Ask HN: How do you manage self-study? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#151

Post by helsinkiandrew » Mon, May 04, 2020, 6:38 AM UTC

Some things I find useful:

Don't be scared that your skimming over topics - general knowledge is good - just make sure that occasionally you do a deep dive into something - spend some time looking in detail at a ML topic or language feature etc.

A deep dive doesn't need to be long - committing to 15 minutes learning about python lambda functions is time well spent. Those 15 minutes will add up and if you enjoy the topic will inspire you to do more.

Create structured notes on topics, if you read an ML book chapter make a note of the important bits, watch a youtube video write down any things that stuck out with a link, write some code fragments that demonstrate an API.

No one book can teach you a subject (I found this particularly true with ML), If you find yourself loosing interest reading a book/chapter, don't carry on - your probably not learning anything. Find some other resources on the topic and come back to it later (or not)

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#152

Post by redfern314 » Mon, May 04, 2020, 6:44 AM UTC

anon9001 wrote: post #58

cyberprunes wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to agree with this because teaching IS a great learning tool but one needs to have some idea of what they are doing. Teaching helps to identify the problem areas we fool ourselves into believing we understand well. Youtube is an amazing resource but it's also an ocean of incompetence and phony expertise by people doing exactly what you prescribe. Just be careful not to contribute to the ever expanding circle j…

Others will make content whether you do or not. Chances are that if you're sensitive to the ocean of incompetence, you would be a positive contributor. I don't know if there's a name for this phenomenon, but lots of qualified and talented will refrain from showing off their less-than-perfect work, because they know it's not perfect. I understand the impulse, and it's why I haven't published over the years. Only recen…

Sounds like a corollary to the Dunning-Kruger Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#153

Post by codeknight11 » Mon, May 04, 2020, 6:48 AM UTC

IggleSniggle wrote: post #119

adamcharnock wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the other comments here this seems like a common sentiment. I do indeed do things which are not enjoyable in the strictest sense, as you phrase it. However I do still think my original comment is true, so perhaps there is some finessing to be done here. I'm not sure I have the answer though. Perhaps there are different kinds of 'enjoyment'. And perhaps I'm personally willing to accept some immediate suffering be…

I'm in the same boat as you, except that I classify most games that I enjoy as type 1 fun. Mentally taxing, frustrating, making the victory so much sweeter. This, learning "hard things" is type 1 fun. Until it isn't. And then I do something else. I'm also "ADHD." Quotes because after 30 some years living with the diagnosis (and reconfirmed, both by others and myself), I still don't really know what it means. Somethin…

This is my biggest struggle right now. I am very similar in "nature" to you and the OP you replied to. I just cannot get myself to do hard things ONLY because they are hard. I am young and struggling to find my way. Thanks for sharing your perspective. I have always thought something is wrong with me. But maybe I am just wired that way. I can still immerse myself in really hard things but only if I enjoy it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#154

Post by kharak » Mon, May 04, 2020, 7:01 AM UTC

rmtech wrote: post #97

adamcharnock wrote: post #26

I'm hoping my reply is more helpful than it sounds at first glance... This is one of those questions where I read and then exclaim (rhetorically), "what's wrong with people?!" Don't take this the wrong way, I often exclaim this. You are quite possibly in the majority and I'm the odd one. To me it has always seemed inherently clear that the way to approach life is to do something if you enjoy it. If you stop enjoying…

on the other hand, if you enjoy goofing off playing video games more than you enjoy doing math courses & you act on that, then reality will find you a job at McDonald's instead of a coding job. So choose what you enjoy wisely.

You can do what you want, but not will what you want. Same with enjoyment. There is no choice here, only discovery.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#155

Post by xzel » Mon, May 04, 2020, 7:19 AM UTC

hnick wrote: post #129

adamcharnock wrote: post #26

I'm hoping my reply is more helpful than it sounds at first glance... This is one of those questions where I read and then exclaim (rhetorically), "what's wrong with people?!" Don't take this the wrong way, I often exclaim this. You are quite possibly in the majority and I'm the odd one. To me it has always seemed inherently clear that the way to approach life is to do something if you enjoy it. If you stop enjoying…

Some people enjoy doing useful things (my wife is one), others enjoy useless things (me - mostly video games, reading random trivia online, or trying new recipes which is nice but doesn't pay the bills). So if I were to take your advice (and honestly, I mostly do run like that) it means a lot of time spent doing something ephemeral with no real lasting benefit. I think your last point applies to me. I wish I could su…

This is a bit of an adage but can you make your hobbies your projects for some amount of time? For example, I spent a while at a start up recently and I really started to find programming boring for the first time in my life. I started setting a side more time to work on it as a hobby and my own projects instead of watching twitch or TV. I eventually started feeling more enthusiasm for work programming projects. I feel like you get bored of everything eventually, and in some cases just temporarily. And that makes you fine for your hobbies which you don’t spend more time on bc of your main focus. It’s bit of a tug of war. So you can either search and try to get it back or get rid of the boring projects forever. It can be very difficult and daunting, especially professionally, but there is always more and different work to be done somewhere.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#156

Post by neilsharma » Mon, May 04, 2020, 7:21 AM UTC

I have a long (years worth) list of things I want to learn, and prioritized list (a months worth) for things that can indirectly help me at work. I have to further prioritize down to the 1-2hr level to have something to act on for a given day. As the list keeps growing and my time availability ebbs and flows, I never get to 90% of the things on my list. Such is life.

I specifically hunt for project-based udemy classes so I'm not just passively watching videos or reading blogs. The lectures are short, and I can make measurable progress even with 15-20min of attention/day. Usually 1-3 classes on a topic gives me the confidence to say to myself "I have enough introductory knowledge that I can now figure this out if I have to do this for work." This still takes 1-3 months of time per topic.

However, most of the items in my list don't have a curriculum or syllabus. I end up having to settle on just googling for blogs or playing with a few APIs to feel confident. I no longer prioritize mastery (except if I need the skill for my immediate work). I find taking a breadth-first approach to learning helps me connect the dots in my understanding of technology as a whole, and invest in depth only if I need it for my immediate job/projects.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#157

Post by kontxt » Mon, May 04, 2020, 7:38 AM UTC

I felt this way, too, especially right after college. I always had a 2-3 hour commute, but luckily via public transit so I could make use of my time. At first, I saw my commute as a waste of time, but then I began reading avidly every day on my commute, and quickly what was once the worst part of my day became the best part. I'm an effective skimmer, but realized I was still wasting a fair amount of time trying to find quality articles. I thought it'd be cool if articles had highlights that could be quickly reviewed to determine if an article was worth my time, and even cooler if I could see the articles my friends were reading with their highlights, all with the ability to comment and interact with other readers. After that, I used my commute to research topics to bring it to fruition, and then built it: https://www.kontxt.io. It's a little light on content right now, since I just released the beta, but check it out. Maybe we can learn together.

Focus on what you're interested in, which will change overtime, and just keep learning.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#158

Post by Scarblac » Mon, May 04, 2020, 7:49 AM UTC

adamcharnock wrote: post #26

I'm hoping my reply is more helpful than it sounds at first glance... This is one of those questions where I read and then exclaim (rhetorically), "what's wrong with people?!" Don't take this the wrong way, I often exclaim this. You are quite possibly in the majority and I'm the odd one. To me it has always seemed inherently clear that the way to approach life is to do something if you enjoy it. If you stop enjoying…

I have this as well. I worry about the system I'll use for doing things all the time. E.g. I now have a system for storing things I learn and getting back to them, and I've decided that the learning I do during work time should be some sort of project whereas during my own time I want to go wide and read on lots of random topics, from my Goodreads list. But the findings go into the same system. There is lots more to it.

I can understand "do something if you enjoy it, if you stop enjoying it then do something else." And my first reaction is to modify my system so that there are checks for enjoyment in there...

(In fact, I do. E.g. when working on to-do lists I don't prioritize them anymore unless necessary, I just try to think what I feel like doing the most. But I had to decide that).

It's like analysis paralysis but in many parts of life. There are things I'm very bad at because I never stop the analysis, like housekeeping.

I'm currently trying to find out if I'm on the autism spectrum, so maybe that is what is different about some people.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#159

Post by hnick » Mon, May 04, 2020, 7:53 AM UTC

xzel wrote: post #155

hnick wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people enjoy doing useful things (my wife is one), others enjoy useless things (me - mostly video games, reading random trivia online, or trying new recipes which is nice but doesn't pay the bills). So if I were to take your advice (and honestly, I mostly do run like that) it means a lot of time spent doing something ephemeral with no real lasting benefit. I think your last point applies to me. I wish I could su…

This is a bit of an adage but can you make your hobbies your projects for some amount of time? For example, I spent a while at a start up recently and I really started to find programming boring for the first time in my life. I started setting a side more time to work on it as a hobby and my own projects instead of watching twitch or TV. I eventually started feeling more enthusiasm for work programming projects. I fe…

My abandoned projects graveyard would be bigger than google's if I weren't just one guy.

I like games so started doing a Unity course, it was fun, but then I got bored and stopped. No real reason, I think something else just caught my eye and it's hard to go back.

I want to learn marketing automation so I installed Mautic but haven't gone much past that. The plethora of options (what feature to try first?) is paralysing.

I help out with a Wordpress site and think making plugins would be neat, so I made one to help test some stuff, and that scratched the itch and now I don't really feel like doing it anymore even though it would be useful (and maybe profitable?) to learn.

These were all fun and interesting I just seem to lose interest very quickly (a few days) and want to do something with more novelty. Probably the most productive way this manifests is cooking, at least we get to eat a bunch of new recipes. Today I'm making bread but hopefully I can also finish setting up this email series :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage self-study?

#160

Post by andai » Mon, May 04, 2020, 8:00 AM UTC

connectsnk wrote: post #148

tomxor wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to add some clarification for everyone in the "normal" boat, because I think I learn in the same way as parent: Specifically what "enjoy" is being attributed to... which is _not_ the end result, but the _process_. You can't pick this up front, you have to just play and throw things away like you don't care (and you really don't care), just keep trying things until it feels enjoyable. I suspect people get stuck…

This needs a bot more clarification please. What are your thoughts about the process of browsing social media which is interesting and enjoyable

I've wondered recently whether I want things that are bad for me, and how to tell the difference.

What I noticed was that cravings for harmful substances or behaviors were (the craving itself) a form of suffering, a feeling of lack, while desires for healthy things were a form of positive emotion / eagerness.