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I really like his example at the end - step-by-step deep dive into a specific topic. 30 hours of learning, direct links to resources, come out the other end as
by auntad 8y ago
I really like his example at the end - step-by-step deep dive into a specific topic. 30 hours of learning, direct links to resources, come out the other end as informed and aware of the topic at hand.
I usually find it difficult to wade through the mountains of possible (often outdated) resources on a topic I'm unfamiliar with - At one point I was thinking it'd be useful to crowdsource those kind of step-by-step guides across a variety of verticals. Kind of like an online class, except pulling from the best up to date blog posts and specific resources from around the internet, instead of relying on a singular POV of the guy who made some videos and called it a course.
Anyone know of anything like that? How do you approach deep diving into unfamiliar spaces?
- brightball 8y agoHonestly, this is why I just read technical books cover to cover. It’s just about the best point to point resource out there. I think I remember seeing where Cornell offered a course structure where you’d do one course, all day, for 3 weeks and then move to the next. It was years ago, but I remember thinking I would have loved it.
- colmvp 8y agoI've tried that for a couple topics (Reinforcement Learning, Linear Algebra, Bayesian Stats) over the last six months and I found for myself it was much harder to retain information than spacing it out over several months and chipping away at it little by little (which I'm doing with Python, Algorithms, Control Theory). I personally prefer practicing interleaving, as I find that applying one subject to another make me remember a lot more of the concepts than block learning techniques. Also in the grand scheme of things, three weeks isn't a lot of time. Granted, I'm not a fast learner!
- mathinpens 8y agoimo you should definitely do linear algebra before learning RL or stats. it will make everything else much easier.
- amp108 8y agoJust to clarify, that's Cornell College, not Cornell University.
- adamweld 8y agoThis is generally called a Block Plan[1] and is a great system for some students. Looks like Cornell College offers it, you got my hopes up as I'm a Cornell University student and juggling five technical courses at a time has heavy context switching penalties. On the other hand, last year taking Linear Algebra and at the same time having to apply it in a signals processing class was a good combo. [1] http://www.expertadmissions.com/ExpertAdmissionsBlog/tabid/70/PostID/46/Block-Plan-Colleges.aspx http://www.expertadmissions.com/ExpertAdmissionsBlog/tabid/7...
- 0x445442 8y agoYeah, I used to take intersession courses back in my college days where I focused on one course for four weeks. That fit my mode of study way better than taking 4/5 technical courses at the same time. Doing a deep dive on one subject and then moving on was just way better for subject retention in my opinion.
- barry-cotter 8y agoInterleaved study leads to greater retention than blocked study. http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/2014/01/interleavedblockeddelayed/ http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/2014/01/interleavedblockeddelaye... https://www.northeastern.edu/learningresearch/interleaved-studying-increases-students-retention-information/ https://www.northeastern.edu/learningresearch/interleaved-st...
- swsieber 8y agoWhat makes you think that it was better? Condensed studying feels easier, but leads to lower long-term retention. Now, there are methods used to help mitigate that, but those can also be used to increase retention of spread out studying too.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoIntensive courses in the summer aren’t unusual, especially in the summer and especially for language classes.
- sndean 8y agoThis also reminded me of some summer classes. Maybe one month, 5 days/week? Some of the things that best remember from undergrad were learned over the summer. I still don't know whether it was the short/intensive set up of the courses that improved learning, or if it was the fact that I was only willing to do summer courses in topics I knew I'd do well in. Either way, it's my best memory of school.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoI always took advantage of summer quarter as an undergrad. It was a better experience though course selection wasn’t great (especially for CS).
- adamweld 8y agoI think this is a great idea. It's really saddened me watching the internet turn from a place where people deeply invested in a topic or passion share their work personally to a SEO-ranked shit show where millions of low-effort 'blogs' compile second hand knowledge for views and commissions. While compiling great resources in one place is a good stop-gap I'd love to hear some ideas about how we can move towards a Web where people are rewarded for creating original content and putting effort into their work, rather than the current mess of clickbait and rehosted/paraphrased content. Doing a Google search for a technical topic is much less effective now than in the past, by my reckoning.
- mathinpens 8y agoI have found that good high quality blogs typically link to other high quality blogs. Most of the ones I am familiar with are math/computer science blogs run by researchers. If those topics are in your wheelhouse there is definitely a ton of high quality original content from the advanced undergraduate level to the research level. so maybe a lot of the internet is seo ranked shit show...but not all of it.
- reificator 8y ago> so maybe a lot of the internet is seo ranked shit show...but not all of it. Just the parts you can actually find.
- mathinpens 8y agolol
- xfitm3 8y agoI have found myself asking the same question. While I don’t have an answer I can share my plan. I am studying the social impact of the printing press. I don’t think you can go wrong studying history.
- metal13 8y agoFYI, the author is a woman. And her twitter account is very much worth a follow: https://twitter.com/intent/follow?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fazeria-labs.com%2Fabout%2F&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw®ion=follow_link&screen_name=Fox0x01&tw_p=followbutton https://twitter.com/intent/follow?original_referer=https%3A%...
- JaredMcFey 8y agoI love her Twitter. Rarely see girls post highly technical content. This is her only non-technical one I guess and all her posts are high quality and about assembly which helped me get started with it although I’ve never done anything in assembly before. I’m a web developer but recently got interested in assembly because of her account
- lixtra 8y agoThanks for pointing to her Twitter account. Also good to know that she agrees we are trash bros[1]. We can still learn from people who despise us. [1] https://twitter.com/AdrienneCohea/status/1000463172581580800?s=20 https://twitter.com/AdrienneCohea/status/1000463172581580800...
- aetimmes 8y agoI don't see anything that indicates agreement from the author of the post.
- solarengineer 8y agoThe tweet that you have linked to is a response to the author, and not one by the author themselves.
- lixtra 8y agoShe has meanwhile deleted her reply that showed consent with the cited tweet. I have a screenshot but that would prove nothing to you. Actually, I’m quite happy with the outcome, I paid a little bit of karma for somebody to reconsider her actions.
- sampl 8y agoI'm building this right now actually. Superclass [1] is a place to submit online learning resources by topic, then upvote/comment on the most helpful ones. The goal is eventually something just like you described, kind of a crowd-sourced curriculum builder. This version is rough and buggy, but would love everyone's thoughts/feedback (sam@directedworks.com) https://superclass.co/ https://superclass.co/ Edit: sign up for occasional email updates here: http://eepurl.com/dwgBnP http://eepurl.com/dwgBnP
- evanlivingston 8y agoHey, I just checked your project out and it's awesome. One thing id like to see is a way to filter submission types. Specifically it would be nice to filter out products likes apps and books.
- sampl 8y agoThat's a great idea, I definitely plan on doing this soon. Thanks for the feedback!
- zbtaylor1 8y agoThis is a great idea!
- Malp 8y agoThis is a great idea, good luck!
- Complexicate 8y agotypo on front page: Superclass makes it easier by "gathing" It's a good idea. I'd like to see this succeed.
- sampl 8y agoWhoops—thanks, I’ll fix it!
- Moter8 8y ago
- dwcnnnghm 8y agoSome great suggestions here already but thought I would add Metacademy [0] and Learn Anything [1] (White Paper here [2]). These are designed to create a map of skills and concepts for a given topic. I find an interactive visualisation to be really effective in understanding the broader ideas before starting out or during the early stages when it’s hard to see how the pieces fit together. [0] https://metacademy.org https://metacademy.org [1] https://learn-anything.xyz https://learn-anything.xyz [2] https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-anything/wiki/White-Paper https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-anything/wiki/White-...
- staystrong22 8y ago> Anyone know of anything like that? How do you approach deep diving into unfamiliar spaces? Once you're past learning the basics, I've found it very productive to go to SO, search for the topic tag ie. React, sort by most voted, and read all questions/answers in sequence. It's a great way to forcefully gain real world experience on something.