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Lots of stuff from MasterClass. It's difficult to explain it to the HN crowd, but if something interests you, it's probably worth it. Most of it goes really dee

by muzani 2y ago

Lots of stuff from MasterClass. It's difficult to explain it to the HN crowd, but if something interests you, it's probably worth it. Most of it goes really deep and into other parts of life as well.

mznmel 2y ago
I've watched multiple series on MasterClass, and the quality of both content and production is outstanding. The courses go deep into various subjects and often extend into other aspects of life as well.
- solardev 2y ago
  What makes them so good? Better than, say, a typical good or excellent YouTube documentary?
  - mznmel 2y ago
    for me it was the unique combination of interesting topics and instructors. Malcolm Gladwell teaches writing, Bill Clinton talks about leadership, Neil deGrasse Tyson teaches scientific communications, among many others ..
  - muzani 2y ago
    First, I think it's been polished up a lot more. Youtubers seem to bias towards quantity because the discovery process is someone searching for a particular topic. Whereas most paid classes will go straight into the most important point. It was a bit of an insight that Kasparov didn't go into opening moves in the opening like other chess tutorials. He goes straight into the most important principles, which is attacking two pieces at once. Also like any good course, it comes to terms. It assumes that you're experienced. No explanation on economic formulas, but a reminder that economics is about human behaviour, which many master economists can forget. It then reviews why this human behaviour can be reliably modeled, some key things that the rest of the course is built upon. Like in Philosophy, it's reviewed why Socrates is awesome but the one big flaw in Socratic thinking is that it's emotionless. And then goes into Cornel West's principles relating it to humanity and love. YouTube videos tend to either review these basics too often or assume the viewer knows. The other thing is it cuts deep, really deep. There's a saying that books are the best investment because for $50, you get a lifespan of experience. It's the people who have seen all of it. Some are quite old. They cut through all the hype. They've built lots of things and know what works, what doesn't. Sometimes it's a basic principle early on reapplied. Sometimes it's something more complex, but this is broken down into something simpler. Like cellular automata is just calculating the next tile, which can be used to calculate traffic and then a whole city. Or Monte Carlo is just throwing darts and getting a sample and building from there.
    - solardev 2y ago
      This is a terrific and very convincing explanation. Thank you! I think I'll give it a try.

by muzani 2y ago

Lots of stuff from MasterClass. It's difficult to explain it to the HN crowd, but if something interests you, it's probably worth it. Most of it goes really deep and into other parts of life as well.

mznmel 2y ago

I've watched multiple series on MasterClass, and the quality of both content and production is outstanding. The courses go deep into various subjects and often extend into other aspects of life as well.

solardev 2y ago
What makes them so good? Better than, say, a typical good or excellent YouTube documentary?
- mznmel 2y ago
  for me it was the unique combination of interesting topics and instructors. Malcolm Gladwell teaches writing, Bill Clinton talks about leadership, Neil deGrasse Tyson teaches scientific communications, among many others ..
- muzani 2y ago
  First, I think it's been polished up a lot more. Youtubers seem to bias towards quantity because the discovery process is someone searching for a particular topic. Whereas most paid classes will go straight into the most important point. It was a bit of an insight that Kasparov didn't go into opening moves in the opening like other chess tutorials. He goes straight into the most important principles, which is attacking two pieces at once. Also like any good course, it comes to terms. It assumes that you're experienced. No explanation on economic formulas, but a reminder that economics is about human behaviour, which many master economists can forget. It then reviews why this human behaviour can be reliably modeled, some key things that the rest of the course is built upon. Like in Philosophy, it's reviewed why Socrates is awesome but the one big flaw in Socratic thinking is that it's emotionless. And then goes into Cornel West's principles relating it to humanity and love. YouTube videos tend to either review these basics too often or assume the viewer knows. The other thing is it cuts deep, really deep. There's a saying that books are the best investment because for $50, you get a lifespan of experience. It's the people who have seen all of it. Some are quite old. They cut through all the hype. They've built lots of things and know what works, what doesn't. Sometimes it's a basic principle early on reapplied. Sometimes it's something more complex, but this is broken down into something simpler. Like cellular automata is just calculating the next tile, which can be used to calculate traffic and then a whole city. Or Monte Carlo is just throwing darts and getting a sample and building from there.
  - solardev 2y ago
    This is a terrific and very convincing explanation. Thank you! I think I'll give it a try.