This Article is soooooo hot already. So I probably will not write about it - You can find it in the reference below. Instead, i’ll provide my reflection on the article.

the gap in comprehension is not due to ability but due to gap in pre-requisite knowledge.

The emphasis is to focus on what are the concept’s building blocks you need to understand?

• Is the concept’s context important?

• Are you able to breakdown the concept to its pre-requisite concepts?
  Typically what sets intelligent people apart is their ability to find out what they don’t know

Inherently true, people don’t know what they don’t know. Not just the inexperienced are plagued with this ‘curse’, even the experts.

• How many hours do you foresee needed for you to be knowledgeable enough to engage in the context?

Are you able to measure the topics required, and how much time you need for these pre-requisite concepts?

While all these questions seems obverse, what makes it difficult to follow through its how much effort it requires for a person to go through this tedious process (break down the required knowledge, research on the hours required, commit to the effort required, and actually doing it).

This may be what I consider the ‘System 2’ thinking defined by Danial Kahnerman in Thinking fast and slow

• There are never smart people, but only people with much more context and pre-requisite knowledge in the topic

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This concept helps you see the world differently.

1. Comparison with people loses sight on the # of preparation/reading hours before that conversation

Someone could seem smart in your class, so assuming you are in the same class as this person; you heard the class content for the 1st time, but that person could have heard it the 10th time in different angles and have done 50 hours prior to that class.

Does this make that person smart?
Or is the person just 50hrs ahead of you in that specific topic?

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How can I sound smarter in my conversations?

1. Take control of your meetings

In the context of a professional discussion, enter into the conversation knowing the agenda and what you wish to value add.

2. Do your homework

Take your time to read up and understand what are critical questions that will probe for a deeper insightful conversation.

3. Learn as if you are teaching someone

When you do your homework, don’t take shortcuts. Don’t skip the topics.

I recently find myself caught up in this situation: I was trying to read up about Artificial Intelligence.

Can anyone genuinely just read up about ‘AI’ without knowing (1) the mechanism that made it happen: Math, math, math; (2) the history of it - when did the concept even first started, and (3) what changed in today’s society that allowed this to happen in which wouldn’t be possible 3 decades ago?

I dug deeper within. Why do I find myself skipping concepts and attempting short-cuts in my own learning?

As I reflect deeper, I get no benefits from doing that. Instead, I may be driven by fear. Fear being seen as incompetent. I needed my quick fix to my knowledge gap as a technologist. And I needed to survive the ‘nonexistent’ public scrutiny of my knowledge gap, and thus fear has taken the driver seat within me.

This has to stop, and let curiosity take the wheel. Let curiosity, coupled with reflection, drive the growth within us. A day after another, you will find yourself scaling this seemingly impossible ‘Mount Everest’ of Artificial Intelligence.

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Reference

You are not dumb, just lacking prerequisite knowledge