Ask HN: How Do I Cope with This Lag in Understanding?

3 points by AbyormPiranha 7 years ago | 1 comment

I want to give you an example. Someone whose opinion I highly valued told me to start exercising. I intellectually processed it and drew all the logical connections, but somehow only a year later did it become "deep". Exercise is really important.

And no, there was no health crisis or adverse consequence that made it sink in. It just took a long time and happened by itself.

So it feels like 99% I'm a shallow neural network making lots of connections but 1% of the time I enter into deep neural network mode. This is probably a bad analogy. But I need to be in deep neural network mode much more frequently. I can't afford to let a whole year to go by in order for me to understand a badic concept! This is embarrassing!

fpalmans 7 years ago |

Sometimes it just takes a long time for something to sink in. That doesn't mean one doesn't understand the concept, or accepts a statement as being true before that deeper understanding is found - as evidenced by your example.

It is probably a very common phenomenon.

I have doubts with your neural net analogy. Probably it's running similarly the whole time, but occasionally finds a better/faster/more optimal way to process data. Your brain is probably working exactly as it should.

Don't be embarrassed, be happy you improved and look forward to the next improvement.

EDIT: forgot to answer the question; how to cope! I use a simple rule of thumb; if one person makes a statement, I listen. If a second person makes the same statement, I think. If three or more people make the same statement, I accept it and trust understanding will follow. Unless, of course, the statements are verifiable false...