
How can there be collisions in Hashing functions? - robzyb
https://np.reddit.com/r/algorithms/comments/6bidyg/how_can_there_be_collisions_in_hashing_functions/
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CarolineW
I'm curious as to your reasons for posting this. It's clearly a conversation
between people who don't understand something and people who can't explain
things. But why do you think it's of value for us here on HN? What lessons do
you think we should be learning from it?

You've posted it, so you think I should read it. Why?

~~~
robzyb
Well... the conversation piqued my interest partly from a pedagogical
perspective, and partly from a philosophical perspective.

The pedagogical aspect relates to the fact that the thread's OP clearly isn't
lacking in intelligence nor knowledge, and I would've expected that some of
the explanations would be sufficient. I found it interesting as a case study
in learning/teaching.

The philosophical perspective relates to the link between our perspective of
the world and the actual truth underlying it. The thread's OP was quite
certain about the fact they were claiming as true, and was actually making a
good argument for it. At least, the argument was good insofar as it was
logical and wasn't falling victim to any egregious logical fallacy. It's
interesting to consider consider this debate in contrast to a political debate
which doesn't necessarily have such a solid underlying truth

On a personal note, I'm also slightly envious of the "OH!" moment that the
thread's OP is going to have when everything falls into place in their mental
model of hash functions. I remember when differential calculus first "clicked"
with me, and when statistical hypothesis testing "clicked" with me. I'm still
waiting for monads to "click" with me.

