nr378Why the most valuable things you know are things you cannot say
https://deadneurons.substack.com/p/why-the-most-valuable-things-you
I would call the difference intuitive knowledge versus rational knowledge.
I've never seen the word calibration used this way:
different modes of learning. The first is instruction: the transfer of explicit models, rules, and relationships from one person to another through language. The second is calibration: the development of internal models through repeated exposure to feedback in a specific environment. Judgement is learnable through calibration. It is not transmissible through instruction.
Unfortunately the word "intuition" has been debased.
I believe the author was arguing that “calibration” is also rational but it cannot be transmitted. You cannot learn it from reading or following a framework. Books and frameworks are too lossy. The author cited the example of doctors in their residency as an example of this second mode of learning. They are learning from hands on experience what other doctors had also learned before. With residency there are others who oversee the residents.
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.
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.
> 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.