Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

laurentiugabriel.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 567 posts

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#471

Post by tcp_handshaker »

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

To learn from an LLM with all the hallucinations they have...it requires courage.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#472

Post by tcp_handshaker »

TaupeRanger wrote: post #461
matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

It's like YouTube "Explainer" personalities, like Hank Green and Adam Neely. They do the kind of "learning theater" that makes you feel like you're learning something when you're actually just providing views and ad revenue. You'll come away from a video feeling like you gained knowledge, but: 1) there's a good chance it was subtly misleading (or just wrong) 2) you probably won't ever use the information in any meani…

Plus they will take one hour to explain what could take 2 min, just to keep you on the platform....

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#473

Post by tcp_handshaker »

Jtarii wrote: post #430
sublinear wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that meaningfully different from the study methods of the past? That doesn't require an LLM, and using one risks correctness in exchange for speed. You might not even get that speed if you're stuck in the weeds often enough. A decade ago, a google search for study guides written by another professor would have been slightly slower. A decade before that, you'd be even slower fumbling through several books. Every si…

If you have an actual mathematics professor to ask questions to then sure do that, but most people don't have that luxury. Also the error rate of frontier LLMs on textbook highschool/college level mathematics is going to be extremely low. It is also significantly more engaging and fun.

>> the error rate of frontier LLMs on textbook highschool/college level mathematics is going to be extremely low.

The scientific basis for this statement is unclear.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#474

Post by bonoboTP »

ethin wrote: post #137
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…

This is (exactly) why I very strongly tell people not to teach themselves with an LLM. Particularly from the ground up. If you do not understand the domain, you cannot learn from the model because you won't know what questions to ask and it certainly isn't going to answer all of them for you.

The LLM doesn't have to be the sole single only exclusive source you learn from. It's an addition to a mix. Nothing is a single definitive answer. Same way as many other things, like Anki flashcards or Duolingo or some YouTube channel, or some tutorial website or indeed a coursebook or an audio course or whatnot. Use multiple sources and use the strengths of each.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#475

Post by mfalcon »

anon-3988 wrote: post #264

I am very interested in figuring out how people use LLMs for learning. I definitely have the knowledge, but it is severely autistic in a way. OTOH, I am curious if there's a "practical value" to this exercise? If the LLM already contains the information and implementation knowledge to implement the networking stack inside an FPGA by itself, what value do I gain by learning about HDL, TCP, the bespoke Xillinx tooling,…

You can't simplify learning that way, learning is expanding your mental horizon, by learning something you grow and can take bigger things.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#476

Post by onion2k »

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

If you ask an LLM to give you a 500-word summary of quantum physics, it'll give you an oversimplification that probably leans on a hodgepodge of pop-sci metaphors.

That's what you'd get if you asked a leading physicist too, so are you saying LLMs have achieved human-level intelligence?

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#477

Post by ethbr1 »

engineer_22 wrote: post #467
turzmo wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baby Rudin is a special textbook: it comes from a time when mathematics textbooks were not at all judged by their pedagogical value, but instead by their aesthetic appeal to mathematicians (a la Bourbaki). If you actually want to learn analysis, there are a nearly infinite number of friendlier resources (e.g., Understanding Analysis by Abbott). Learning to unpack difficult text on one’s own is a valuable skill. Resea…

Your argument sound remarkably familiar. Humor me: "For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory.“ -Socrates, on writing. From Phaedrus Secondary source: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3439

ChatGPT also offered this:

"For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting - no more - and then it motivates one towards originality and instils the desire for truth. Suppose someone were to go and ask his neighbours for fire and find a substantial blaze there, and just stay there continually warming himself: that is no different from someone who goes to someone else to get some of his rationality, and fails to realize that he ought to ignite his innate flame, his own intellect, but is happy to sit entranced by the lecture, and the words trigger only associative thinking and bring, as it were, only a flush to his cheeks and a glow to his limbs; but he has not dispelled or dispersed, in the warm light of philosophy, the internal dank gloom of his mind."

-Plutarch, on listening https://books.google.com/books?id=0U-hsAonP1AC&lpg=PA50&dq=p...

I didn't read the whole passage, but it seems to be talking about the same thing.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#478

Post by jack_pp »

9dev wrote: post #373
jack_pp wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trust me when I say that in the hands of someone who doesn't have your experience, the LLMs would not be getting the results you get. https://code.ffmpeg.org/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/issues/23049 So there's this 11 year old issue in a forgotten ffmpeg plugin and I fixed it with deepseek by putting it into a self-testing loop. Probably would have taken me a few weeks to even understand the initial code to begin with. I haven't…

So while I do agree that it is cool you were able to do this, I‘ll say: Sending in the patches but refusing to take responsibility for them is a surefire way to contribute to maintainer burnout. Please don’t do this. Either commit to fixing something and driving the PR to merge, or abstain from it entirely. The bottleneck isn’t the speed of coding, and what you’re doing here is actively worsening the situation.

idk if it's really worsening, someone who has the same issue can apply the patch. I understand why they rejected it but also I'm not willing to learn everything that DS4 did there since I don't plan on working on ffmpeg filters and the knowledge is pretty much useless to me outside this patch. Too much time commitment for.. fixing a filter no one really cared about for 11 years.

But you can see how the parent's comment doesn't really hold, I was able to achieve this while not knowing anything other than what I need fixed and making the LLM test itself towards that goal.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#479

Post by cube00 »

tcp_handshaker wrote: post #472
TaupeRanger wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like YouTube "Explainer" personalities, like Hank Green and Adam Neely. They do the kind of "learning theater" that makes you feel like you're learning something when you're actually just providing views and ad revenue. You'll come away from a video feeling like you gained knowledge, but: 1) there's a good chance it was subtly misleading (or just wrong) 2) you probably won't ever use the information in any meani…

Plus they will take one hour to explain what could take 2 min, just to keep you on the platform....

The algorithm wanted these "educational" videos to be 10 minutes at first and now it seems to want them to be 20 minutes.

Once I saw that I realised just how padded the content really was and started looking elsewhere.

Other good tells the content is low quality or a bad fit for video are excessive amounts of talking head (should have been a podcast) or stock video clips (it's video, show me something).

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#480

Post by alper »

cornholio wrote: post #437
sublinear wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that meaningfully different from the study methods of the past? That doesn't require an LLM, and using one risks correctness in exchange for speed. You might not even get that speed if you're stuck in the weeds often enough. A decade ago, a google search for study guides written by another professor would have been slightly slower. A decade before that, you'd be even slower fumbling through several books. Every si…

> Is that meaningfully different from the study methods of the past? The fundamental service a teacher provides is personalized feedback, quickly identifying where you are stuck and focusing the explanations and exercises on that area, drastically increasing the speed and quality of learning versus the self-supervised route. The lack of this closed loop effectively killed the high hopes that were placed in e-learning…

> personalized feedback, quickly identifying where you are stuck and focusing the explanations and exercises on that area,

This has been a huge blocker when I tried to study advanced math myself. Many of the exercise books don't have worked out answers, so often you're either stuck or you have to hunt a variety of sources online for solutions and advice. It kills flow.

Post reply on HN