Eugine_Nier comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 20, chapter 90

[Eugine_Nier]

The strongest evidence is that magic-users and even creators don’t really have to understand how the spells actually work in order to use them.

You don’t need to know how muscles work in order to use them to move.

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You also don’t need to know how algorithms work in order to use them, or even to write them. I don’t know how Ukkonen’s algorithm works, but I’ve implemented it. You haven’t seen magic until you’ve seen the suffixes of a string sorted in linear time.