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> I think rote memorization is less useful in engineering than critical thinking/problem solving i think this is exactly the right take in entirely the wrong d

> I think rote memorization is less useful in engineering than critical thinking/problem solving i think this is exactly the right take in entirely the wrong direction. proficiency and mastery are about committing more and more complex things into sub- or un- concious action; muscle memory as it were. grandmaster chess players dont think about solving puzzles that stump novices, they absorb whole board states and many/all permutations instantly. BJJ black belts dont have to think about arm bars, they anticipate complex possibilities of moves and countermoves that a novice simply cannot fathom. this is as true in engineering as any other field. a simple litmus test: is there a difference between a college grad and a 40-years experienced engineer? of course there is I think GPs point is exactly right. there is a certain lost magic to simply smashing your brain into something and absorbing as much as possible. big eyes, big ears, ego to attempt but humble to fail. one might call such a person a hacker. edit: see The Art of Learning, Waitzkin https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743277465/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743277465/

ehnto 5y ago
I have pretty much the same outlook as you have described, so it's notable that we disagree at least a bit on this point of memorization. I think this is my fault as I misunderstood the GP a bit in my reply. But I would suggest in some ways that practice is different to memorization in some interesting ways. Memorizing a manual on motorcycle riding wouldn't make you a good rider if you have never ridden a bike, and you can become a better rider without it, but it would prepare you for the topics involved and you would likely be far more effective at absorbing the learning from the practice having read the manual. In other instances memorization is a foundational requirement, like language learning. Can't leanr a word if you don't know the alphabet, for example. In that sense practice only serves to reinforce the memorization it is the memory that is most important to being effective in that case.

ehnto 5y ago

I have pretty much the same outlook as you have described, so it's notable that we disagree at least a bit on this point of memorization. I think this is my fault as I misunderstood the GP a bit in my reply. But I would suggest in some ways that practice is different to memorization in some interesting ways. Memorizing a manual on motorcycle riding wouldn't make you a good rider if you have never ridden a bike, and you can become a better rider without it, but it would prepare you for the topics involved and you would likely be far more effective at absorbing the learning from the practice having read the manual. In other instances memorization is a foundational requirement, like language learning. Can't leanr a word if you don't know the alphabet, for example. In that sense practice only serves to reinforce the memorization it is the memory that is most important to being effective in that case.