Item — HN Reader

It always comes down to economics and then the person and their attitude towards themselves.

Some things are worth learning deeply, in other cases the easy / fast solution is what the situation calls for.

I've thought recently that some kinds of 'learning' with AI are not really that different from using Cliffs Notes back in the day. Sometimes getting the Cliffs Notes summary was the way to get a paper done OR a way to quickly get through a boring/challenging book (Scarlet Letter, amirite?). And in some cases reading the summary is actually better than the book itself.

BUT - I think everyone could agree that if you ONLY read Cliffs Notes, you're just cheating yourself out of an education.

That's a different and deeper issue because some people simply do not care to invest in themselves. They want to do minimum work for maximum money and then go "enjoy themselves."

Getting a person to take an interest in themselves, in their own growth and development, to invite curiosity, that's a timeless problem.

2 comments

So I've actually been putting more effort into deliberate practice since I started using AI in programming.

I've been a fan of Zed Shaw's method for years, of typing out interesting programs by hand. But I've been appreciating it even more now, as a way to stave off the feeling of my brain melting :)

The gross feeling I have if I go for too long without doing cardio, is a similar feeling to when I go for too long without actually writing a substantial amount of code myself.

I think that the feeling of making a sustained effort is itself something necessary and healthy, and rapidly disappearing from the world.

I’ve always like the essential/accidental complexity split. It can be hard to find, but for a problem solving perspective, it may defines what’s fun and what’s a chore.

I’ve been reading the OpenBSD lately and it’s quite nice how they’ve split the general OS concepts from the machine dependent needs. And the general way they’ve separated interfaces and implementation.

I believe that once you’ve solve the essential problem, the rest becomes way easier as you got a direction. But doing accidental problem solving without having done the essential one is pure misery.