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The technology that civilization creates is only possible because humanity specializes. Humans aren't so smart by themselves, but we can do a lot of thing if hu

by kiba 15y ago

The technology that civilization creates is only possible because humanity specializes. Humans aren't so smart by themselves, but we can do a lot of thing if humans possess specific knowledge. For example, one guy specialize and dedicate his life to metalworking. If I try to know everything in the world, I could barely scratch the surface of what that guy learned. People can even specialize in multidisciplines. They don't know as deeply as a specialist in a subject area but they know two area well and combine them into useful combination. It would seems that today's problem is more about the limit of human beings' ability to store and synthesize information across vast disparate field. In other words, we generated so much knowledge, but so much is just kept there not being used. Spaced repetition is a good example. It's a very powerful memorization technique, but it is not being used in colleges and schools, except those who discover it on accident. It's also a timesaving tool in the programming profession. Instead of googling and wasting 5 minutes for answers to our programming problem, we can save 5 minutes for many common tasks we memorize. It won't save us from debugging woes but at least we get to the important programming problems faster. There's also a storehouse of reliable information on self improvement written by psychologists who done experiment and research things like willpower and discipline, why it fails, and so on. Instead, we got distracted by techniques that seems to work but have no scientific basis, or we get distracted by self improvement gurus that have no idea what we're talking about. We are specialists but we miss a ton of useful stuff that would be useful to our specialization. It's like missing a thousand useful book every year because you can never read them fast enough.

DougBTX 15y ago
> There's also a storehouse of reliable information on self improvement written by psychologists who done experiment and research things like willpower and discipline, why it fails, and so on. Instead, we got distracted by techniques that seems to work but have no scientific basis, or we get distracted by self improvement gurus that have no idea what we're talking about. That's a subject where I know that I can't tell the difference by myself - could you recommend some authors? I'd be happy to put in the effort into reading technical papers which haven't been re-written for a popular audience yet if the quality is higher, but I don't know where to look.
- kiba 15y ago
  The only book I am studying right now is: http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-How-Can-Reach-Goals/dp/1594630739 http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-How-Can-Reach-Goals/dp/1594630... It have citations and is written by a psychologist. However, I did not have a lot of time to compare notes between books written by other psychologists in the field. The thing is, being a specialist means you don't spend much time scrutinizing what is wrong and not wrong in their studies or books in other fields. You sometime have to trust scientists for being scientific.
- ispolin 15y ago
  Try this book: "59 seconds" - http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/59-seconds-think-a-little-change-a-lot/ http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/59-seconds-think-a-littl... It presents practical advice based on research papers in the field. A good book on brain hacks like the aforementioned spaced repetition is "Mind Performance Hacks": http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-Overclocking/dp/0596101538 http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-Overclock... And another good read is "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning": http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learning http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learni... You can also try this site: http://lesswrong.com http://lesswrong.com This is a good section to start from: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Winning_at_Life http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Winning_at_Lif... Be warned, though. The writing on this site is heavily influenced by AI research so it tends to be somewhat... Vulcan, which can can be good or bad depending on your preferences.
  - seletz 15y ago
    thanks for these links -- lesswrong is amazing.
  - seletz 15y ago
    thanks for these links -- lesswrong is amazing.
partition 15y ago
Yes! So can we stop pretending (through monetary and social credit) that for everything worth developing, it was just one guy acting alone?
jamesbritt 15y ago
Perhaps, but: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein http://elise.com/quotes/a/heinlein_-_specialization_is_for_insects.php http://elise.com/quotes/a/heinlein_-_specialization_is_for_i...
- pewpewlasergun 15y ago
  Why is this quote worth considering or insightful? What does it add to the discussion? Have you done half of those things? Did you really get anything out of it? Some insects specialize, some do not. One could just as easily say farming is for insects, or flying, or a multitude of other things. Just because several species of insects do something does not mean we should not. This quote, along with a few others, seem to be always dropped into internet discussions with no context or explanation, and I never see them add to the discussion.
  - JoeAltmaier 15y ago
    Sure, lots of us have done more than half of those things. Its supposed to be illustrative of how a person is a gadget for figuring out how to do whatever comes along, instead of being programmed for a particular life plan. But you knew that. I'd have to wonder why the pedantic complaint?
    - JoshTriplett 15y ago
      Because you didn't say any of it. The quote is amusing; using the quote to contrast with the post it replied to adds much more. And personally, I got something entirely different out of the quote than you did, and I found the point of view you just explained interesting.
  - JoshTriplett 15y ago
rayder 15y ago
For anyone unfamiliar with spaced repetition, there was a great article and discussion a while back on it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818157 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818157
- pjscott 15y ago
  Also, Gwern Branwen has an excellent, very detailed article about it: http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition
away 15y ago
The main reason to learn new things is that it offers growth opportunities to having a fulfilled life. Sure, I can spend all my time specialized on one thing, but it wouldn't be as satisfying because a good life is about balance.
- kiba 15y ago
  When you specialize, you will learn more indepth about your field. You don't stop learning. Of course, a good life means humans must learn certain life maintenance skill and social interactions so that we can function and hopefully be happier overall.

by kiba 15y ago

DougBTX 15y ago

> There's also a storehouse of reliable information on self improvement written by psychologists who done experiment and research things like willpower and discipline, why it fails, and so on. Instead, we got distracted by techniques that seems to work but have no scientific basis, or we get distracted by self improvement gurus that have no idea what we're talking about. That's a subject where I know that I can't tell the difference by myself - could you recommend some authors? I'd be happy to put in the effort into reading technical papers which haven't been re-written for a popular audience yet if the quality is higher, but I don't know where to look.

kiba 15y ago
The only book I am studying right now is: http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-How-Can-Reach-Goals/dp/1594630739 http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-How-Can-Reach-Goals/dp/1594630... It have citations and is written by a psychologist. However, I did not have a lot of time to compare notes between books written by other psychologists in the field. The thing is, being a specialist means you don't spend much time scrutinizing what is wrong and not wrong in their studies or books in other fields. You sometime have to trust scientists for being scientific.
ispolin 15y ago
Try this book: "59 seconds" - http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/59-seconds-think-a-little-change-a-lot/ http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/59-seconds-think-a-littl... It presents practical advice based on research papers in the field. A good book on brain hacks like the aforementioned spaced repetition is "Mind Performance Hacks": http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-Overclocking/dp/0596101538 http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Performance-Hacks-Tools-Overclock... And another good read is "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning": http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learning http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learni... You can also try this site: http://lesswrong.com http://lesswrong.com This is a good section to start from: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Winning_at_Life http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Winning_at_Lif... Be warned, though. The writing on this site is heavily influenced by AI research so it tends to be somewhat... Vulcan, which can can be good or bad depending on your preferences.
- seletz 15y ago
  thanks for these links -- lesswrong is amazing.
- seletz 15y ago
  thanks for these links -- lesswrong is amazing.

partition 15y ago

Yes! So can we stop pretending (through monetary and social credit) that for everything worth developing, it was just one guy acting alone?

jamesbritt 15y ago

Perhaps, but: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein http://elise.com/quotes/a/heinlein_-_specialization_is_for_insects.php http://elise.com/quotes/a/heinlein_-_specialization_is_for_i...

pewpewlasergun 15y ago
Why is this quote worth considering or insightful? What does it add to the discussion? Have you done half of those things? Did you really get anything out of it? Some insects specialize, some do not. One could just as easily say farming is for insects, or flying, or a multitude of other things. Just because several species of insects do something does not mean we should not. This quote, along with a few others, seem to be always dropped into internet discussions with no context or explanation, and I never see them add to the discussion.
- JoeAltmaier 15y ago
  Sure, lots of us have done more than half of those things. Its supposed to be illustrative of how a person is a gadget for figuring out how to do whatever comes along, instead of being programmed for a particular life plan. But you knew that. I'd have to wonder why the pedantic complaint?
  - JoshTriplett 15y ago
    Because you didn't say any of it. The quote is amusing; using the quote to contrast with the post it replied to adds much more. And personally, I got something entirely different out of the quote than you did, and I found the point of view you just explained interesting.
- JoshTriplett 15y ago

rayder 15y ago

For anyone unfamiliar with spaced repetition, there was a great article and discussion a while back on it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818157 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=818157

pjscott 15y ago
Also, Gwern Branwen has an excellent, very detailed article about it: http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition

away 15y ago

The main reason to learn new things is that it offers growth opportunities to having a fulfilled life. Sure, I can spend all my time specialized on one thing, but it wouldn't be as satisfying because a good life is about balance.

kiba 15y ago
When you specialize, you will learn more indepth about your field. You don't stop learning. Of course, a good life means humans must learn certain life maintenance skill and social interactions so that we can function and hopefully be happier overall.