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robocat 7 hours ago

You're arguing against something I wasn't trying to imply.

Choosing a good abstract dichotomy is hard (mine is also faulty, as you have noted).

They chose "instruction" versus "calibration" which I feel is a terrible splitting plane (muddying whatever they are trying to articulate).

I have been fascinated listening to a smart nursing friend of mine explain some of the intuitions they learnt through observation (not explicitly taught). I believe they had an outlier skill for noticing patterns. They might have been able to teach the patterns they saw, but they probably couldn't teach the skill of discovering patterns ≈intelligence.

neerajsi 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I think intuition is what is developed through calibration, so I personally like the word calibration.

Intuition and other forms of knowledge are stock quantities while calibration and instructions are types of flows which change the stock. I'd love to know if there a better word for learning through trial and evaluation than calibration.

robocat 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> better word for learning through trial and evaluation than calibration

How about training. Implies practicality. You can be trained or do your own training. Avoids the bad academic/factual associations of "teaching".

Calibration makes some sense to people that work with tools, but the word is a poor metaphor for honing our intuitions.

It is quite amazing how little of what we do or know is actually explicitly taught. I learnt the most in the sandpit.