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Re:Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday? by binnyva on Sunday November 21, 2021 @01:58PM (#29298720)
I'm didn't understand "Symmetry and continuity impart incredibly strong constraints on systems." Can you elaborate? Give an example if possible?
Re:Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday? by RhysU on Sunday November 21, 2021 @02:56PM (#29299147)
These relate to physics/modeling. I am going to hand wave a bunch.

If a system has to operate the same way under rotation/reflection, that strongly constrains what the system can be doing. Think crystals or isotropic forces or, in the day job, what should happen if you negate a feature going into a neutral network then retrain. Should it matter from which perspective you look at a thing?

If a system is continuous then smooth changes to inputs should cause smooth changes to outputs. The system probably will be robust to small perturbations because they will result in small output changes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence#Kolmogorov.27s_th... is something of an example.

Re:Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday? by saeranv on Sunday November 21, 2021 @09:44PM (#29302135)
Not the author of the comment, but I can give an example of how it's used in physics. The first law of thermodynamics states (in a simplified form) that the energy into a system is equal to the energy out. So it's a symmetrical process. This means a lot of times we can calculate half of a thermodynamic process, (i.e the heat flow into a system), and know that, over a long enough period of time, the heat flow out of the system will be equivalent.
Re:Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday? by djenendik on Sunday November 21, 2021 @02:38PM (#29299009)
Consider conservation of energy and momentum. Of course, one should operate within the limits of thermodynamics too.
Re:Ask HN: What mental models do you use everyday? by sockaddr on Sunday November 21, 2021 @02:21PM (#29298899)
Not OP, but I view this as a special case of "form over function"