I think that Jensen's position as the guy selling the proverbial shovels incentivizes him to take a lot of irresponsible positions (namely around safety) but imo he's fundamentally correct here.
He comes off bad in this interview. Out of touch is correct - "I had to pump gas once a few years ago ..." and panicked because he didn't know his address or zip code.
AFAIK he was outright lying when he said he forgot his zip code. It hasn’t been possible to buy gas in Bay Area for decades without inputting your zip code for credit card purchases. That smelled of some bad speechwriting.
>he doesn't think kids should learn their multiplication tables
He said „The majority of the kids shouldn't learn”, not everybody. I listened to that pod and was under the impression that he wants to be portrayed as a "grounded" person and i didn't find his takes to be out of touch.
As sometime who's memorized but also forgotten their timetables while still managing to go through Algebra I. I don't understand the importance for memorizing times tables (or any other tables for that matter).
There are basic skills that everyone should learn, being able to do simple math in your head is a building block for more complex reasoning.
I once had a roommate who I encouraged to divide our grocery bill by 2 in his head for splitting the bill, by the end of the year he was quick and accurate.
That doesn't follow. I'm not especially gifted at mental math yet I've been able to learn various programming languages and libraries and dev tools. I've also been able understand and implement some algorithms.
Quick math. Basic financial literacy. Times tables are for arithmetic, the working man's math. Algebra is an entirely different math which solves different problems and deals more in the abstract.
You can definitely get past algebra without knowing your times tables, but algebra isn't going to help you in the checkout line to make sure you received the correct amount of change and bought the correct number of goods.
Most people on a budget (i.e. the vast majority of people) are constantly using exact or approximate multiplication while shopping. And they are rarely whipping out their calculator for this purpose.
Why not just use the calculator app on your smart phone? That's what I do. (School made me all too aware of how easy it is for me to get the wrong answer when trying to do calculations mentally)
Depends on the calculation and context, it is definitely advisable to use tools for complex or high-risk situations, dividing the dinner bill by 2 or 3, that should not require a calculator or one of the thousands of bill splitting apps, perhaps it is a bit harder when you want divide bill by items, but not a high risk situation.
practice makes perfect, exercise your brain like your body
Personally I think multiplication tables aren’t that useful because they’re just rote memorization. I think it’s better to teach kids to memorize a few such as x * 2, x * 5, x * 10 and teach them how to extrapolate from there. Extrapolation is a more useful skill than memorization.
The tables have normally only gone to {12}x{12} and most young children have no issue. Why would we cut back on this?
The memorization means that you can extrapolate the more complex concepts. If you don't have the very basics, what are you even going to extrapolate on?
How much of your preferred programming language have you memorized?
How has this enabled you to engage in higher-level thinking instead of syntax correctness?
(I saw this pattern first hand with 100s of students while teaching intro cs)
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my current favorite definition for The Singularity is the point at which humans give up critical thinking and have decided deferring to Ai is the better idea, social media being a stepping stone on that path that primed us for the outsourcing
much of the commentary under this submission has me thinking we are well on our way in this journey
I don’t think the rote memorization step per se is important, but the knowledge is. You can pick it up just from doing a lot of math work with those basics. Same thing in chemistry - you will learn most of the periodic table automatically just from doing so many lookups.
But IME, not having the knowledge is a major handicap. I did eventually learn essentially the full multiplication table with speedy recall and it _is_ useful in day-to-day life. I think its basic numeracy on a par with literacy if you ever have to do basics like compare prices for consumer goods, sanity check claimed facts/statistics, etc. I don’t think those skills go away when you have AI anymore than they do when you can “trust” Amazon to do the price math for you.
bennettpompi1 · · focus · HN ↗
verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
while I generally agree on his open weight stances, I lost all respect in that moment, everyone of these people are so out of touch
ks2048 · · focus · HN ↗
stevenwoo · · focus · HN ↗
rafram · · focus · HN ↗
innocent_name · · focus · HN ↗
He said „The majority of the kids shouldn't learn”, not everybody. I listened to that pod and was under the impression that he wants to be portrayed as a "grounded" person and i didn't find his takes to be out of touch.
bobajeff · · focus · HN ↗
verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
I once had a roommate who I encouraged to divide our grocery bill by 2 in his head for splitting the bill, by the end of the year he was quick and accurate.
bobajeff · · focus · HN ↗
verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
soulofmischief · · focus · HN ↗
You can definitely get past algebra without knowing your times tables, but algebra isn't going to help you in the checkout line to make sure you received the correct amount of change and bought the correct number of goods.
abdullahkhalids · · focus · HN ↗
bobajeff · · focus · HN ↗
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verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
practice makes perfect, exercise your brain like your body
watwut · · focus · HN ↗
dabinat · · focus · HN ↗
verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
The memorization means that you can extrapolate the more complex concepts. If you don't have the very basics, what are you even going to extrapolate on?
watwut · · focus · HN ↗
It does not mean that. It means you can parrot a number if it came from the memorized set.
verdverm · · focus · HN ↗
How has this enabled you to engage in higher-level thinking instead of syntax correctness?
(I saw this pattern first hand with 100s of students while teaching intro cs)
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my current favorite definition for The Singularity is the point at which humans give up critical thinking and have decided deferring to Ai is the better idea, social media being a stepping stone on that path that primed us for the outsourcing
much of the commentary under this submission has me thinking we are well on our way in this journey
watwut · · focus · HN ↗
nxc18 · · focus · HN ↗
But IME, not having the knowledge is a major handicap. I did eventually learn essentially the full multiplication table with speedy recall and it _is_ useful in day-to-day life. I think its basic numeracy on a par with literacy if you ever have to do basics like compare prices for consumer goods, sanity check claimed facts/statistics, etc. I don’t think those skills go away when you have AI anymore than they do when you can “trust” Amazon to do the price math for you.