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From: abbott@aerospace.aero.org (Russell J. Abbott)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: What to know
Message-ID: <56543@aerospace.AERO.ORG>
Date: 23 Aug 89 21:30:31 GMT
Reply-To: abbott@itro3.aero.org (Russell J. Abbott)
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Lines: 21

In the world of instantly accessible information that we are
constructing I'm beginning to wonder what one should actually bother to
learn.  That is, why know something when one can look it up using an
information locator service?  I also wonder what the difference is
between knowing something and knowing where to find out about something.

I suppose that one answer is that one should learn (i.e., internalize?)
something when the task of looking it up imposes an unacceptable
overhead.  And I suppose that there are at least two kinds of conditions
that lead to that situation: frequency of use and difficulty of
learning.  That is, if one uses some information frequently, one does
not want to have to look it up all the time.  Also, if looking something
up is difficult, e.g., XYZ theory for some sufficiently complex XYZ,
then one may not be able to spend the time to learn it at the time one
needs to use it.

Any thoughts on this subject?

(Also, any suggestions about where this discussion should take place?)
-- 
-- Russ abbott@itro3.aero.org