How I use LLMs to learn complex topics • Hacker News Board

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#121

Post by ofjcihen » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

f311a wrote: post #21

What’s everyone’s opinion on learning new tech things in this day and age? My opinion swings between positive and depressing vision of the future. I still learn new stuff, but I’m afraid it won’t have any value in a year or so. For example, I’m pretty good at optimizing low level stuff, but right now you can just ask LLMs to do so and they are pretty good at it. They will profile the code and suggest reasonable optio…

I have staff ranging from 10 years of IR experience to right out of college.

I can tell you that there is an enormous gap in ability between them despite them both using LLMs for daily IR work.

The reasons aren’t complicated. The senior responders have tacit knowledge of how breaches evolve and what to look for which gives them a much better framework for where to employ the LLM.

The juniors will normally start from “here are some logs, look for weird” which is fine but leads to tunnel vision and a lack of confidence in their reporting.

I don’t mandate that anyone do work with or without an LLM. I hire seniors based on experience and juniors based on interest. But my experience has so far been that our best up and comers focusing more on learning the technologies instead of leaving those details to the LLM are developing their intuition and understanding faster and in a more robust manner.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#122

Post by sscaryterry » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

> want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point

I've stopped using CC because of it. I find it insufferable.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#123

Post by agumonkey » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:12 PM UTC

8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

anybody adds some prologue about what style of answers are prefered ? i know i often try to change the linguistic patterns because i too (unsurprisingly) am tired of llm prose.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#124

Post by etherlord » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:12 PM UTC

trueno wrote: post #103

copperx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much better to feed the book to the LLM and ask questions as you read along, instead of asking the LLM to basically write a custom book for you from scratch.

i threw the entire sanderson cosmere into a RAG graph sorta deal just to see how it would do if i questioned an mcp server for it about a universe i know decently well. it was actually astoundingly good. was able to find easter eggs acrossed different books and answer dumb questions like "why is kaladin emo"

Sanderson is 100% in the training data

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#125

Post by novren » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

Building learning artefacts is under appreciated.

Inthink this was always the best way to learn. But it used to require immense work for a teacher.

My compiler course is a great example - program in plug in a stage of a compiler.

These exercises can be made on demand and incredibly easy now.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#126

Post by abound » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

sunprema wrote: post #113

copperx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much better to feed the book to the LLM and ask questions as you read along, instead of asking the LLM to basically write a custom book for you from scratch.

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This is the exact opposite of what the parent comments are talking about.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#127

Post by ethin » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:15 PM UTC

8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

Even if you tell the LLM not to use LLM pros they (still) do it. If you feed the Wikipedia article on signs of AI writing and tell them to use none of those signs they will also (still) do it. I have tried (many times) to get an LLM to explain a concept to me, or a process, or an algorithm or what have you, and every time they cannot help themselves. Either they use LLM pros, or they get so verbose that it all just becomes noise and I spend more time filtering out unnecessary jargon than I do reading let alone learning anything.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#128

Post by j45 » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:15 PM UTC

8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

You can change the prose that it outputs to anything you like. ask the llm how.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#129

Post by j45 » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:15 PM UTC

nightwalkerkg wrote: post #118

My main issue with using AI as a learning platform is that unlike documentation, books, Youtube videos, there is not really a process of having someone "review the learning material". For example, I can always read the review of some book or ciriculum, the comments under a video, or if it's some for of open source documentation you can check the PRs and verify to some extent it's claim. With AI I can't really say wha…

You can ask the LLM to connect the dots to the sources before displaying it to you so you can see the proof in line.

You can ask the LLM how to do this. Start with a topic you know well to get the mechanism working and trust it well.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#130

Post by mancerayder » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 10:20 PM UTC

8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

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