4 ms·

I spent about a month without internet. I will be honest the last thing I touched was the learning resources. I downloaded youtube videos using ytdl and kept wa

I spent about a month without internet. I will be honest the last thing I touched was the learning resources. I downloaded youtube videos using ytdl and kept watching them on repeat. I would see a tv series every now and then, but nothing beat YouTube videos. You can request your entire liked videos information from Google. Moreover, it is very difficult learn programming without actually doing it and you can't realistically do programming without Google these days. I don't think not having internet doesn’t suddenly make you 10x productive or 10x focused. You are the same person with and without internet. Just admit that upfront. So, prep for it and try to replicate what your habits are with having internet. You can download a few learning resources but please don't go overboard. Focus on one thing you want to finish completely. Don't go on a downloading spree.

hutzlibu 3y ago
"Don't go on a downloading spree." Why not? Where is the harm? It is better to have a book you don't need, than to not have books you discover you do need and memory is cheap. I spend lots of time off grid and I surely did not touch every ebook I had in my collection, but it was still nice browsing through what I had and then choosing the one I wanted that moment.
soperj 3y ago
> you can't realistically do programming without Google these days. This is really not true. Try it. It's not that hard, and will likely make you a better programmer.
- anyfactor 3y ago
  The thing is that, it is not hard rather, I believe it is unproductive. Learning programming in my opinion is having an understanding of a problem, an abstract idea of a solution and then zigzagging and tumbling across that solution with code. The end goal is providing a programmatic solution to a problem. The issue is that coding and googling provides the experience of journey across a solution. Hence the zigzag. You try this, you fail, you google why you failed, you learn something new and you try again. This kind of efficient feedback loop helps you learn. The problem is that without google you have to waste trying to find a solution. The impact is not immediate. There are no progressive bumps of learning. Moreover, without googling you end up doing very hacky programming. Because you only have access to what you know. You can't explore things readily because there is a friction. For a mature programmer, you can make that suggestion, because they are confident about their knowledge and way around documentation. But for new learners I don't recommend this at all. I have tried this, and this creates a very fatiguing experience.
  - soperj 3y ago
    > This kind of efficient feedback loop helps you learn I feel like this helps you solve the problem, but doesn't actually help you learn. The time you're "wasting" trying to find a solution is time you're actually spending learning, not just learning how to code, but learning how to actually formulate a solution. Failure is also one of the biggest parts of learning. "Very hacky programming" is just a start, it's like a vomit draft of anything you're writing. Revisiting your code and figuring out what you can do better is how you end up with more eloquent code. In my experience, no one really explores when googling for answers, they are just searching for an answer.
  - vimy 3y ago
    Local large language models can give feedback and be a private tutor. https://gpt4all.io/index.html https://gpt4all.io/index.html

hutzlibu 3y ago

"Don't go on a downloading spree." Why not? Where is the harm? It is better to have a book you don't need, than to not have books you discover you do need and memory is cheap. I spend lots of time off grid and I surely did not touch every ebook I had in my collection, but it was still nice browsing through what I had and then choosing the one I wanted that moment.

soperj 3y ago

> you can't realistically do programming without Google these days. This is really not true. Try it. It's not that hard, and will likely make you a better programmer.

anyfactor 3y ago
The thing is that, it is not hard rather, I believe it is unproductive. Learning programming in my opinion is having an understanding of a problem, an abstract idea of a solution and then zigzagging and tumbling across that solution with code. The end goal is providing a programmatic solution to a problem. The issue is that coding and googling provides the experience of journey across a solution. Hence the zigzag. You try this, you fail, you google why you failed, you learn something new and you try again. This kind of efficient feedback loop helps you learn. The problem is that without google you have to waste trying to find a solution. The impact is not immediate. There are no progressive bumps of learning. Moreover, without googling you end up doing very hacky programming. Because you only have access to what you know. You can't explore things readily because there is a friction. For a mature programmer, you can make that suggestion, because they are confident about their knowledge and way around documentation. But for new learners I don't recommend this at all. I have tried this, and this creates a very fatiguing experience.
- soperj 3y ago
  > This kind of efficient feedback loop helps you learn I feel like this helps you solve the problem, but doesn't actually help you learn. The time you're "wasting" trying to find a solution is time you're actually spending learning, not just learning how to code, but learning how to actually formulate a solution. Failure is also one of the biggest parts of learning. "Very hacky programming" is just a start, it's like a vomit draft of anything you're writing. Revisiting your code and figuring out what you can do better is how you end up with more eloquent code. In my experience, no one really explores when googling for answers, they are just searching for an answer.
- vimy 3y ago
  Local large language models can give feedback and be a private tutor. https://gpt4all.io/index.html https://gpt4all.io/index.html