Aha! Experiences
May. 29th, 2007 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsThe other day I was talking to a friend of mine about programming, and one of the things he mentioned was that reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programming, also known as "The Wizard Book," was an exercise in "The Aha! Experience."
Probably one of the odder disappointments in my life is that I almost never have Aha! experiences. I'm a competent programmer and can follow just about any theory of computation where it leads right down to the end. When I do the exercises at the end of each chapter, I can usually do each one, even the ones that intend to lead you into the next chapter via insight, but that insight rarely comes with that "burst of illumination." Sometimes, but far less often than I think happens with other people.
It seems to me that my life is conducted almost entirely out of bricolage, which Merriam Webster defines as a term imported from the French meaning "construction (as of a sculpture or a structure of ideas) achieved by using whatever comes to hand; also: something constructed in this way." When I'm studying a new technique or trying to come up with something different, I just keep building things until something starts working. I barely notice when that happens, though: instead, the technique is usually just something I needed to achieve a goal. It isn't until later (sometimes much later) that I realize something like, "Oh, that's recursion." (Or closures[?], or parallelism, or currying[?]). "That's odd. When did I get comfortable with that?" I usually can't pinpoint it: I didn't have an "aha" experience. Somewhere in the back of my brain this difficult and theoretical idea just started working. I'm often pleased to realize that I've been doing for some time what is considered difficult by programmers, but that "bolt of insight" experience that others seems to have continues to elude me.
Probably one of the odder disappointments in my life is that I almost never have Aha! experiences. I'm a competent programmer and can follow just about any theory of computation where it leads right down to the end. When I do the exercises at the end of each chapter, I can usually do each one, even the ones that intend to lead you into the next chapter via insight, but that insight rarely comes with that "burst of illumination." Sometimes, but far less often than I think happens with other people.
It seems to me that my life is conducted almost entirely out of bricolage, which Merriam Webster defines as a term imported from the French meaning "construction (as of a sculpture or a structure of ideas) achieved by using whatever comes to hand; also: something constructed in this way." When I'm studying a new technique or trying to come up with something different, I just keep building things until something starts working. I barely notice when that happens, though: instead, the technique is usually just something I needed to achieve a goal. It isn't until later (sometimes much later) that I realize something like, "Oh, that's recursion." (Or closures[?], or parallelism, or currying[?]). "That's odd. When did I get comfortable with that?" I usually can't pinpoint it: I didn't have an "aha" experience. Somewhere in the back of my brain this difficult and theoretical idea just started working. I'm often pleased to realize that I've been doing for some time what is considered difficult by programmers, but that "bolt of insight" experience that others seems to have continues to elude me.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:12 pm (UTC)"The most important words in science are not 'Eureka! i've found it!' but instead 'huh... well *that's* odd...'"
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:21 pm (UTC)http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/i/isaacasimo109758.html
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
no subject
Date: 2007-05-30 07:21 pm (UTC)Hey, watch this!
stretching the metaphor
Date: 2007-05-29 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 09:04 pm (UTC)