“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein
This relates well to my earlier frustration about the cop-out of vaguely appealing to life experience in an argument, without actually explaining anything.
Right on. I’m thinking about writing an “explain yourself” series that shows how you can overcome the supposed barriers to explaining your position if there’s actual substance to it to begin with.
ETA: 5 upvotes so far—sounds like a vote of confidence for such an article. ETA2: Message heard loud and clear! I’m working on an article for submission, which may expand into a series.
Maybe this detracts from my previous agreement with the quote, but there’s a difference between explaining in person, vs. explaining in writing for a general audience. With the former, you can get immediate feedback as to which parts you’re not explaining well and appropriately redirect your focus, while in the latter you have to cover all the possible confusions.
This phenomenon was revealed most starkly in one of the articles in the quantum physics sequences, when I replied to the article by saying,
So, decoherence is a valid scientific theory because it makes the same, correct predictions as the one involving collapse, but is simpler.
Silas: I’ve tried just saying that to people, it doesn’t work. Doesn’t work in academic physics either. Besides which, it may not be the last time the question comes up, and there’s no reason why physicists shouldn’t know the (epistemic) math.
The fact that something can be explained simply doesn’t deny the problem of inferential distance, in my view; it just means that each step is simple, not that there won’t be many steps depending on how much of the listener’s knowledge you can build on.
“Simply” doesn’t necessarily mean “concisely” (outside of mathematical formalizations of Occam’s Razor). Conciseness is preferable when possible, but being too terse can start impacting comprehensibility. (Think of three programs that all do the same thing: a 1000-line C program, a 100-line Python program, and a 20-line Perl program. The length decreases with each one, but readability probably peaks with the Python program.)
The quote says “If you can’t explain it simply”, not “If you don’t explain it simply”. In this case, even if we do switch to “concisely” I think it checks out. Indeed, most of the major points Eliezer makes in the sequences could be stated much more briefly, but I get the sense that his goal in writing them is more than just transmitting his conclusions and his reasoning. No, it seems he’s writing with the goal of making his points not just intellectually comprehensible but obvious, intuitive, and second-nature. (Of course any intuition-pumpery, analogies, and anecdotes are used to complement good reasoning, not to replace it.) But I have little doubt that, if he really wanted to, he could he boil them down to their essential points, at the potential cost of much of the richness of his style of explanation.
(In any case, I’m not convinced that this quote is specific enough to serve as a usable norm. How simple? How much is “well enough”? Everyone will automatically assign their own preferred values to those variables, but then you’re just putting words in Einstein’s mouth, or rather, putting meanings in his words; you’re taking whatever rule you already follow and projecting it onto him. Fittingly, this is a case where a longer explanation would have been simpler (i.e. more understandable).)
Edit: I think I remember Eliezer once writing something like “Generally, half of all the words I write are superfluous. Unfortunately, each reader finds that it’s a different half.” That seems relevant as well. (Anyone remember the source of that?)
The latter. On the other hand, the sequences could greatly benefit from some ruthless editing.
EDIT: 5 minutes after I wrote this comment, I googled a part of it, because I was not sure about my English. (I’m Hungarian.) This comment was already indexed by google.
I’ve noticed that things on LW get indexed by Google really quickly. Wonder why that is. Maybe because LW uses a Google Custom Search, Google pays especially close attention to changes on it?
I think Google pays close attention to anything with a feed (maybe “Anything Google Reader users have subscribed to”, since they’re necessarily processing the data anyway?). Whenever I post to my own blog, not particularly notable in an absolute sense, the post shows up nearly instantly in Google Alerts.
Yes, especially as soon as one person has added the feed to Google Reader, the bot stops by a few times a day. I imagine, the more often updates occur, and the more people are waiting for the feed on Google Reader, the more often the bot will stop for a coffee here.
Simplicity and concision are independent. I don’t find Eliezer’s sequences complicated. They are long, but simple all the way through.
Simplicity and grandmother-explainability are also not the same thing. I’d reject the grandmother quote, but this one I don’t have a problem with, even if Einstein never said it.
Something I tell students when I’m teaching programming is “What is not clearly said was never clearly thought.”
By the way, Eliezer has already explicitly rejected a similar quote attributed to Einstein.
They’re both of dubious authenticity anyway. (I searched around for this version too, and the earliest mention of it I could find was in a 1977 Reader’s Digest, and that’s only according to a citation in a 2006 book.) That has nothing to do with whether it’s true, of course — if a vague maxim like this can count as a rationality quote at all, then that is independent of whether or not Einstein said it.
This is something I actually struggle with a lot. I read something that strikes me as profound, and that I agree with, but as soon as I try to explain it it’s all gone, and I’m left with bits and pieces that don’t make much sense to anyone else.
I’m not sure if this is a failure on my part to understand, simplify an idea, or explain it.
It means that you had a deep understanding for a few seconds, and then lost it. Or that you got trapped in the same confusion as the author, absorbed what made it seem appealing, and then “corrected away” the confusion.
To determine which one happened, try the following:
reading it again
rephrasing it in your own words as many different ways as you can
seeing how the thesis connects to other topics, and if that connection can be independently verified
Eventually, you should be able to either gain the understanding, or recognize where the error is.
Whenever I’m reading things that I want to actually learn and retain, I read with pencil and notebook and write down all the important points in my own words. I’ve found this to be helpful because it forces me to slow down and think about what I’m reading and how each new piece of information relates to everything that came before it. I’ve also found that having pencil and paper close at hand encourages picture drawing, which is often helpful when learning something (though it depends on what you’re reading).
I had a similar problem when I read Feynman’s QED. His explanation felt so simple and easy to understand when I read it, but when I tried to explain it to someone else I couldn’t make it make sense.
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein
This relates well to my earlier frustration about the cop-out of vaguely appealing to life experience in an argument, without actually explaining anything.
Right on. I’m thinking about writing an “explain yourself” series that shows how you can overcome the supposed barriers to explaining your position if there’s actual substance to it to begin with.
ETA: 5 upvotes so far—sounds like a vote of confidence for such an article.
ETA2: Message heard loud and clear! I’m working on an article for submission, which may expand into a series.
Does the length of his sequences imply that Eliezer doesn’t understand their subject matter, or that the universe is sometimes actually complicated?
Maybe this detracts from my previous agreement with the quote, but there’s a difference between explaining in person, vs. explaining in writing for a general audience. With the former, you can get immediate feedback as to which parts you’re not explaining well and appropriately redirect your focus, while in the latter you have to cover all the possible confusions.
This phenomenon was revealed most starkly in one of the articles in the quantum physics sequences, when I replied to the article by saying,
And Eliezer Yudkowsky said in response:
The fact that something can be explained simply doesn’t deny the problem of inferential distance, in my view; it just means that each step is simple, not that there won’t be many steps depending on how much of the listener’s knowledge you can build on.
“Simply” doesn’t necessarily mean “concisely” (outside of mathematical formalizations of Occam’s Razor). Conciseness is preferable when possible, but being too terse can start impacting comprehensibility. (Think of three programs that all do the same thing: a 1000-line C program, a 100-line Python program, and a 20-line Perl program. The length decreases with each one, but readability probably peaks with the Python program.)
The quote says “If you can’t explain it simply”, not “If you don’t explain it simply”. In this case, even if we do switch to “concisely” I think it checks out. Indeed, most of the major points Eliezer makes in the sequences could be stated much more briefly, but I get the sense that his goal in writing them is more than just transmitting his conclusions and his reasoning. No, it seems he’s writing with the goal of making his points not just intellectually comprehensible but obvious, intuitive, and second-nature. (Of course any intuition-pumpery, analogies, and anecdotes are used to complement good reasoning, not to replace it.) But I have little doubt that, if he really wanted to, he could he boil them down to their essential points, at the potential cost of much of the richness of his style of explanation.
(In any case, I’m not convinced that this quote is specific enough to serve as a usable norm. How simple? How much is “well enough”? Everyone will automatically assign their own preferred values to those variables, but then you’re just putting words in Einstein’s mouth, or rather, putting meanings in his words; you’re taking whatever rule you already follow and projecting it onto him. Fittingly, this is a case where a longer explanation would have been simpler (i.e. more understandable).)
Edit: I think I remember Eliezer once writing something like “Generally, half of all the words I write are superfluous. Unfortunately, each reader finds that it’s a different half.” That seems relevant as well. (Anyone remember the source of that?)
The latter. On the other hand, the sequences could greatly benefit from some ruthless editing.
EDIT: 5 minutes after I wrote this comment, I googled a part of it, because I was not sure about my English. (I’m Hungarian.) This comment was already indexed by google.
I’ve noticed that things on LW get indexed by Google really quickly. Wonder why that is. Maybe because LW uses a Google Custom Search, Google pays especially close attention to changes on it?
I think Google pays close attention to anything with a feed (maybe “Anything Google Reader users have subscribed to”, since they’re necessarily processing the data anyway?). Whenever I post to my own blog, not particularly notable in an absolute sense, the post shows up nearly instantly in Google Alerts.
Yes, especially as soon as one person has added the feed to Google Reader, the bot stops by a few times a day. I imagine, the more often updates occur, and the more people are waiting for the feed on Google Reader, the more often the bot will stop for a coffee here.
I think it is a combination of the Digg engine’s Recent Posts feature directly interfaced by Google, and LW’s high page rank.
Simplicity and concision are independent. I don’t find Eliezer’s sequences complicated. They are long, but simple all the way through.
Simplicity and grandmother-explainability are also not the same thing. I’d reject the grandmother quote, but this one I don’t have a problem with, even if Einstein never said it.
Something I tell students when I’m teaching programming is “What is not clearly said was never clearly thought.”
By the way, Eliezer has already explicitly rejected a similar quote attributed to Einstein.
They’re both of dubious authenticity anyway. (I searched around for this version too, and the earliest mention of it I could find was in a 1977 Reader’s Digest, and that’s only according to a citation in a 2006 book.) That has nothing to do with whether it’s true, of course — if a vague maxim like this can count as a rationality quote at all, then that is independent of whether or not Einstein said it.
This is something I actually struggle with a lot. I read something that strikes me as profound, and that I agree with, but as soon as I try to explain it it’s all gone, and I’m left with bits and pieces that don’t make much sense to anyone else.
I’m not sure if this is a failure on my part to understand, simplify an idea, or explain it.
It means that you had a deep understanding for a few seconds, and then lost it. Or that you got trapped in the same confusion as the author, absorbed what made it seem appealing, and then “corrected away” the confusion.
To determine which one happened, try the following:
reading it again
rephrasing it in your own words as many different ways as you can
seeing how the thesis connects to other topics, and if that connection can be independently verified
Eventually, you should be able to either gain the understanding, or recognize where the error is.
This is an excellent diagnosis, and those are excellent suggestions for really learning the material.
Excellent!
Whenever I’m reading things that I want to actually learn and retain, I read with pencil and notebook and write down all the important points in my own words. I’ve found this to be helpful because it forces me to slow down and think about what I’m reading and how each new piece of information relates to everything that came before it. I’ve also found that having pencil and paper close at hand encourages picture drawing, which is often helpful when learning something (though it depends on what you’re reading).
I had a similar problem when I read Feynman’s QED. His explanation felt so simple and easy to understand when I read it, but when I tried to explain it to someone else I couldn’t make it make sense.