Sean McClure

Do not start with fundamentals. This is an awful approach to learning. Start with so-called "advanced" topics and ask questions until every term/concept is understood. This is the correct, rigorous, scientific way to learn, because the advanced topics are embedded in larger, more convoluted, more abstracted constructs. This embedding is what gives the individual pieces their *meaning*. Foundational studies have removed this embedding, and present only the isolated, sterile pieces. They have no meaning. They have no context. The notion that students will piece together fundamentals into some eventual synthesis down the road is absolutely incorrect. It is literally information-theoretically obtuse. Children don't learn language using pieces. They mumble *fully*. They are never not fully embracing the complexity. It is the juxtaposition between their naive attempts and the full picture that imbues their mind with learning. Prerequisites are the dumbest approach to learning. It is utterly indefensible using any scientific argument. The basics-to-advanced directionality is diametrically opposed to how information is encoded, comprehended and used. Prerequisites are why most computer scientists and whiteboard exam-passers can't make software themselves; they can only be cogs in a company. It's why a Princeton math PhD can write the update rule for gradient descent but can't draw the actual process with circles and lines on a damn chalkboard (true story). Idiot level stuff because their learning was all basics to advanced. They never defined terms and concepts in an embedded fashion. It was all disconnected. Meaningless muscle memory with no understanding. It does not work both ways. Only pieces that are seen inside the bigger picture are understood. Do not start with fundamentals.

It’s not about processing speed the way most think. It’s about recognizing patterns. More experience means more patterns means rapid execution *without* having to process. People look at a thing someone does and see all these low level complicated steps. So they assume someone who is good at it must “somehow” process all those steps quickly. No. It’s not processing, it’s high-level pattern recall. It takes very little energy. This applies to ALL skills.

You cannot thrive off something you didn’t evolve for.

What If AI Discovers We're Asking the Wrong Questions? AI may soon do more than find better answers. It could challenge the scientific paradigms defining the questions themselves, potentially revealing entirely new paths to discovery. youtu.be/sFGNiHvGeow

Some people are only good at what they do because they never give themselves hard challenges. Don’t be that kind of good.

Humans Were Never Supposed to Work Like Machines AI isn't taking intelligence away from us. It's freeing us from mechanical tasks so we can focus on strategy, creativity, and the higher-level thinking that makes us human. youtu.be/3IZ55dTgpoY

Stop Doing Math at the Wrong Level Being good at mathematics isn't about manipulating symbols. It's about understanding structures, recognizing relationships, and building models that explain the world. youtu.be/3IZ55dTgpoY

You Were Educated for the Wrong Economy We were trained to follow procedures, specialize, and execute instructions. AI is making those skills less valuable while rewarding the very abilities education largely neglects. full episode: youtu.be/3IZ55dTgpoY

A lot of people are living their lives as though they owe a debt they don’t owe.

If you think falling for the temptation feels good, you should see what successfully resisting it feels like.

The way you get to the (proper) solution faster is by interjecting. Stop taking what is given to you. It's not translated in a language you speak. It's theirs, not yours. Stop them. Ask LOTS of "stupid" questions. Don't let them take any steps beyond the system YOU use to understand. They will step beyond constantly, so be abrupt and cut them off. We all know we're supposed to get good at saying no, but how many say no to explanations that don't work? Learning outside this dialogue-driven paradigm is dead. The classroom makes zero sense. It is a waste of time that leaves people behind. Abrupt questioning that recasts information onto *your* coordinate system is how you achieve true depth and comprehension.

Society has become so irrational that using even an ounce of rationality will make you look edgy and contrarian.

"switching tasks wastes time!" What about the time wasted pursuing the wrong solution? The real cost is focus on bad paths we never escape. youtu.be/hB5ETOitnYQ

If AI can encode information about possible futures, why does it still fail at planning? The answer may lie in the difference between having information available and actually using it to make effective decisions. watch full episode: youtu.be/h-bMdPaDTN4

AI is often dismissed as nothing more than "next-word prediction." But new research from Google DeepMind shows how individual token predictions can mathematically reflect information about entire possible futures. watch full episode: youtu.be/h-bMdPaDTN4

If you're naturally impersonal, you'll gain more respect by maintaining that disposition than posturing to fit in. Others will delight in those rare moments they match your rationality or make you smile. People don't need to be like you to gravitate towards you. They tend to do the opposite. Embrace what you are.

We keep slapping circles on top of phenomena to explain them, which is why pi keeps reappearing. It’s not a “mystery” why pi keeps popping up.

The point of abstraction is not to be pedantic. The purer the math, the less you should be nitpicking about the details.

You'd be surprised at just how much of your previous experience has been forgotten simply because you don't do it every day.

Society has been told that feeling an emotion is the same thing as expressing it. This is not true. You can feel deeply while acting rational. You can observe what you feel and choose to direct that energy with discernment. Society has become addicted to expression, and starved of insight and judgement. Being allowed to feel something is not the same as having an unrestricted right to express it. Your feelings require no permission, but their expression requires judgment.