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Dr Barbara Oakley’s “Learning How to Learn” [0] is great. Edit: It gives an important understanding on how our minds function and how we learn, which, I think,
by yawz 6y ago
Dr Barbara Oakley’s “Learning How to Learn” [0] is great.
Edit: It gives an important understanding on how our minds function and how we learn, which, I think, forms the basis of effective work. Knowing how to work, and being an effective learner are incredibly important qualities in life.
[0] https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
- joshlk 6y agoWhat’s good about it?
- thecleaner 6y agoYou can get a sample out of her Google talk on YouTube. Basically the course tells you ideas about how to read/manage time to learn things more efficiently.
- Ma8ee 6y agoAnd most importantly, why you should study and manage your time in certain ways. A lot of things in that course feels like it fairly obvious when you hear it, but often you might not have thought in those directions, and often it helps to get those things spelled out. If I had had that course in my early teens that would have helped me a lot.
- thecleaner 6y agoI really enjoyed the part about recollecting vs rereading. This changed my perspective on how to read things. I have noticed I read less nonsense and retain more of the important topics. Also tried it with software docs. Although recollecting API names didnt help me make better software decisions but it came in handy while writing code. A bit of fluency helped reduce friction since I could code with less context switches.
- Ma8ee 6y agoAh yes, that is an important part. I certainly often fell into the trap of looking at the material, feeling it was comfortingly familiar and thus believed that I knew it. And then of course struggled to recall it when I needed it.
- yawz 6y agoThanks. I added some more comments.
- Fnoord 6y agoAlso, it is free as in beer, and since its very fundamental, that is important. It is also useful for high school students as well. I actually had various of these subjects at high school (in my native language and without these experts though).
- pmiller2 6y agoIf you define "work" rather broadly, to include hobbies and the pursuit of personal goals, in addition to laboring for remuneration, then I would argue that knowing how to learn is probably the most important meta-skill one can have.
- yawz 6y agoAgreed. This is a great point.
- kostarelo 6y agoI really enjoyed that course my-self as well. One thing that stood out for me was that I realised that the basic concept of the course was already familiar to me. Breaking down something new to learn into chunks, then forming a high-level picture of the unknown landscape and then starting to connect those chunks as you go deeper into the details. I wonder how many people have already in some way used that process to learn something new without realising that it is indeed the most efficient way for the brain to learn a new concept.
- st1x7 6y agoI would recommend skipping this one. It contains fairly obvious advice, the information density is low and it isn't delivered very well. I really don't know why it's recommended so often.
- Fnoord 6y agoIt is recommended often because Learning How To Learn is a very fundamental part of your skill set which, sadly, many people either lack or do sub-optimal. Precisely because of that it can contain "obvious" device; because you are already (partly) familiar with it. I find it rather arrogant to say its useless for everyone. Its a fairly quick course, where you can spend more time on aspects if you desire. This topic about the top Coursera courses or which ones you recommend comes up regularly here on HN. On top of the mentioned Learning How To Learn I can recommend the following: Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Comparing Theory and Practice by Edwin Bakker [1] Securing Digital Democracy by J. Alex Halderman [2] Cryptography I by Dan Boneh [3]. I didn't finish this one, but its very good... [1] https://www.coursera.org/learn/terrorism https://www.coursera.org/learn/terrorism [2] https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-democracy [3] https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto
- BossingAround 6y agoI don't know... I would summarize it as: - You will get good at anything given enough practice, so don't worry about thinking you're bad at X - As you get good at X, you will start to like it - Pomodoro I'm over-simplifying of course, but I felt like the course provided a lot of concepts with very little actionable advice. It's a very popular course because it "feels good". It is motivating, and has a very positive message. I wouldn't consider it very useful for already highly motivated and self-driven people.
- rizpanjwani 6y agoYou overlooked the two states of learning: focused and diffuse. Each is important. That was a big eye-opener for me as I used to blame my mind needing to take frequent breaks and thinking about other things on my inability to focus. Then I realized that it's just a natural way to learn.
- minhazm423 6y agoso you're describing diffused learning? is that the default mode? havent taken the course so idk what the take on it is
- tchaffee 6y agoThere was lots of actionable advice. Just as an example: frequent self testing. Incorporating this into my studies more intentionally has helped me learn quicker. I'm highly motivated and self-driven. This course isn't about motivation. It's about how we learn and how best to take advantage of that. But I will say that knowing how the brain works and how we learn has motivated me to change my study habits. Knowing that I learn in my sleep motivates me to prime my brain for learning every day to take advantage of that. So I rarely skip a day now. Even ten minutes gets my subconscious primed and working while I sleep. The mental models you get out this course will last a lifetime.
- csomar 6y agoYou missed the most important part: Which is to jump between advanced/beginner content to build a better image. i.e.: If you are learning a programming language, you start with easy and keep going, but along the way you jump to very hard/advanced stuff. This technique really boosted my learning and solidified it.