The smartest people I meet tend to fall into one of two categories -- those who want to understand the world, and those who want to transform it
Show this thread
-
Is this dichotomy meant to imply that those you know who wish to transform the world do not wish, first, to understand it?
No -- it's the difference between open-ended exploration, and gaining knowledge in order to achieve specific goal. In the first case, understanding is the goal, in the latter, it is a tool serving another goal.
-
-
Exploration vs. Exploitation
-
In my experience I do think they are somewhat non-overlapping distributions of people. I fall into the "wants to understand" category and the "transform the world" people often get really irritated when you keep asking stuff like, "yes but what are binary numbers really?"
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
The first is assumed subsumed in the second category. You cannot transform the world without understanding the underlying mechanisms.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.