feel bad that this article ended up on Hacker News (HN), since it seems additional context is needed.
Currently, the emphasis in training and education is on ensuring students understand the material, and rote memorization is viewed as a failure mode.
The author acknowledges this but introduces an argument that rote memorization is critical to achieving fluency.
I suspect that stating this position among typical education-focused circles will result in pushback.
To lend credibility, she adds her lived experience as a way to explain what she means—and to clarify that she isn’t saying everyone is wrong, just that we may be too harsh on memorization.
This is apparent to me because, frankly, if it weren't for the additional content she added, I wouldn’t have spent more than a few seconds before dismissing it.
The article even made me concerned about an internal project I am involved in, prompting me to verify that I hadn’t overlooked some issues.
If you want a TL;DR, the golf analogy matters: If you want to learn math, you need to understand it and then practice it so much that it becomes second nature.
Currently, the emphasis in training and education is on ensuring students understand the material, and rote memorization is viewed as a failure mode.
The author acknowledges this but introduces an argument that rote memorization is critical to achieving fluency.
I suspect that stating this position among typical education-focused circles will result in pushback.
To lend credibility, she adds her lived experience as a way to explain what she means—and to clarify that she isn’t saying everyone is wrong, just that we may be too harsh on memorization.
This is apparent to me because, frankly, if it weren't for the additional content she added, I wouldn’t have spent more than a few seconds before dismissing it.
The article even made me concerned about an internal project I am involved in, prompting me to verify that I hadn’t overlooked some issues.
If you want a TL;DR, the golf analogy matters: If you want to learn math, you need to understand it and then practice it so much that it becomes second nature.