Comment by adam_arthur

I don't understand the position that learning through inference/example is somehow inferior to a top down/rules based learning.

Humans learn many, and perhaps even the majority, of things through observed examples and inference of the "rules". Not from primers and top down explanation.

E.g. Observing language as a baby. Suddenly you can speak grammatically correctly even if you can't explain the grammar rules.

Or: Observing a game being played to form an understanding of the rules, rather than reading the rulebook

Further: the majority of "novel" insights are simply the combination of existing ideas.

Look at any new invention, music, art etc and you can almost always reasonably explain how the creator reached that endpoint. Even if it is a particularly novel combination of existing concepts.