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A comment on Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've heard?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've ... by abhishekjha on Monday October 15, 2018 @02:48AM (#18217863)
This reminds me of a comment on a book titled ‘Discrete mathematics and its application’ by Kenneth Rosen which was along the lines of how smart the author was at the same time not being able to explain the concepts to someone else in an easy manner and to be honest I had the same feeling. I understood those concepts from other texts which definitely means that it isn’t me who was was inadequate or not upto the task. I was willing to learn but the smartest of the texts in the field left me feeling stupid. Can somebody else chip in on this argument?
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Re:Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've ... by mabbo on Monday October 15, 2018 @06:40AM (#18218688)
I TA'd a fist year University course using, I believe, that textbook during my final two years of undergrad.

The material itself is difficult to learn and harder to teach well. At my University, it seemed that the Prof had to teach the subject for 3 or 4 years before they could reasonably get half the class to pass the final exam.

At the same time, I've often felt like I would have no harder of a time teaching the subject to 11 year olds. It's just a weird topic.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've ... by bordercases on Monday October 15, 2018 @11:53AM (#18220716)
Yeah, there's unity to it and no system other than "break the problem apart, look for these properties, think hard, and match them to the identity that also has these properties".

A lot of interpretation and intellectual confidence involved, difficult things to communicate.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've ... by agumonkey on Monday October 15, 2018 @11:58PM (#18226344)
Most of science is bridging gaps. Between a person ans a phenomonon, then between others persons.

It should be told every semester or so that if you wish to understand something, don't stop until you found something that match your own idiosyncrasies.

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