4 ms·

> Yet another is Stepanov's "Elements of Programming," which by first chapter's end Feynman is telling me to read it again [1]. I'm very curious what you mean

• turtleyacht 4y ago
  Oh--just that I couldn't understand the first chapter in Stepanov fully on first reading, so I need to read it again (and again, and again). The Feynman reference is Well, I asked him, “How can I read it? It’s so hard.” He said, “You start at the beginning and you read as far as you can get, until you are lost. Then you start at the beginning again, and you keep working through until you can understand the whole book.” —Joan Feynman, Richard Feynman’s sister, recalling a discussion with her brother From https://rs.io/feynman-reading-difficult-things/ https://rs.io/feynman-reading-difficult-things/
  • layer8 4y ago
    That takes quadratic time though, assuming one “gets lost” with roughly constant likelihood throughout new text. I’m sure there must be a better way.
    • turtleyacht 4y ago
      It would indeed take forever, even assuming we are not only reading, but writing notes too. The only way through is to make it computable: writing programs and making it concrete. Another is to obsess over it externally: taping index cards up on the walls, ruminating on it in the bath, and transferring that to software. There's just too much to learn now. My bet is on first principles from cheap books, but the world keeps turning. What has worked for you?