fractaltiger's Journal: Intuition or Cumulative Knowledge Databases?

For Intuitive Bug-less Software? I produced the following comment. Might as well share it here!
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Intuition or Cumulative Knowledge Databases?

G4from128k (686170) said { I like the idea of intuitive programming, but suspect that computers are grounded in logic and that logic is not an intuitive concept. }

Slightly OT:
This is indeed hitting the nail on the head. My father and I have lots of disagreement on the issue of "common sense." We are both very smart, but tends to fall behind when it comes to explaining ... or rather, just ACCEPTING unknowns and their repercussion in logic. Say, If I withhold a fact in an argument but claim to be "right," he will say there is just NO way of winning the argument --and then I produce the "new evidence." He sometimes recoils thinking his logic models cannot be blown away by my (normal logic + hidden evidence).

Whenever he says that I should know something because it's intuitive, I bring up example after example of why he's mistaken to expect all logical conclusions to be == to his. We saw a lady in a TV contest who had to see words hidden behind her husband and make him guess the , through signs and gestures she made for him. She stumbled upon "otorrino," (this TV show is in spanish) which is short for otolaringologyst, and said that she didn't know the word. Well, I won't get into more complex translation details. Suffice to say that she didn't know what it was and had to skip to the next thing. My father was outraged:

1. She speaks 7 languages.
2. The word is pretty simple latin and her 7 languages MUST therefore encompass latin.
3. Young children and thus, anyone raising them, should be familiar with this doctor because he deals with "ubiquitous" eye problems, ear infections and nose issues.
4. Besides being familiar with the doctor, must know the exact name of the doctorate which is literally "ottorhinolaryngologyst."
5. Her job in Europe is with a law firm TRANSLATING legal documents.
6. Any hispanic woman speaking 7 languages must have gone through enough 'education' to have seen the word, if she cannot derive it from latin
7. Only my father, by (5) can decide whether you should or shouldn't KNOW a word, concept or whatever, just based on your "expected" life experience

I asked my dad why he rationalizes which concepts she SHOULD know rather than why she just DIDN'T know what he's 100% sure she already grasps. Moreover, he's always too shocked to see through his own failure at accepting that common sense doesn't exist, and instead trying to verbally fix something that is has proven false before his own eyes. But some people think they already know what is and isn't IMPOSSIBLE.

I can list three other languages besides english and spanish that I can understand, so I speak 5 languages, right? No. This is an example of misinformation and generalization: If she says she speaks 7, it doesn't mean her job has made her command them all --even if you 'knew' as many languages as the Pope and had to work in New York City's linguistic melting pot, you will never exert more than 3 language roles in your official capacity, and your "other 4 languages" will be pet languages, specially if you're only 35. But sometimes dad waves off my facts as crazy talk of today's young and naive offspring. Too bad. Sometimes he's surprised at how lucky I am when my "wrong logic" can get him so many nice surprises when his ways should be the only solution to my "poor common sense." You can tell I deal with control freak parents eh?
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