easier for me to see where I suddenly start to struggle. The author also used language that

I wish more explanations would go like this: iteratively. It's much easier for me to see where I suddenly start to struggle. The author also used language that feels more familiar to me, which helped a lot. Unfortunately, a lot of writers just dump the information and use terms from different fields. And I get that, but it makes me slower to understand it.

ahelwer 6y ago
At least for paxos this is more or less the standard method of explaining it, see: https://youtu.be/JEpsBg0AO6o https://youtu.be/JEpsBg0AO6o In paxos's case the logic is very, very simple - it's just the reasons for the logic are difficult to sort out. So teaching it iteratively works very well, because you show how simpler versions fail.
- tralarpa 6y ago
  > So teaching it iteratively works very well, because you show how simpler versions fail. This is, in general, a very good approach for teaching (although time consuming).
mannykannot 6y ago
The key thing about it being iterative, I think, is that it builds up the justification for seeing that this is an effective and reasonable solution, one step at a time.
- hderms 6y ago
  Yeah it's sort of a microcosm of the general path of human learning: build a better model, shoot some holes through it, build a better model. I don't think it's any accident that the socratic method has stuck with us so long
compyman 6y ago
I think it's interesting that Lamport chose this style for Paxos Made Simple[0] Which iteratively goes through a process of proposing a solution for a problem (proposal 0: accept the first value the acceptor comes across) and then reveals the problem with it, and amends the proposal to fix the problem [0] https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf
- ryukafalz 6y ago
  This Kerberos explanation does something similar at a high level through dialogue. Always did like it. https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/dialogue.html https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/dialogue.html
exo762 6y ago
Ability to write an explanation like that is a sign of a great understanding of a topic. If you can write something like that - you've achieved such understanding.

ahelwer 6y ago

At least for paxos this is more or less the standard method of explaining it, see: https://youtu.be/JEpsBg0AO6o https://youtu.be/JEpsBg0AO6o In paxos's case the logic is very, very simple - it's just the reasons for the logic are difficult to sort out. So teaching it iteratively works very well, because you show how simpler versions fail.

tralarpa 6y ago
> So teaching it iteratively works very well, because you show how simpler versions fail. This is, in general, a very good approach for teaching (although time consuming).

mannykannot 6y ago

The key thing about it being iterative, I think, is that it builds up the justification for seeing that this is an effective and reasonable solution, one step at a time.

hderms 6y ago
Yeah it's sort of a microcosm of the general path of human learning: build a better model, shoot some holes through it, build a better model. I don't think it's any accident that the socratic method has stuck with us so long

compyman 6y ago

I think it's interesting that Lamport chose this style for Paxos Made Simple[0] Which iteratively goes through a process of proposing a solution for a problem (proposal 0: accept the first value the acceptor comes across) and then reveals the problem with it, and amends the proposal to fix the problem [0] https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/paxos-simple.pdf

ryukafalz 6y ago
This Kerberos explanation does something similar at a high level through dialogue. Always did like it. https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/dialogue.html https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/dialogue.html

exo762 6y ago

Ability to write an explanation like that is a sign of a great understanding of a topic. If you can write something like that - you've achieved such understanding.