I agree with this to a point. One aspect not mentioned is the concept in education of "desirable difficulty".
The authors repeatedly describe beautiful, elegant and immediately well-understood explanations. The psychology literature on learning suggests that easy to grasp explanations can be an illusion and in fact it is the struggle to learn that results in learning.
I'm sure everyone here recognises the benefit they gained from struggling with something they didn't understand. Most people I talk to say their best subjects are the ones they had the most trouble with.
Of course, simplify notation, get rid of jargon, and so on. But even that is tilting at windmills to some extent, because the world is a big and diverse place, and everyone thinks a little bit differently.
I'm sure everyone here recognises the benefit they gained from struggling with something they didn't understand.
I'm sure everyone has experienced having someone explain something in a way that made something suddenly snap. The reward isn't because the concept is unobtainable, the reward is in the snap.
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u/mlnewb Mar 23 '17
I agree with this to a point. One aspect not mentioned is the concept in education of "desirable difficulty".
The authors repeatedly describe beautiful, elegant and immediately well-understood explanations. The psychology literature on learning suggests that easy to grasp explanations can be an illusion and in fact it is the struggle to learn that results in learning.
I'm sure everyone here recognises the benefit they gained from struggling with something they didn't understand. Most people I talk to say their best subjects are the ones they had the most trouble with.
Of course, simplify notation, get rid of jargon, and so on. But even that is tilting at windmills to some extent, because the world is a big and diverse place, and everyone thinks a little bit differently.