In the case of deep learning, "how does it work?" will make you explain backpropagation and matrix multiplication. But "why does it work?" leads you to the structure of perceptual space.
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When smart people are presented with something new, they tend to ask, "how does it work?": how is it structured, how was it made? But the more important & difficult question is *why does it work*: what is the functional kernel that makes it effective, what guided its evolution?
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In the case of a piece of music, "how does it work?" will make you look for the key, the different voices, the rules. That's the easy part. "Why" leads you to ask what exactly about the piece makes you feel the way you feel. It will require you to understand your own mind.
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A classic example is neuroscience: it is very much in the business of asking, "how does the brain work?", and it has no power to answer the actually important question, "why does the brain work?"...
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The "how" stay at the level of superficial observations. The "why" gets to the heart of the system. It requires a full understanding not only of the system itself, but of the context in which it lives. It requires you to follow the thread of purpose that drove its emergence.
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and it takes a long time to get answers to the latter question. Then it yields better insights, and in turn better work.
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I love this!! The answer to *how* something works can be very shallow and isolated, whereas the answer to *why* something works has to get to heart of the problem, and invites comparison to alternate approaches
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This seems to largely be semantics. The point is the smart people don't just get offended, they get curious.
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.. and yet science and engineering still pursue experimentosis, as if the secrets of the universe will all reveal themselves on accident.
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why does it work, is more about curiosity than smartness. It is a more childlike quality.
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Children are very smart Curiosity is a *very* important part or intelligence , because it's related to learning and adaptation
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