A short transcript excerpt from a YouTube conversation between Steven Bartlett and Lex Fridman about learning complex ideas. The speakers emphasize that feeling 'stupid' when first encountering new material is normal, recommend seeking multiple explanations (visuals, alternative explanations) and iterative repetition until understanding emerges.
Where can you adjust? So, like, when I see. When I look at financial information, like for the company, right. I always ask the finance person, show me a chart and a graph. Like, show me, show me. I want to see the visual, I want to see the trend. I want to see the profit and loss done in pretty pictures. Because then I can understand it. When you just show me huge spreadsheets of number, I just gloss over. Sure, I struggle, but some people, like, they look at those huge spreadsheets and they're like, you're one of those people.
No, I mean. Well, the analog for me would be I'm constantly trying to learn new things in math. And the first read will always feel make. I'll feel like an idiot. But I know, like, you should feel stupid.
Yeah, feeling.
Stupid is part of it. And admit that you're stupid, admit you don't know, and I will look at one thing, read it, go, I don't like that. And I'll look up seven different ways of explaining it. Until the seventh one, I'm like, this time I get it. And I'll also have to read it over and over again. I don't think that it's necessarily. Some people just inherently get it. They're just willing to admit they're stupid. And like, you're saying, I love it. Keep simplifying it until there's one aspect of it you get. And then what's the next thing you can add to that?
What we do when we feel stupid is we watch or read the same thing over and over and over again to try to understand it, each time blaming ourselves for being stupid. What you're saying is, and this is the genius, show me seven different ways to explain it until I understand it.
