Yeah, I wonder how exactly he meant that. I doubt that Von Neumann believed in random plug-and-chug, which is what I'd probably mean if I said I had given up on understanding something. Possibly von N was being very careful and cautious about what "understanding" means.
For example there's a story that von Neumann told Shannon to call his information metric entropy, telling S "nobody really understands entropy anyway." But if you've engaged with Shannon to the point of telling him that quantity seems to be the entropy, you really do understand something about entropy.
So maybe v N's worry was about really undertanding math concepts fully and extremely clearly. Going way beyond the point where I'd say "oh I get it!"
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Yeah, I wonder how exactly he meant that. I doubt that Von Neumann believed in random plug-and-chug, which is what I'd probably mean if I said I had given up on understanding something. Possibly von N was being very careful and cautious about what "understanding" means.
For example there's a story that von Neumann told Shannon to call his information metric entropy, telling S "nobody really understands entropy anyway." But if you've engaged with Shannon to the point of telling him that quantity seems to be the entropy, you really do understand something about entropy.
So maybe v N's worry was about really undertanding math concepts fully and extremely clearly. Going way beyond the point where I'd say "oh I get it!"