I find the only way I can truly master a topic is when I have to explain it to someone else. It requires me to stop hand waving and have honest explanations for every part.
This paragraph really blew my hair back:
"In retrospect I realize that in almost everything that we worked on together, we were both amateurs. In digital physics, neural networks, even parallel computing, we never really knew what we were doing. But the things that we studied were so new that no one else knew exactly what they were doing either. It was amateurs who made the progress."
Don't ever not work on something just because you are an amateur and there are all these fancy experts out there. Even if you never contribute something new, it'll always be new and exciting to you.
I don't know if the joke from my native language gets through, but it is not unlike the French Jean archetype-series:
"This guy came to me and asked me to explain it. I explained him once, and he didn't understand. Then I explained him again for a second time, and he still didn't get it. By the third time I was explaining it to him, even I managed to understand it, but he was still clueless."
Comments
I find the only way I can truly master a topic is when I have to explain it to someone else. It requires me to stop hand waving and have honest explanations for every part.
This paragraph really blew my hair back:
"In retrospect I realize that in almost everything that we worked on together, we were both amateurs. In digital physics, neural networks, even parallel computing, we never really knew what we were doing. But the things that we studied were so new that no one else knew exactly what they were doing either. It was amateurs who made the progress."
Don't ever not work on something just because you are an amateur and there are all these fancy experts out there. Even if you never contribute something new, it'll always be new and exciting to you.
I don't know if the joke from my native language gets through, but it is not unlike the French Jean archetype-series:
"This guy came to me and asked me to explain it. I explained him once, and he didn't understand. Then I explained him again for a second time, and he still didn't get it. By the third time I was explaining it to him, even I managed to understand it, but he was still clueless."
It is why experienced teachers are good...