TLDR: Western education creates a false dichotomy between memorization and understanding. I believe we should expect both. Having facts readily available in your brain (not just "Google-able") enables real-time bullshit detection, helps you calibrate who to trust, holds your own beliefs accountable, and provides the raw material for insight and critical thought. I offer some concrete suggestions (spaced repetition via Anki, tracking unfamiliar terms, connecting new facts to existing knowledge, etc.). Rationalists need to be careful to not focus purely on epistemics. We also need lots of knowledge. There's no way around memorization.
I believe memorization is unfairly maligned. It is on the shortlist of things I think are required for becoming a... (read 3884 more words →)
