I have been thinking about how we understand things and there is this tension between being able to explain something simply and actually understanding it deeply because if you can explain a concept in a couple of straightforward sentences that is great but if you reduce everything to a soundbite you lose nuance and the complexity of the world is not always captured in a sentence or two. When friends ask me about religion or diets I start at hunter gatherers and they laugh at me but I find that any discussion about our culture or food or diet without understanding how they came to be is an incomplete thought and you cannot really understand something until you go back to its roots and build up from there.

There is a 0th principle thing I think about which is that to comprehend something deeply you have to start at its foundations and gradually build upon them and Feynman had this approach in his Fun to Imagine interview where he takes you on a journey to explore the behavior of atoms and electrons in simple yet awe-inspiring scenarios and he understands the thing at its most basic level and can explain it simply without losing the depth. Sometimes understanding depends on how well you want to understand a topic because to understand why something is hot might be as simple as because it was heated but understanding the way atoms move and interact forms the bedrock for comprehending the cosmos so the interplay between simplicity and foundational knowledge is what guides true understanding.

If this resonates do find me on Twitter. I am @troysk704.