Wtf? Because it's incredibly fucking dismissive? Magic takes an incredible amount of skill, and dismissing a trick as "something something [random thing i heard they use in magic]" is like...
Wtf?
Why’s this spirit of vague understanding suddenly gauche at a magic show?
Because it's incredibly fucking dismissive?
Magic takes an incredible amount of skill, and dismissing a trick as "something something [random thing i heard they use in magic]" is like dismissing the skills it takes for a chef to make a great dish as "something something salt".
Oh that got me seriously riled up. What an arse.
If you're unfamiliar with the skills involved in magic, start here:
I had to read it twice, and landed on "deconstructing magic bad--deconstructing world good." I think it's respectful to play along with a magic trick, and agonize over every detail as you go...
I had to read it twice, and landed on "deconstructing magic bad--deconstructing world good." I think it's respectful to play along with a magic trick, and agonize over every detail as you go along. Don't ruin it for anyone else, save your comments for after the show, that seems reasonable enough.
The post loses me with the other side of the coin. Gaining a vague interest in several topics to supercharge your pattern recognition... to allow the possibility of achieving new innovations... okay, I'm lost.
How is that "Tails" when not being rude at a magic show is "Heads?"
It's not very clear in this post, but I read it in context of his other posts where he often writes about people trying to figure out what's going on in difficult circumstances. Chasing the...
It's not very clear in this post, but I read it in context of his other posts where he often writes about people trying to figure out what's going on in difficult circumstances.
That helped with understanding the original article, but I'm still not grasping the practical application in day-to-day life beyond having a research job--or making advances in A.I. "Chasing the...
Nassim Taleb likes to use the example of the “turkey problem” to explain induction. Imagine a turkey statistician analyzing how well the farmer is treating him and his fellow turkeys. Each day, he records that the farmer has treated the turkey population well. The farmer knows that this is to slaughter them all before Thanksgiving, but the turkey statistician has no account of variation to understand this, and can only look at things empirically. He identifies as a Bayseian, proud of “updating his priors” each day according to the evidence. And every single day, the evidence is more and more positive — until the day all the turkeys are slaughtered. Being an empirical turkey was worse than randomly guessing: he was maximally confident in his hypothesis the moment before his death.
That helped with understanding the original article, but I'm still not grasping the practical application in day-to-day life beyond having a research job--or making advances in A.I. "Chasing the Treasure Fox" was a good read. The pathing of a fox in Skyrim as it relates to the breakneck race to turn on Skynet.
"Oh, right. I'm living in science fiction now."
With climate change, disease, and everything else going on--the threat of machine learning fell into the background noise. I'm reading an article and attempting to interpret some kind of life philosophy--just to be reminded of how important it is to dot the i's and cross the t's before activating Ultron.
I don't believe it's all that practical, because most of us aren't doing science. At best we read about what the scientists are doing. For practical problems, the most common problem-solving...
I don't believe it's all that practical, because most of us aren't doing science. At best we read about what the scientists are doing. For practical problems, the most common problem-solving technique is probably to do a web search and crib off other people. When something is a real mystery, instead of solving it you tend to try something else.
Exactly so. It's also against the social construct of what most people are there to experience. If you're an audience member at a professional magician's show, then the general social reason that...
Because it's incredibly fucking dismissive?
Exactly so. It's also against the social construct of what most people are there to experience. If you're an audience member at a professional magician's show, then the general social reason that you are there is to experience the magician doing something to fool you. If you are an audience member at Penn & Teller: Fool Us, then that's different; turning to your friend to say "I think they did it [this way]" is part of the social construct.
Even if it's not a professional magic show, there are a variety of social cues - if someone comes to me with a magic trick that they have learned, I would never be a dismissive arse and explain how they did it. That would just be awful.
They agree with you. Their point is that the magic show is the exception for where this mindset isn't particularly helpful because it's obvious that it is a result of skill, and that there isn't...
They agree with you. Their point is that the magic show is the exception for where this mindset isn't particularly helpful because it's obvious that it is a result of skill, and that there isn't anything to discover in a magic show.
IDK, my read is that they admit it "makes you a tiresome bore as an audience member", but they seem to lament how "but actually it's a good mindset to have!". All I can see in this text is someone...
IDK, my read is that they admit it "makes you a tiresome bore as an audience member", but they seem to lament how "but actually it's a good mindset to have!". All I can see in this text is someone saying "Oh those silly magicians, they should learn to appreciate audience members' shallow dismissals".
I've dealt with a lot of people like this in my past. Maybe I'm being too judgmental of the author, but as a magician the amount of times you have to deal with people who dismiss tricks as "duh it's easy with magnets" is like … fuckin' hell, man. Doubly so because magic is one of those arts which often follows the mindset of doing something "not because it's easy, but because it is hard".
I read it the same as you. And also Make it seem like a defence of acting like this at a magic show.
I read it the same as you.
Why’s this spirit of vague understanding suddenly gauche at a magic show?
And also
It’s fun to know exactly what’s happening, but just loudly insisting “I think there’s a trick to it” makes you a tiresome bore as an audience member. And yet: that same sentence, said thoughtfully while looking at a quirk of nature, is how every discovery gets started.
Make it seem like a defence of acting like this at a magic show.
Wtf?
Because it's incredibly fucking dismissive?
Magic takes an incredible amount of skill, and dismissing a trick as "something something [random thing i heard they use in magic]" is like dismissing the skills it takes for a chef to make a great dish as "something something salt".
Oh that got me seriously riled up. What an arse.
If you're unfamiliar with the skills involved in magic, start here:
Teller lights a cigarette - Penn & Teller routine
Well yes, but the blog post isn't about manners, it's about understanding things.
I had to read it twice, and landed on "deconstructing magic bad--deconstructing world good." I think it's respectful to play along with a magic trick, and agonize over every detail as you go along. Don't ruin it for anyone else, save your comments for after the show, that seems reasonable enough.
The post loses me with the other side of the coin. Gaining a vague interest in several topics to supercharge your pattern recognition... to allow the possibility of achieving new innovations... okay, I'm lost.
How is that "Tails" when not being rude at a magic show is "Heads?"
It's not very clear in this post, but I read it in context of his other posts where he often writes about people trying to figure out what's going on in difficult circumstances.
Chasing the Treasure Fox is a good one.
That helped with understanding the original article, but I'm still not grasping the practical application in day-to-day life beyond having a research job--or making advances in A.I. "Chasing the Treasure Fox" was a good read. The pathing of a fox in Skyrim as it relates to the breakneck race to turn on Skynet.
"Oh, right. I'm living in science fiction now."
With climate change, disease, and everything else going on--the threat of machine learning fell into the background noise. I'm reading an article and attempting to interpret some kind of life philosophy--just to be reminded of how important it is to dot the i's and cross the t's before activating Ultron.
I don't believe it's all that practical, because most of us aren't doing science. At best we read about what the scientists are doing. For practical problems, the most common problem-solving technique is probably to do a web search and crib off other people. When something is a real mystery, instead of solving it you tend to try something else.
Exactly so. It's also against the social construct of what most people are there to experience. If you're an audience member at a professional magician's show, then the general social reason that you are there is to experience the magician doing something to fool you. If you are an audience member at Penn & Teller: Fool Us, then that's different; turning to your friend to say "I think they did it [this way]" is part of the social construct.
Even if it's not a professional magic show, there are a variety of social cues - if someone comes to me with a magic trick that they have learned, I would never be a dismissive arse and explain how they did it. That would just be awful.
They agree with you. Their point is that the magic show is the exception for where this mindset isn't particularly helpful because it's obvious that it is a result of skill, and that there isn't anything to discover in a magic show.
IDK, my read is that they admit it "makes you a tiresome bore as an audience member", but they seem to lament how "but actually it's a good mindset to have!". All I can see in this text is someone saying "Oh those silly magicians, they should learn to appreciate audience members' shallow dismissals".
I've dealt with a lot of people like this in my past. Maybe I'm being too judgmental of the author, but as a magician the amount of times you have to deal with people who dismiss tricks as "duh it's easy with magnets" is like … fuckin' hell, man. Doubly so because magic is one of those arts which often follows the mindset of doing something "not because it's easy, but because it is hard".
I don't think he's saying it's a good thing at all for audience members? He's saying it can be good in entirely different situations.
I read it the same as you.
And also
Make it seem like a defence of acting like this at a magic show.