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Variability, not repetition, is the key to mastery

222 pointsby maksimurover 2 years ago

16 comments

ChrisMarshallNYover 2 years ago
In my own experience, it has required <i>both</i> repetition, <i>and</i> variability.<p>I learn something new, every day, but what I learn, and how it is implemented, is highly dependent upon the phase my project is in.<p>Right now, the project I&#x27;m working on is in the &quot;home stretch.&quot; There&#x27;s still a <i>lot</i> more work needs doing, but it&#x27;s fairly predictable, well-practiced stuff.<p>Getting to this point, though, has involved two years of researching alternative approaches, strategic and tactical designs and decisions, pivots, backpedalling, and bug-fixing.<p>And every day, I have been writing Swift code. Most of the time, I&#x27;m using the same techniques as I was yesterday, but, every now and then, I try something different. Sometimes, that becomes a new habit.<p>In my personal opinion, there&#x27;s really nothing like developing and releasing shipping applications to provide a rich experience in both repetition, and variance.
greover 2 years ago
A common tactic in practicing music is to play a passage slowed down, sped up, with varying rhythms, up&#x2F;down an octave, etc, with the idea that if you have complete mastery you can also play it the way it&#x27;s written.
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Silverback_VIIover 2 years ago
Seems to be an argument more for spaced repetition and incremental reading.<p>&quot;If your collection combines knowledge pertaining to different subject domains, the stream of new ideas and unexpected associations coming to your mind may surprise you&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.supermemo.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Incremental_learning" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.supermemo.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Incremental_learning</a>
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V__over 2 years ago
This sounds very much like differential learning (see Wolfgang Schollhorn) to me. In my personal experience it is a very potent training method when it comes to learning motor skills, and having observed two children learn to crawl and walk it also seems to be a &quot;natural way&quot; to learn for us.<p>I also observed myself learning non-motor skills better when applying this method in some form. I think most people here know about the yearly Advent of Code challenge. Often people use it to try out a new language and have fun. I believe one of the key reasons for its success (besides the fun) are the frequently similar, but slightly different, problems. Forcing people to approach it from slightly different viewpoints and trying out small variations, thus resulting in a deep understanding and learning effect.
westurnerover 2 years ago
Over how many generations?<p>Genetic algorithm: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Genetic_algorithm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Genetic_algorithm</a><p>Mutation: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mutation_(genetic_algorithm)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mutation_(genetic_algorithm)</a><p>Crossover: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Crossover_(genetic_algorithm)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Crossover_(genetic_algorithm)</a><p>Selection: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Selection_(genetic_algorithm)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Selection_(genetic_algorithm)</a><p>...<p>AlphaZero &#x2F; MuZero: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;MuZero" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;MuZero</a> :<p>&gt; <i>MuZero was trained via self-play, with no access to rules, opening books, or endgame tablebases.</i><p>Self-play algorithms essentially mutate and select according to the game rules. For a generally-defined mastery objective, are there subjective and&#x2F;or objective game rules, and is there a distance metric for ranking candidate solutions?
henrydarkover 2 years ago
This fits with the literature on block vs random order exercise in learning motor skills, where random order mostly outbeats block.<p>For example see [1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;best-essays-service.org&#x2F;essays&#x2F;health&#x2F;the-effect-of-blocked-and-random-practices-in.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;best-essays-service.org&#x2F;essays&#x2F;health&#x2F;the-effect-of-...</a>
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galaxyLogicover 2 years ago
I think it has something to do with &quot;Memory Palace&quot;. You solve the same or similar problem in different contexts. There is something similar and something different about the problem in all these different contexts. While seeing the different parts you also see the similar parts and can see how those are connected other by the dissimilar parts.<p>It is like seeing a 3 dimensional object from multiple viewpoint. Some things change some stay the same. You understand and thus remember the thing better because you know it&#x27;s &quot;essence&quot;, what is the same about it always.
noelwelshover 2 years ago
Hmmm ... I&#x27;m a fan of differential learning and other techniques for variablity of practice. Was just reading through <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;perceptionaction.com&#x2F;vp&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;perceptionaction.com&#x2F;vp&#x2F;</a> earlier today. However I&#x27;m not convinced motor learning research transfers to all learning, which seems to be the basis for the claim made in the blog post. My own experience is motor learning is quite different to learning symbol manipulation tasks like maths and programming.
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otikikover 2 years ago
I have never done anything twice <i>exactly</i> the same way.<p>At the very least, on the second one I was a little bit older :)<p>To me It’s not variability, it’s repetition plus attention (which is much easier to get if you enter The Zone)
elefantastischover 2 years ago
Highly recommended book on this topic:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.retrievalpractice.org&#x2F;make-it-stick" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.retrievalpractice.org&#x2F;make-it-stick</a>
baxuzover 2 years ago
With anything physical, repetition is the prerequisite for variability.<p>I&#x27;d argue that it&#x27;s the same for non-physical things as well.
begueradjover 2 years ago
The article&#x27;s title is itself a clickbait. Starting the article to invalidate Bruce Lee&#x27;s quote shows how much unworthy to read the rest. He spent all his life studying the body and mind and practicing dozens of martial arts to create and improve his own style, your fat pale narcissist ass dares to say that ? I hate it when people speak about subjects they have no clue about.
abudabi123over 2 years ago
Learning and earning to teach is one shortcut.
bandyabootover 2 years ago
&gt; Bruce Lee is reported to have said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” With all due respect to Mr. Lee, he might have been wrong about this one.<p>Yes, Bruce Lee must be wrong, because obviously it has to be one end of the spectrum or the other &#x2F;s. How about the man who has practiced 100 kicks 100 times each? Maybe he’s the one to fear.
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throwaway675309over 2 years ago
At the risk of being a little tactless, duh.<p>An easy comparison is take a driver who&#x27;s had three months of experience driving versus somebody with three years, they&#x27;ll be a huge gap in proficiency. Now take the three-year driver and compare them against someone who&#x27;s been driving for three decades, you&#x27;re fine surprisingly there&#x27;s very little difference in ability.<p>Our brains are ruthlessly efficient and the moment that they can optimize away learning, that&#x27;s when you&#x27;re no longer acquiring skill.
freemrkt8over 2 years ago
Such an idea has been discussed for centuries. Adam Smith warned division of labor would lead people to become “…as stupid and ignorant as it is for a human creature to become.” by repeating the same career behaviors for too long.<p>IMO this explains a great deal about current society stuck on the idea re-training is a waste, the habit of re-electing politicians for decades being one outcome of living life “on the career escalator.”<p>Such an inner monologue becomes a default state of being.<p>Accepting simple memes like “will work for money” become the norm and “will work to acquire knowledge” becomes vulgar language.