I've always had an interest in science, I love watching something like PBS spacetime or fermilab videos (because I'm obviously a layman and won't understand anything actually detailed), but I've always held this belief that I'm "wayyyy too stupid to actually do the work." and then I hear story after story of "very smart people" simply not understanding the simplest of concepts.

Oh well lol

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

then I hear story after story of "very smart people" simply not understanding the simplest of concepts.

Usually this is because their knowledge and skills go very deep, but not very wide. There is also a big divide between the practical side of things and the theoretical. Another thing I’ve noticed is that if you spend a lot of time working on very complicated problems you tend to forget that most things have simple solutions. So when confronted with a simple issue your mind kind of ‘skips over’ all the simple stuff and immediately assumes it must be something complicated.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

i like to classify this problem as an optimization problem more than anything.

The simplest possible solution is an impossible feat, and varies depending on the requirements and shenanigans willing to be committed. The approximate simplest possible solution is very achievable, but requires a lot of thought, a very specific use case, and an established ecosystem. The most functional solution is whatever you manage to cobble together quickly enough to prove that it's possible, only for it to be used for about 3 years, because it works fine^tm^

Anything else is a nightmare abomination and should never be classified, exposed to the light of day, or shown to other people. Except as a cautionary tale.