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My default mindset used to be “I’m not getting this -> I’m stupid”, and I’ve been slowly shifting my mindset to “I’m not getting this -> this is probably not be

by amirGi 5y ago

My default mindset used to be “I’m not getting this -> I’m stupid”, and I’ve been slowly shifting my mindset to “I’m not getting this -> this is probably not being explained well”

mrspeaker 5y ago
Yes! Teaching is really hard, and is an independent skill from having knowledge about a subject. Many blog posts and articles are written by people who know the domain, but are not good teachers. The same goes for teachers in general - you can have professors who are very smart, but are poor teachers. It's a completely different skill set... that's why it's so exciting when you find someone who has both!
ur-whale 5y ago
I find that it's usually a combination of both. What usually convinces me that we're reaching into the "I'm just not smart enough" territory is when I listen to multiple explanations from multiple sources and I'm still stuck (although ... I find that on certain subject people are just parroting each other a lot, which makes me often question whether the person doing the explaining actually understands the topic at all).
- amirGi 5y ago
  I think it’s usually less of a “I’m not smart enough” and more of a “this may take significant time to understand well.” Topics that are deemed too complex usually just require a significant amount of previous knowledge that you may not already have, and you just need to spend a lot of time thinking and learning about them. More on this here - https://www.benkuhn.net/thinkrealhard/ https://www.benkuhn.net/thinkrealhard/
  - ur-whale 5y ago
    Sure, it's a nice and egalitarian opinion and all but that doesn't take into account the situation when the guy next to you groks something 10 times faster than you do and can move on to the next topic in the blink of an eye. As an extreme of this, if it takes you 20 years of hard study to grok a topic that normal people absorb in 6 months ... harsh to say, but you don't fall in the "smart" bucket.
elondaits 5y ago
Yes! The same with movies (specially with thrillers, capers, noir, etc.). I always assumed I wasn’t paying enough attention and important bits of information flew over my head. As I got older and often when rewatching movies, I realized there’s a lot of hand waving, vague explanations and basically shoddy writing, even on big movies.

by amirGi 5y ago

My default mindset used to be “I’m not getting this -> I’m stupid”, and I’ve been slowly shifting my mindset to “I’m not getting this -> this is probably not being explained well”

mrspeaker 5y ago

Yes! Teaching is really hard, and is an independent skill from having knowledge about a subject. Many blog posts and articles are written by people who know the domain, but are not good teachers. The same goes for teachers in general - you can have professors who are very smart, but are poor teachers. It's a completely different skill set... that's why it's so exciting when you find someone who has both!

ur-whale 5y ago

I find that it's usually a combination of both. What usually convinces me that we're reaching into the "I'm just not smart enough" territory is when I listen to multiple explanations from multiple sources and I'm still stuck (although ... I find that on certain subject people are just parroting each other a lot, which makes me often question whether the person doing the explaining actually understands the topic at all).

amirGi 5y ago
I think it’s usually less of a “I’m not smart enough” and more of a “this may take significant time to understand well.” Topics that are deemed too complex usually just require a significant amount of previous knowledge that you may not already have, and you just need to spend a lot of time thinking and learning about them. More on this here - https://www.benkuhn.net/thinkrealhard/ https://www.benkuhn.net/thinkrealhard/
- ur-whale 5y ago
  Sure, it's a nice and egalitarian opinion and all but that doesn't take into account the situation when the guy next to you groks something 10 times faster than you do and can move on to the next topic in the blink of an eye. As an extreme of this, if it takes you 20 years of hard study to grok a topic that normal people absorb in 6 months ... harsh to say, but you don't fall in the "smart" bucket.

elondaits 5y ago

Yes! The same with movies (specially with thrillers, capers, noir, etc.). I always assumed I wasn’t paying enough attention and important bits of information flew over my head. As I got older and often when rewatching movies, I realized there’s a lot of hand waving, vague explanations and basically shoddy writing, even on big movies.