Reminds me of how, as a kid, I tried to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. I didn’t have a chance in hell, of course, but my attempts enabled me to learn a ton of advanced math and even finding out some results that turned out to be already well known (e.g., Euler’s formula).
In my view this is how true tech learning takes place. You are focused on solving a specific problem, so are concentrating hard on the details as you go along. And there is a dopamine reward for working it out.
Which of course is exactly what the article says. Consider this vehement agreement.
Related lobsters question: What’s your current yak shaving depth?
Reminds me of how, as a kid, I tried to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem. I didn’t have a chance in hell, of course, but my attempts enabled me to learn a ton of advanced math and even finding out some results that turned out to be already well known (e.g., Euler’s formula).
I just put together a Secret Santa system, and it was quite a bit trickier that I’d anticipated. Not rocket science, but it took more than 10 minutes!
It’s easy to match up a group of people.
It’s easy to group them into sub-groups to avoid clashes with spouses, etc.
Things get tricky when you need one-way relationships. So Jim can give a gift to Sally, but Sally cannot give to Jim.
Learned a lot about directional graphs, constraints, building sanity checks, and doing things without melting CPUs.
In my view this is how true tech learning takes place. You are focused on solving a specific problem, so are concentrating hard on the details as you go along. And there is a dopamine reward for working it out.
Which of course is exactly what the article says. Consider this vehement agreement.