The Learning Curve:
thesis: no matter the severity of complexity, learning itself never changes.
20 years ago, X-games commented it wouldn’t be possible for a human to perform 2160(six-full rotation) in winter sports. 5 years it was proven wrong … (ofc some japanese kid, how typical)
40 years Ago, the computer could not challenge grandmaster—30 years ago it was debunked.
we modelled computers based off how fascinating the human brain works to develop the pioneered models of non-linear learning curve adaptations for computers.
The human brain's capacity for learning is itself a form of beauty. Thus to learn is art.
Tell me why muay thai psychos have adapted their shins to be capable of cracking iron.
Tell me why mathematicians and scientists unironically sit there and hallucinate the most sneaky discoveries in the world... (insert more examples here)
Learning has never changed since we came out of the womb. How long does it take for a toddler to be capable of walking? I know you don’t remember yourself, but seeing from a third person pov, its like watching an algo indefinitely fail forever on the same set of inputs. There’s apparently nothing wrong with the toddler ATP, it is just the learning curve before the brain is formed.
The learning curve is an important framework—esp. for someone like me to preach. My background was arguably weaker and not as rigorous as the vast majority of academia, and I had already learnt concepts way in advance–so I didn’t experience the learning curve young enough. Things came easy, and we forget what the path of learning looks like.
The curve is essentially “a humiliation ritual”--the pit of weakness that exists by default. Eventually, there exists some cut off point where it is no longer humiliation, and execution becomes closer to enjoyable–But this pit is unavoidable, and the deeper the complexity, the deeper the pit will become.
If you put someone on court who has literally never touched a ball before, how are they going to play?-–we are not dribbling yet. It literally takes months of touching a ball nonstop to dribble with both hands, but we forget abt the initial stages. This at a high-level is almost how most companies see the entry-lvl workforce. Babysitting on company debt. I digress…Altho some learning is more entertaining than others, just knowing there exists a cut-off point in learning where you are no longer a laughing-stock, is good for the mental.
I claim: We are not capable of being born “talented”. Eileen Gu did not come out of the womb, hit the snow–”oh shit”, and double fucking cork. It literally took thousands of trampoline attempts to even get a feeling of the basics. And during the “pit of learning” it is possible to spend a linear amount of time on something, and make absolutely zero progress. But this is not embarrassing, this is human . It has always been like that–even the most capable machine learning models express random variance in the initial epoch stages so it looks like it's accomplishing nothing and it is useless.
But there is some beauty in how the brain works that may pick up on past attempts that increments the needle, and at some point along the learning curve, you may actually progress more naturally than expected. The past failures were not wasted effort–they laid the foundational data points that the brain needed to proceed along the learning curve.
End with: If you can come to appreciate the art of being dogshit, you will inevitably improve.
Next is the element of Curiosity. This is basically in-game meta—you can gaslight yourself into being curious or interested until it becomes interesting, when previously it was actually boring. I am(from a science perspective), convinced this is exactly how the brain works. Within the thought bubble, if you are full of riches, and fully convince yourself you are miserable, you are prolly miserable. If you are in the trenches and manage to fully convince your brain somehow you are thriving, you are therefore thriving.
Back to curiosity–it is the adrenaline along the learning curve itself. Or the fuel,whatever. It intrinsically, without you knowing, makes the brain go deeper for the sake of going deeper into the space. Regurgitation is no bueno, you still don’t care about the concepts whatsoever. You want unwavering, relentless curiosity, regardless if it was actually real or you managed to gaslight yourself.
[to be continued]