Succinct, Accurate, Simple: Choose Two
I just discovered a discussion by
about why we don't understand things (this clip begins at 13:42 but the part before it is interesting too!):Generally, he suggests explanations can be succinct, accurate, or simple; but typically only two of those things at any given time. It's attractive to imagine this as some type of intuition that we have, based on a model of the world, that there's something "wrong" at a deeper level, but we haven't figured out how to articulate the "problem". The "implicit feeling that something is left unexplained" has to be based on something, I think. But it's unclear to me whether it has to be based on a "true" reality rather than a mistaken or partial understanding of the way the world works. We seem to have a problem, nowadays, of people failing to see things or ask questions because their worldviews prevent them from even imagining the "thing" or the "question" that seems obvious to someone with a different set of foundational models of the world. There are practical results of these discrepancies between people's worldviews, but I wonder when it's necessary to address the underlying differences head-on or whether there are some where we could attribute them to cultural diversity and deal with the consequences?
I was looking at Curt’s YouTube because he has interacted with Eric Weinstein, whom I have found interesting in the past. It seems that much of the blogosphere has concluded that Eric was recently “pwned” by Sean Carroll on Piers Morgan’s show. I didn’t get that sense, although I suspect my suspicion is more related to my worldview than to the merits of either of their arguments in the Morgan segment (Carroll was much more articulate in this exchange). Curt has posted two three-hour videos, the first of his reaction to Eric’s theory and then a conversation with Eric himself that I will be diving into soon (it’s a rainy day, so maybe during a soaking walk). I also thought it was interesting how Curt said that since students have trouble articulating their "sticking point", it's the job of a teacher to "triangulate" on the issue in order to address it. And that, lacking a teacher, autodidacts often find themselves bashing their heads against a wall for a while, until they make a breakthrough.