babble is when someone learns how symbols are meant to go together, without having the cognition that models the intended (intended by who?) referent

@robinhanson has talked about it being near impossible to get his students to do something besides babble. this is to be expected

the rule of thumb is that brain only models shit it has to interact with. if you are told to do shit with symbols who's referents don't effect you (i.e economics homework), it's natural that they'll model how to use the symbols but NOT model the referents

this dynamic will rear its head anytime you're learning *about* a thing, but you can't engage with the THING itself!

you see people babbling about abstract stuff all the time, but rarely about concrete things

if you don't get to engage with the THING, not babbling means that as you learn these new symbols, you have to link them to existing cognition with analogy, simulate possibilities and visualize shit, and you know, HARD stuff.

learning by doing aint hard. learning by thinking IS

examples -> generalizations
is easier than
generalizations -> examples

former the world just exists and you think on it
latter, you must generate the world to think upon it

situated cognition! https://meaningness.com/metablog/abstract-emergent