> of a textbook problem
Well said. Textbook problem that has the answer everywhere.
The question is, would you create similar neural paths if reading the explanation as opposed to figuring it out on your own?
> would you create similar neural paths
Excelent point, and I believe the answer is a resounding negative.
Struggling with a problem generates skills and knowledge which you then possess and recall more easily, while reading an answer merely acquires some information that competes with a whole host of other low-effort information that you need to remember.
Unlikely. Reading the explanation involves memorising it temporarily and at best understanding what it means at a surface level. Figuring it out on your own also involves using and perhaps improving your problem solving skills in addition to understanding the explanation at a deeper level. I feel LLMs will be for our reasoning skills what writing was for our memory skills.
Plato might have been wrong about the ills of cyberization cognitive skill such as memory. I wonder if two thousand years later from then, we will be right about the ills of cyberization of a cognitive skill such as reasoning
> Reading the explanation involves memorising it temporarily and at best understanding what it means at a surface level.
I agree. I don't really feel like I know something unless I can go from being presented with a novel instance of a problem in that domain and work out a solution by myself, and also explain that to someone else - not just happen into a solution.
> Plato might have been wrong about the ills of cyberization cognitive skill such as memory.
How so? From the dialogue where he describes Socrates discussing writing I get a pretty nuanced view that lands pretty much where you did above: access to writing fosters a false sense of understanding when one can read explanations and repeat them but not actually internalize the reasoning behind it.
I believe there is a lot of value to trying to figure out things by myself -- ofc only focusing on things that I really care for. I have no issue relying on AI on most of the work stuffs, they are boring anyway.
I personally can't thing of anything more boring than verifying shitty, computer generated code.
What's the difference? Isn't explaining things so that people don't have to figure out by themselves the whole point of the educational system?
You will still need the textbook because llms hallucinate just as much as a teacher can be wrong in class. There is no free lunch, llm is just a tool. You create the meaning.
> What's the difference? Isn't explaining things so that people don't have to figure out by themselves the whole point of the educational system?
THEN SAID A teacher, Speak to us of Teaching.
And he said:
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone in God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.
i'm using chatgpt for this exact case. It helps me verify my solution is correct, and when it's not, where is my mistake. Without it, i would have simply skipped to the next problem, hoping i didn't make a mistake. It's definitely a win.
I mostly use chatgpt to make my writing more verbose because I've been told that it's too terse.
Terse writing is a gift. I'm an editor and I wish my writers were more terse.