DISQUS

Dean · 3 years ago

The physicist in me likes the idea of focusing on reusable prescriptive knowledge. However, an interesting feedback mechanism exists between the more mundane propositional knowledge and the prescriptive stuff. Joel Mokyr does a great job explaining how these feed each other in his book "The Gifts of Athena". For me, the more experience and knowledge I gain, the more hangars I have for new stuff.

Dean · 3 years ago

The physicist in me likes the idea of focusing on reusable prescriptive knowledge. However, an interesting feedback mechanism exists between the more mundane propositional knowledge and the prescriptive stuff. Joel Mokyr does a great job explaining how these feed each other in his book "The Gifts of Athena". For me, the more experience and knowledge I gain, the more hangars I have for new stuff.

Fraser · 3 years ago

"Mokyr begins by dividing useful knowledge into two categories: “propositional knowledge” and “prescriptive knowledge”. Propositional knowledge is general, theoretical knowledge—for example, knowledge of the properties and effects of atmospheric pressure or knowledge of the theory of flight. Prescriptive knowledge is knowledge of technique—for example, how to build a steam engine or how to build a jet plane. According to Mokyr, economic growth springs in large part from institutions and norms that encourage an active, rational search for propositional knowledge and the use of such knowledge for the discovery of prescriptive knowledge."http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/artic... “The driving force behind progress was not just that more was known, but also that institutions and culture collaborated to create better and cheaper access to the knowledge base” [looks like a great read, I'm going to order it online - thanks for the pointer]

Fraser · 3 years ago

I can see how the two, proposition and prescriptive, feed each other in a loop. For me, ideas seem to grow at some network growth rate connected to knowledge/experience (definitely not following Reed's law, but that would be nice!). Assume the mix of propositional knowledge and prescriptive knowledge sit as nodes on my knowledge network - the freely formed connections between the nodes (leveraging an understanding of a concept in one area to seemingly disconnected disciplines) is where I see myself creating the most value as a result from learning. The fact that you can find facts in seconds to flesh out the connection your knowledge network creates is the reason I think it's important to forget (as well as remember how to use the tools that enable forgetfulness)

Fraser · 3 years ago

"Mokyr begins by dividing useful knowledge into two categories: “propositional knowledge” and “prescriptive knowledge”. Propositional knowledge is general, theoretical knowledge—for example, knowledge of the properties and effects of atmospheric pressure or knowledge of the theory of flight. Prescriptive knowledge is knowledge of technique—for example, how to build a steam engine or how to build a jet plane. According to Mokyr, economic growth springs in large part from institutions and norms that encourage an active, rational search for propositional knowledge and the use of such knowledge for the discovery of prescriptive knowledge."

http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/art...

“The driving force behind progress was not just that more was known, but also that institutions and culture collaborated to create better and cheaper access to the knowledge base”

[looks like a great read, I'm going to order it online - thanks for the pointer]

Eric Olson · 3 years ago

Very interesting post Fraser. I have thought the same thing for a while now but more on the subconscious level. Now that you bring it to the surface it makes complete sense.

Fraser · 3 years ago

I can see how the two, proposition and prescriptive, feed each other in a loop.

For me, ideas seem to grow at some network growth rate connected to knowledge/experience (definitely not following Reed's law, but that would be nice!).

Assume the mix of propositional knowledge and prescriptive knowledge sit as nodes on my knowledge network - the freely formed connections between the nodes (leveraging an understanding of a concept in one area to seemingly disconnected disciplines) is where I see myself creating the most value as a result from learning.

The fact that you can find facts in seconds to flesh out the connection your knowledge network creates is the reason I think it's important to forget (as well as remember how to use the tools that enable forgetfulness)

Eric Olson · 3 years ago

Very interesting post Fraser. I have thought the same thing for a while now but more on the subconscious level. Now that you bring it to the surface it makes complete sense.

candice · 3 years ago

Working off of the einstein qutoe, you can take this further, though. Some things that appear very different from each other at first generalize down to the same things but different trimmings. Stuff like programming languages, for example. With a few exceptions (the biggest being LISP) once you have used about five or six programming languages, you realize that they are all basically the same except for syntax, and whether you have to use objects or not. I learned C# in about an hour because I didn't have to learn the language, just remember vaguely java-like syntax and class structures, and Intellisense has all the class libraries at the end of my tab key. Perl I never remember the syntax for because it's all in perldoc and the libraries in CPAN. Then again, you might have to be a good programmer for all of this to work out, but I don't really think so. If you can't learn six languages you probably aren't a good programmer to start with.

candice · 3 years ago

Working off of the einstein qutoe, you can take this further, though. Some things that appear very different from each other at first generalize down to the same things but different trimmings. Stuff like programming languages, for example. With a few exceptions (the biggest being LISP) once you have used about five or six programming languages, you realize that they are all basically the same except for syntax, and whether you have to use objects or not.

I learned C# in about an hour because I didn't have to learn the language, just remember vaguely java-like syntax and class structures, and Intellisense has all the class libraries at the end of my tab key. Perl I never remember the syntax for because it's all in perldoc and the libraries in CPAN.

Then again, you might have to be a good programmer for all of this to work out, but I don't really think so. If you can't learn six languages you probably aren't a good programmer to start with.