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I think you're both right, but I think you're talking about different kinds of knowledge transfer. Imagine, as a simple model of expertise, three different lev

by MrJohz 2y ago

I think you're both right, but I think you're talking about different kinds of knowledge transfer. Imagine, as a simple model of expertise, three different levels of knowledge in a subject: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In my experience, an expert can always explain their knowledge to the next level down: if you've got someone at the advanced level in a room of intermediates, then if the person at the advanced level should be able to explain what's going on to their intermediate peers. If they can't, I would be deeply sceptical that they know their stuff. But beyond that - someone at the advanced level in a room full of beginners, for example - communication gets harder, and the expert usually needs to be skilled in teaching in addition to their specialist subject in order to effectively explain what they're on about. So in your example, the expert is dealing with someone who only knows the basics, and so will need to do a lot of explaining to get them up to speed. But if instead the expert was asked something like "How does the use of ADTs in Rust change how you would model data in comparison to Python?", then the person they're dealing with probably knows enough that the expert only needs to explain the relevant specifics to them. So in summary: yes, teaching someone who knows relatively little compared to you requires a lot of specific teaching skills, even as an expert. But if you really are an expert, you should be able to explain your expertise to peers who just don't have the specific knowledge you have.

kaba0 2y ago
This is a very wise point I haven’s seen written out this concretely, thanks! I really do feel this additional detail is necessary to the above claims. No matter how much of an expert someone is, there are topics that have so many dependencies themselves, that are alsk advanced knowledge, that explaining it in one go is just not possible. There are some topics where analogies can sidestep some of this difficulty in teaching by basically keeping the shape of the dependency graph, and replacing it with one that happens in ordinary life. But I don’t think that every expert topic can have such a homology, fundamentally so. Complexity is unending, while “problems common in ordinary life” has limited complexity. That math paper that 10 people understand on Earth will not be readily accessible to Aunt Mary not even by the smartest person on Earth.
philipswood 2y ago
Your point reminds me of ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS by Scott Alexander [1] >“You’re talking about an infinite regress”, I said, when I had finished the glass. >“Not infinite. Architects. Teachers. Teachers of teachers, but the art of teaching teaching is much the same as the art of teaching. Three levels is enough. Though the levels have to mix. The teacher who trains the next architect must be a master both of teaching and of architecture. I will spare you the math, but one needs a series of teachers at different points on the teaching-skill/architecture-skill tradeoff-curve. One will be a master teacher who has devoted decades to learning the textbook-writing skill, and who can write a brilliant Introduction To Architecture textbook that makes the first ten years of architecture ability seem perfectly natural and easy to master. Another will be a mediocre teacher who knows enough advanced architecture to write a passable textbook on the subject. Still another will do nothing but study pure Teaching itself, in the hopes that he can one day pass on this knowledge to others who will use it to write architecture textbooks. In practice we are limited to a few strategic points on the tradeoff curve.” [1]:https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/

by MrJohz 2y ago

kaba0 2y ago

This is a very wise point I haven’s seen written out this concretely, thanks! I really do feel this additional detail is necessary to the above claims. No matter how much of an expert someone is, there are topics that have so many dependencies themselves, that are alsk advanced knowledge, that explaining it in one go is just not possible. There are some topics where analogies can sidestep some of this difficulty in teaching by basically keeping the shape of the dependency graph, and replacing it with one that happens in ordinary life. But I don’t think that every expert topic can have such a homology, fundamentally so. Complexity is unending, while “problems common in ordinary life” has limited complexity. That math paper that 10 people understand on Earth will not be readily accessible to Aunt Mary not even by the smartest person on Earth.

philipswood 2y ago

Your point reminds me of ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS by Scott Alexander [1] >“You’re talking about an infinite regress”, I said, when I had finished the glass. >“Not infinite. Architects. Teachers. Teachers of teachers, but the art of teaching teaching is much the same as the art of teaching. Three levels is enough. Though the levels have to mix. The teacher who trains the next architect must be a master both of teaching and of architecture. I will spare you the math, but one needs a series of teachers at different points on the teaching-skill/architecture-skill tradeoff-curve. One will be a master teacher who has devoted decades to learning the textbook-writing skill, and who can write a brilliant Introduction To Architecture textbook that makes the first ten years of architecture ability seem perfectly natural and easy to master. Another will be a mediocre teacher who knows enough advanced architecture to write a passable textbook on the subject. Still another will do nothing but study pure Teaching itself, in the hopes that he can one day pass on this knowledge to others who will use it to write architecture textbooks. In practice we are limited to a few strategic points on the tradeoff curve.” [1]:https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/