Dead Neurons: Expertise resists formalization

The essay highlights a critical tension in the AI era: while we strive to automate everything, the most vital human "models" are physically built into our perception and cannot be shared.

• –Tacit knowledge is "learnable but not teachable," requiring prolonged environmental calibration that cannot be bypassed.
• –Institutions often create "legibility traps" where formal rules destroy the very expertise needed to handle unique edge cases.
• –The "cycle of formalization" leads to brittle systems that fail when they encounter variables not accounted for in their rulebooks.
• –True mastery involves developing a "perceptual apparatus" to see features that novices literally cannot perceive, a process that resists compression.