Admit your Brain lock

[mkiijam]

We all have them. Areas that we just can't seem to get our head around. I've been repairing electronics for almost 30 years, but transistors still baffle me. It's not because I don't get or can't get the concept. And not because I haven't read up on them, which I have about 100 times. For some reason, the info just doesn't seem to stick. I find myself having to re-read the basic function articles AGAIN.

Put it this way, I have junior techs that I show the ropes and answers questions from, and I wince at the day or times where they ask me how a transistor works beyond what the answer of "amps signals" or "switches" will satisfy them.

Anybody else? Brain locks?

[coppercone2]

the PFC. Suddenly your taxes turned into multinational government affiliated enterprise level

I am supposed to do this why, for the sake of the power company??? you think I can figure out if its going to work well in japan??? 

[Halcyon]

Regular expressions.

[coppercone2]

also IEC connectors. I wired probobly at least 100 of them in various things with solder and crimps and I never remember which pin is what.

Transistors are not easy either. My first projects were with diodes. Easier, until you have alot in feedback loops, then they are awful

[SiliconWizard]

Taxes, and a large part of quantum physics.

[joeqsmith]

Ladies.

[xrunner]

Saved me typing -

Ladies.

Taxes, and a large part of quantum physics.

[Smokey]

I have a mental model for this... (... I'm not a neuroscientist.. so don't listen to me...)

Think of your brain as a big filing cabinet full of organized file folders (or a relational database, or something of that nature).  Every new bit of information gets put in some folder, but it's significantly easier to put information INTO a folder than it is to move it to another folder afterwards.
There is unfortunately one big folder labeled "I don't understand this", which links to nothing else.  Once you put something in the "I don't understand this" folder it's sort of stuck there until you exert a huge amount of effort to move it.

With that in mind, I try to make a conscious effort if it seems like something might be important or useful not to just initially toss it into the "I don't understand this" folder.  The "mental purgatory" folder is better than the "I don't understand this" folder.

.. and there are still some things that I feel will forever be stuck in the "I don't understand this" folder... like regular expressions...

[SiliconWizard]

That will be ok
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/practical-regex-guide-with-real-life-examples/

[Halcyon]

That will be ok
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/practical-regex-guide-with-real-life-examples/

The most frustrating thing about regex is that there are so many different "flavours" of it. Then of course you have Microsoft who implement regex in their mail flow rules entirely differently to everything else.

[pcprogrammer]

Saved me typing -

Ladies.

Taxes, and a large part of quantum physics.

Only with some slight differences.

Not just Ladies, humans in general. 

I understand why taxes are needed, but some are just plain theft. Like inheritance tax, why does the government feel that they are entitled to take a slice from money that people have carefully saved and already paid taxes for. Same as with donations. I someone gives me money the government has nothing to do with that.

And why all the complex rules that make it so hard to fill in your tax forms. Must be to keep employment up. Otherwise no need for the accountants. 

[switchabl]

I understand why taxes are needed, but some are just plain theft. Like inheritance tax, why does the government feel that they are entitled to take a slice from money that people have carefully saved and already paid taxes for. Same as with donations. I someone gives me money the government has nothing to do with that.

Unless you have actually failed to understand/retain relevant theories of distributive justice (like Rawls'), rather than just disagreed with them, this seems like a bad example.

For me, I'm having a hard time with music theory, the finer points of harmony in particular.

On the topic of transistors, on a behavioural level, IMHO the key is not just read about but 1) analyze circuits yourself, lots of them, starting with the basic ones, on paper; small/large-signal, input/output impedances, gains, distortion, diff/common mode... 2) design some transistor circuits, again starting with simple ones (again on paper, then verify with SPICE). On a fundamental level, beyond simple drift-diffusion models, frankly the first step is to get a graduate degree in semiconductor physics. Most people don't need that.

[Andy Chee]

For me, Karnaugh maps and Smith charts.

[tszaboo]

Object oriented code. Not using it, writing it. And callbacks.
If any of those come up, I just say: "Screw this, someone else will write that code."

Regular expressions.

I won't even attempt that. My time is better spent on literally anything else.

[Bud]

McDonald's burger ads. No matter how many are pushed on me they do not stick.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Why there's something rather than nothing.

[temperance]

callbacks

I think it is the way they are being explained together with mostly useless bad examples and how good or bad you are at reading function pointers. If the latter is not your language (that's becoming good at reading backwards), try to experiment with them and you will probably start to write callback functions without realizing to solve some problems.

[tggzzz]

That will be ok
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/practical-regex-guide-with-real-life-examples/

The most frustrating thing about regex is that there are so many different "flavours" of it. Then of course you have Microsoft who implement regex in their mail flow rules entirely differently to everything else.

Yes, just like logic families, types of opamp, resistor, ....

Digital hardware people always hanker after creating a better microprocessor. Few actually do, fortunately.

Software people always hanker after creating a programming language. Too many end up creating scrotty little Domain Scripting Languages (DSLs), of which regexp languages are a subset. At least regexp languages are useful for command-line arguments, but 99% of things written in a DSLanguage would be better written in a DSLibrary in a traditional language.

My brain lock: electromagnetic theory.

[nctnico]

My brainlock is not about technical stuff but why people do bad things to others and/or themselves.

[mkiijam]

On my Transistor issue:

Here it is cause it just happened again with an NPN. Does the transistor "START" to conduct with the .7v on its base or is it fully on with .7? I think my brain lock is the voltage range at which it amplifies and isn't just a switch?

[switchabl]

Software people always hanker after creating a programming language. Too many end up creating scrotty little Domain Scripting Languages (DSLs), of which regexp languages are a subset. At least regexp languages are useful for command-line arguments, but 99% of things written in a DSLanguage would be better written in a DSLibrary in a traditional language.

There are alternative formulations like VerbalExpressions (https://github.com/VerbalExpressions/PythonVerbalExpressions), although I would argue that this is still a kind of DSL, just a more verbose one. Which one is clearer will vary depending on the complexity of the expression, as well as personal preference/familiarity.

Can you give an example of a pattern-matching library with flexibility comparable to regular expressions with a different approach?

[fourfathom]

Unless you have actually failed to understand/retain relevant theories of distributive justice (like Rawls') [...]

Me, it's philosophy like the above.  Or most philosophy, once it get's much beyond "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and even with that there are outliers.  Actual people are way too complicated.

But that's my personal Brain Lock.

[BILLPOD]

For me it is 'DECIBELS'.

[IanB]

I don't think I have ever failed to learn about something that I have tried to learn about. But often the learning doesn't work without lots of practice in applying it. Which means learning things successfully takes significant effort.

On the other hand, there are things like general relativity or quantum physics that I have not tried very hard to learn, and have not dedicated the time or effort required. So they remain somewhat as mysteries to me.

As I get older, I feel I have a limited capacity to learn new things, and have to be selective. It's like my brain is filling up. I feel that if I try to learn too much new stuff, my brain is probably going to erase old stuff to make room.

[pcprogrammer]

Unless you have actually failed to understand/retain relevant theories of distributive justice (like Rawls'), rather than just disagreed with them, this seems like a bad example.

There is a difference between fair sharing based on income and wealth while paying taxes during your life, and taking a, sometimes big, slice of the pie that is often intended to make the life of loved ones better.

How is it fair that frugal people are penalized to cater for the willy nilly behavior of people that can't balance their checkbook, the government included for that matter.

And just like fourfathom, though I can wrap my brain around it somewhat dislike philosophy.

Me, it's philosophy like the above.  Or most philosophy, once it get's much beyond "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and even with that there are outliers.  Actual people are way too complicated.

But that's my personal Brain Lock.

I always thought it was the negated saying that is used. Boils down to the same though. "Don't do upon others that what you don't want done to you". The Dutch phrase is "Wat gij niet wilt dat u geschiedt, doet gij dat ook een ander niet".

Recently a lot of dash cam shorts pop up in my youtube feed showing idiot who break check trucks. Most of them get rear ended and then scream hell about it. 

Can't wrap my brain around that. How stupid can you be?