User blog comment:MachineGunSuper/Help/@comment-30754445-20171215092127

I would also like to comment on one specific sentence you've said:

"People always make huge numbers that are all the way up in the list of googolisms . I get how they do that, but HOW do they know in what class/level to put it in?"

This is a common misconception.

One cannot seperate the art of creating large numbers, from the ability to estimate the size of those numbers (except at the very lowest levels). If you don't understand how a given level works, you won't be able to create numbers of that size at all. And conversely: If you know how to build a certain level of numbers from scratch, then you'd also know how to compare them with one another.

This is because of three facts:

(1) Every level is carefully built on the previous ones, and there are no short cuts: your notation must go through all the intermediate levels, or it won't be as strong as you want it to be.

(2) There's really only one way to progress, and this is what the "levels" you've seen here measure. A stronger notation is simply one that goes further along the same path.

(3) It is nearly impossible to invent a decently strong notation without some awareness of both #1 and #2.