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.
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
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.