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I strongly agree with the concept that cognitive friction is the engine of learning. First and foremost, it's an issue of "dependency": if you stop training th

by aledevv 24d ago

I strongly agree with the concept that cognitive friction is the engine of learning. First and foremost, it's an issue of "dependency": if you stop training the "muscle" of logic and reasoning, it gradually atrophies, just like unused physical muscles. You become dependent on external tools that replace a capability you once had yourself. A historical example that brought about a similar shift is this: when the production process moved from the craftsman's mind and hands to the Fordist factory (and the assembly line), the skill of building things shifted from human craftsmanship to anonymous, structured processes. Bit by bit, traditional artisans lost their knowledge and "know-how." Today, having a piece of furniture in our home depends on a massive production and supply chain; the "average" person no longer has the ability to build it themselves. The exact same thing is happening to software. We are the (now "former") software craftsmen.

ksd482 24d ago
> cognitive friction is the engine of learning. I agree 100% too. This is why in order to understand new codebase or to ramp up to new projects, I use AI to generate a textbook style reading material for me along with "verify yourself" types of exercises along the way. Then I print them on a paper and read it using a pencil/pen and take notes. Because of my math training, I am in the habit of slowing down to read textbook style texts which helps.
- larsfaye 24d ago
  Exactly the type of usage I would hope to see advocated for in the future. As I wrote, when leveraged with Socratic methods and a sort of "interactive documentation", they can really boost one's understanding. Of course, this is predicated on the individual having enough information to know the right questions to ask.
- GPerson 24d ago
  I also do this. It would be better I think to generate exact references to primary and canonical sources to avoid learning LLMisms, or to feed it these and have it ensure its material is anchored to those good references.
- khriss 24d ago
  > I use AI to generate a textbook style reading material for me along with "verify yourself" types of exercises along the way This is fascinating. Any chance you have your workflow or prompts documented and would be willing to share them?
  - ksd482 24d ago
    Great idea! Let me pull some stuff from my past chats, and put it in a github gist or something.
    - ksd482 23d ago
      So I went back to my chats and there wasn't much there to put in a workflow or something. But here are the things that stood out: > Introduce me to these concepts layer by layer with a textbook style introductions. > Use color coded boxes etc. just like in textbook to highlight important details. > Along the way, give me exercises to do myself that would test my understanding so far. > Put everything in a local HTML file that I can open in my browser. > The entire textbook should be printable so format accordingly. That's about it. The HTML part is important. Earlier I used to document in markdown format, but I found claude/chatgpt does a far better job with formatting and colors in HTML instead. Plus, you can open the HTML file in a browser and refresh when it makes changes. Another thing: the HTML is built gradually. I keep asking AI some follow up questions and I instruct it to keep the HTML up todate.
      - khriss 22d ago
        Thanks!
pixelpoet 24d ago
Another example is autocorrect absolutely destroying the world's ability to spell even the most basic words. Ever since mobile phones came along and removed the friction of walking to the dictionary, everywhere I look people write as if they have extremely serious brain trauma - grown adults struggling to write as well as we used to as children!
ThrowawayR2 24d ago
> "...if you stop training the "muscle" of logic and reasoning, it gradually atrophies, just like unused physical muscles. You become dependent on external tools that replace a capability you once had yourself." For a bit of extra unease, consider that these people will retain their right to vote, both in making business decisions as employees, in shareholder meetings as shareholders, and in government elections as voters, despite their atrophied reasoning abilities. Who will wind up whispering what to vote for in the ears of these reverse centaurs?
Carrok 24d ago
> Today, having a piece of furniture in our home depends on a massive production and supply chain; the "average" person no longer has the ability to build it themselves. Tangential, but this is one of many reasons that I (and I suspect many others here) have taken up wood working.
intended 24d ago
theres even more recent things to learn from > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironies_of_Automation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironies_of_Automation > Bainbridge argues that new, severe problems are caused by automating most of the work, while the human operator is responsible for tasks that can not be automated. Thus, operators will not practice skills as part of their ongoing work. Their work now also includes exhausting monitoring tasks. Thus, rather than needing less training, operators need to be trained more to be ready for the rare but crucial interventions

by aledevv 24d ago

ksd482 24d ago

> cognitive friction is the engine of learning. I agree 100% too. This is why in order to understand new codebase or to ramp up to new projects, I use AI to generate a textbook style reading material for me along with "verify yourself" types of exercises along the way. Then I print them on a paper and read it using a pencil/pen and take notes. Because of my math training, I am in the habit of slowing down to read textbook style texts which helps.

larsfaye 24d ago
Exactly the type of usage I would hope to see advocated for in the future. As I wrote, when leveraged with Socratic methods and a sort of "interactive documentation", they can really boost one's understanding. Of course, this is predicated on the individual having enough information to know the right questions to ask.
GPerson 24d ago
I also do this. It would be better I think to generate exact references to primary and canonical sources to avoid learning LLMisms, or to feed it these and have it ensure its material is anchored to those good references.
khriss 24d ago
> I use AI to generate a textbook style reading material for me along with "verify yourself" types of exercises along the way This is fascinating. Any chance you have your workflow or prompts documented and would be willing to share them?
- ksd482 24d ago
  Great idea! Let me pull some stuff from my past chats, and put it in a github gist or something.
  - ksd482 23d ago
    So I went back to my chats and there wasn't much there to put in a workflow or something. But here are the things that stood out: > Introduce me to these concepts layer by layer with a textbook style introductions. > Use color coded boxes etc. just like in textbook to highlight important details. > Along the way, give me exercises to do myself that would test my understanding so far. > Put everything in a local HTML file that I can open in my browser. > The entire textbook should be printable so format accordingly. That's about it. The HTML part is important. Earlier I used to document in markdown format, but I found claude/chatgpt does a far better job with formatting and colors in HTML instead. Plus, you can open the HTML file in a browser and refresh when it makes changes. Another thing: the HTML is built gradually. I keep asking AI some follow up questions and I instruct it to keep the HTML up todate.
    - khriss 22d ago
      Thanks!

pixelpoet 24d ago

Another example is autocorrect absolutely destroying the world's ability to spell even the most basic words. Ever since mobile phones came along and removed the friction of walking to the dictionary, everywhere I look people write as if they have extremely serious brain trauma - grown adults struggling to write as well as we used to as children!

ThrowawayR2 24d ago

> "...if you stop training the "muscle" of logic and reasoning, it gradually atrophies, just like unused physical muscles. You become dependent on external tools that replace a capability you once had yourself." For a bit of extra unease, consider that these people will retain their right to vote, both in making business decisions as employees, in shareholder meetings as shareholders, and in government elections as voters, despite their atrophied reasoning abilities. Who will wind up whispering what to vote for in the ears of these reverse centaurs?

Carrok 24d ago

> Today, having a piece of furniture in our home depends on a massive production and supply chain; the "average" person no longer has the ability to build it themselves. Tangential, but this is one of many reasons that I (and I suspect many others here) have taken up wood working.

intended 24d ago

theres even more recent things to learn from > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironies_of_Automation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironies_of_Automation > Bainbridge argues that new, severe problems are caused by automating most of the work, while the human operator is responsible for tasks that can not be automated. Thus, operators will not practice skills as part of their ongoing work. Their work now also includes exhausting monitoring tasks. Thus, rather than needing less training, operators need to be trained more to be ready for the rare but crucial interventions