Todd Suomela's Library tagged superstar → View Popular, Search in Google

Oct

2011

'Everybody Knows' - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Sometimes, you don’t need big theories or newly published books in order to understand what’s going on around you. You certainly don’t need to listen to someone who would feel the need to prove he’s clever by calling himself “Chief of Confusion.” And you don’t need to wait for history to help you out, either. Some things are eternal truths. I vote to reject both theories. Instead, to understand what OSW protesters are about, I propose people simply listen to a few lines from “Everybody Knows,” sung by the smokey-voiced Leonard Cohen"

chronicle.com/...40497

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explanation theory fame superstar journalism media

Mar

2009

Less Wrong: Teaching the Unteachable

The literary industry that I called "excellence pornography" isn't very good at what it does.

lesswrong.com/...teaching_the_unteachable

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education teaching excellence superstar performance

The amount of wordless intelligence in our work tends to be underestimated because the words themselves are so much easier to introspect on. But when I'm paying attention, I can see how much of my searchpower takes place in fast flashes of perception that tell me what's important, which thought to think next.
Civilization gets by on teaching the output of the generator without teaching the generator. Einstein output his various discoveries, and then the generated knowledge is verbal enough to be passed on to students in university. When another Einstein is needed, civilization just holds its breath and hopes.

But if these wordless skills are the product of experience - then why not communicate the experiences? Or if fiction isn't good enough, and it probably isn't even close, then why not duplicate the experiences - put people through the same events?

(1) Superstars may not know what their critical experiences were.

(2) The critical experiences may be difficult to duplicate - for example, everyone already knows the answer to Special Relativity, and now we can't train people by giving them the problem of Special Relativity. Just knowing that it has something to do with space and time shifting around, is already too much of a spoiler. The really important part of the problem is the one where you stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead, trying to figure out what to think next. The skills of genius are rare, I've suggested, because there is not enough opportunity to practice them.

(3) There may be luck or genetic talent involved in your brain hitting on the right thing to learn - finding a solution of high quality in the space of wordless procedural skills. Even if we put you through the same experiences, there's components of true chance and genetic talent left over in having your brain learn the same wordless skill.