Coasters
This morning, I got into an argument with my mom about coasters. I was asked to put a coaster below my bottle as I used it. While I saw the utility of this, I wanted to make a larger point by not immediately grabbing the coaster. I explained that it is not too important to use a coaster, so you (Mom) shouldn't worry about it too much. This of course sounds like hypocrisy, but isn't, because I don't really care whether I use a coaster or not. Both my mom and brother didn't seem to understand or didn't want to listen to the point I was making. Indeed, what I was trying to illustrate is what Scott Aaronson calls "Focusing on the higher order bits". I've only recently realized how important it is to do this.
That discussion came and passed, but then I tried to make the point again while Mom and I were making dinner. Mom tried to hedge by saying, well yes maybe being not picky all the time is fine, but we are trying to teach you something. Yes, I said, well there is a conflict here, because I am trying to teach you something as well. Then I noticed the problem with both of our positions. We were both trying to teach something to the other. So of course neither of us is probably going to see the others' points. I like the way Christopher Hitchens says this, when talking about writing for a broad audience:
"With Vanity Fair ... I try to write as if I was addressing an intelligent and humorous friend. All you need to do is talk to everybody as you would to your smartest and wittiest pal. And the great discovery you make is that's how people quite like to be talked to. If they suspect for a moment that you're thinking "well, wait a minute, there are lots of trailer park readers of Vanity Fair, I better put in something for them", they'll sniff you out in a second!"
The best teaching, then should occur when you aren't actually trying to teach something. I realized that and pointed it out to my mom. She replied that they are parents, so they have a better authority to teach with. You know, the regular useless babble you expect. I often wonder why I even bother talking about this stuff with them because of such excuses.
That discussion came and passed, but then I tried to make the point again while Mom and I were making dinner. Mom tried to hedge by saying, well yes maybe being not picky all the time is fine, but we are trying to teach you something. Yes, I said, well there is a conflict here, because I am trying to teach you something as well. Then I noticed the problem with both of our positions. We were both trying to teach something to the other. So of course neither of us is probably going to see the others' points. I like the way Christopher Hitchens says this, when talking about writing for a broad audience:
"With Vanity Fair ... I try to write as if I was addressing an intelligent and humorous friend. All you need to do is talk to everybody as you would to your smartest and wittiest pal. And the great discovery you make is that's how people quite like to be talked to. If they suspect for a moment that you're thinking "well, wait a minute, there are lots of trailer park readers of Vanity Fair, I better put in something for them", they'll sniff you out in a second!"
The best teaching, then should occur when you aren't actually trying to teach something. I realized that and pointed it out to my mom. She replied that they are parents, so they have a better authority to teach with. You know, the regular useless babble you expect. I often wonder why I even bother talking about this stuff with them because of such excuses.