This problem is rampant in lectures and academic talks. Many times, a speaker will be saying something which to her is of course obvious, and she’ll put it up on the board and ask if everyone gets it. There’ll be a lot of blank faces and maybe one guy nodding reflexively. And she’ll be like: “OK, if everyone gets it we’ll move on”; when actually no one would’ve got it.
This is mitigated if there’s a small subset of people who try to engage deeply with the speaker and constantly ask for clarifications. Often they are senior professors since they have no danger of losing status by asking stupid questions; but they need not be. This small subset energizes the rest and forces the speaker to be clear and engaging.
Similarly, if you’re on LW, and if some post or comment is confusing to you, don’t skip it and leave it to people who might have the right background. Ask for clarifications. Tell yourself that you’re doing a huge favor to the poster because her ideas are clarified and absorbed into the community.
If you feel something is just obviously right and nothing need be said: well, with high probability you’re wrong. In academic talks, I’ve realized that the feeling that something is obvious is almost always misplaced. In fact this is the illusion of explanatory depth. To counteract this during talks, I often tell myself that this Obvious Thing is probably the result of years of debate among some community and probably there’re still holes that need to be fixed. And if I’m not seeing the subtleties, then I’m not looking close enough.
This problem is rampant in lectures and academic talks. Many times, a speaker will be saying something which to her is of course obvious, and she’ll put it up on the board and ask if everyone gets it. There’ll be a lot of blank faces and maybe one guy nodding reflexively. And she’ll be like: “OK, if everyone gets it we’ll move on”; when actually no one would’ve got it.
Many times the lecture is just a duty amongst pursuits more interesting, and the speaker secretly hopes that nobody asks, and it shows.
This problem is rampant in lectures and academic talks. Many times, a speaker will be saying something which to her is of course obvious, and she’ll put it up on the board and ask if everyone gets it. There’ll be a lot of blank faces and maybe one guy nodding reflexively. And she’ll be like: “OK, if everyone gets it we’ll move on”; when actually no one would’ve got it.
This is mitigated if there’s a small subset of people who try to engage deeply with the speaker and constantly ask for clarifications. Often they are senior professors since they have no danger of losing status by asking stupid questions; but they need not be. This small subset energizes the rest and forces the speaker to be clear and engaging.
Similarly, if you’re on LW, and if some post or comment is confusing to you, don’t skip it and leave it to people who might have the right background. Ask for clarifications. Tell yourself that you’re doing a huge favor to the poster because her ideas are clarified and absorbed into the community.
If you feel something is just obviously right and nothing need be said: well, with high probability you’re wrong. In academic talks, I’ve realized that the feeling that something is obvious is almost always misplaced. In fact this is the illusion of explanatory depth. To counteract this during talks, I often tell myself that this Obvious Thing is probably the result of years of debate among some community and probably there’re still holes that need to be fixed. And if I’m not seeing the subtleties, then I’m not looking close enough.
I am hereby publicly committing to doing this at least once per day for the next week.
What if one day you don’t read any comment you find confusing? You keep on reading until you find one?
Going hunting for content to be confused by. ’Tis a novel reading method.
Or set a lower standard for “sufficiently confused”.
There’s a lot of content here, and replying to old posts is encouraged, so I think there should be plenty of material.
Many times the lecture is just a duty amongst pursuits more interesting, and the speaker secretly hopes that nobody asks, and it shows.