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Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

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Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#41

Post by sn9 »

dyukqu wrote: post #20
Asdfbla wrote: post #14

Maybe just throwing it out there as an additional resource: Coursera has a "learning how to learn" course, which includes lots of references about the theory of learning but many hands-on tips too. It's not too time consuming and doesn't cost anything, so probably can't hurt to look at it. I liked it and try to apply some of the ideas when learning. https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/

I too was going to mention this course. It is absolutely fantastic, IMO. Going through every week/lecture of it, I keep saying myself it must be an obligatory course for every freshman . We are surrounded with so many distractions in our ordinary daily life and most of us are terrible at habit formation. Procrastination and irregular sleep pattern are our most-common "habit". Long story short, IMHO, this course is a…

I believe you meant it should be required for every freshman in college (to which I would agree), but I'd go farther and suggest that it should be required for high school freshman as well, and probably even students starting middle school (I found that the transition from one school level to the next was more abrupt than the transition from one year to the next).

We'd drastically raise the level of numeracy and critical thinking and even graduation rates for various types of students.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#42

Post by nothrabannosir »

gargarplex wrote: post #40

I enjoyed duolingo ( https://www.duolingo.com ) for learning Swedish. I liked the game mechanics, honestly. Here's why: * Positive reinforcement: cheerful noises and visual progress once I completed a section. * Negative reinforcement: if I didn't practice at all that day, I would get a notification at 11pm. If I ignored for a while, they were super passive aggressive, saying things like "These don't seem to be worki…

It's personal, but Duolingo has gone a bit south for me. They are (understandably) focusing on getting users to pay. It just hit me in an unfortunate way: Duolingo is all about "streaks". After a fifteen day streak, I was greeted with "You broke your streak! Buy it back for $3.50." I hadn't broken it, I remembered the exact lesson I did, 100%. Sent them an e-mail; no reply. A week later, I'm talking to my sister, exact same thing happened to her 180 day streak... Another e-mail, again no reply.

All in all, a petty detail, of course. It was the lack of response to support e-mail that got me, not so much the situation itself.

Used to be a fan, but that wasn't a great moment. :(

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#43

Post by [deleted] »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #42
gargarplex wrote: post #40

I enjoyed duolingo ( https://www.duolingo.com ) for learning Swedish. I liked the game mechanics, honestly. Here's why: * Positive reinforcement: cheerful noises and visual progress once I completed a section. * Negative reinforcement: if I didn't practice at all that day, I would get a notification at 11pm. If I ignored for a while, they were super passive aggressive, saying things like "These don't seem to be worki…

It's personal, but Duolingo has gone a bit south for me. They are (understandably) focusing on getting users to pay. It just hit me in an unfortunate way: Duolingo is all about "streaks". After a fifteen day streak, I was greeted with "You broke your streak! Buy it back for $3.50." I hadn't broken it, I remembered the exact lesson I did, 100%. Sent them an e-mail; no reply. A week later, I'm talking to my sister, exa…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#44

Post by lacampbell »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #42
gargarplex wrote: post #40

I enjoyed duolingo ( https://www.duolingo.com ) for learning Swedish. I liked the game mechanics, honestly. Here's why: * Positive reinforcement: cheerful noises and visual progress once I completed a section. * Negative reinforcement: if I didn't practice at all that day, I would get a notification at 11pm. If I ignored for a while, they were super passive aggressive, saying things like "These don't seem to be worki…

It's personal, but Duolingo has gone a bit south for me. They are (understandably) focusing on getting users to pay. It just hit me in an unfortunate way: Duolingo is all about "streaks". After a fifteen day streak, I was greeted with "You broke your streak! Buy it back for $3.50." I hadn't broken it, I remembered the exact lesson I did, 100%. Sent them an e-mail; no reply. A week later, I'm talking to my sister, exa…

Weird how they went down the path of charging money for the 'game' parts, as opposed to the actual materials parts. I'd gladly fork over $50-100 for a mandarin duolingo course with an option for traditional characters. I wonder if these volunteers making courses realise that they can make actual money off of high quality recordings of HSK vocab.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#45

Post by rcdexta »

xiaoma wrote: post #8

Wow! I feel like we're kindred spirits! Drawing on the left side of the brain is an incredible book that did it for me. I've been writing about language learning all over for years, but this interview with Gabriel Wyner is a great spot to start: http://lingsprout.com/en/experts/gabriel-wyner-making-your-o... He was in the process of studying Japanese at the time of the interview and had some specific comments about i…

You mean Drawing on the right side of the brain? http://drawright.com/

I was wondering if there was another school of thought that I missed out completely till now! :)

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#46

Post by kahrkunne »

welanes wrote: post #21

So, I've spent the last 7 days working on a new feature to help people set and work towards goals. The concept goal: Learning Japanese! (I've been 'learning' for 3 years now). Here's a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/afAW49V.png . Basically it's a moodboard that combines a timer, todos, insights, notes, images and links. 'How does that help me learn new things better' you ask? The challenge with goals - as I see it -…

I'll be sure to lurk HN tomorrow for it!

Also pleasantly surprised to see Kashiwa Daisuke mentioned in that screenshot

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#47

Post by kahrkunne »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #7

Check out Dr. Robert Bjork's page on desirable difficulties ( https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/research/ ). Additionally, you need to write about whatever you're learning. Essays, reviews, whatever strikes your fancy. Learning really happens when you try to use the information.

I'll try writing about what I'm learning, I really like the sound of that! Another one of my new year's resolutions was to start writing things anyways - I feel like I frequently write entire essays in my head, but I never put them to paper.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#48

Post by aaron987 »

gargarplex wrote: post #40

I enjoyed duolingo ( https://www.duolingo.com ) for learning Swedish. I liked the game mechanics, honestly. Here's why: * Positive reinforcement: cheerful noises and visual progress once I completed a section. * Negative reinforcement: if I didn't practice at all that day, I would get a notification at 11pm. If I ignored for a while, they were super passive aggressive, saying things like "These don't seem to be worki…

I've been using Duolingo to learn Italian. It was awesome up until about 40% fluency, then it lost its effectiveness. It was a great way to learn basic vocabulary and sentence structure, but after that I learned more by just reading my news in Italian.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#49

Post by whenwillitstop »

aaron987 wrote: post #48
gargarplex wrote: post #40

I enjoyed duolingo ( https://www.duolingo.com ) for learning Swedish. I liked the game mechanics, honestly. Here's why: * Positive reinforcement: cheerful noises and visual progress once I completed a section. * Negative reinforcement: if I didn't practice at all that day, I would get a notification at 11pm. If I ignored for a while, they were super passive aggressive, saying things like "These don't seem to be worki…

I've been using Duolingo to learn Italian. It was awesome up until about 40% fluency, then it lost its effectiveness. It was a great way to learn basic vocabulary and sentence structure, but after that I learned more by just reading my news in Italian.

Yeah I had the same problem. I actually found this online course at ylanguage.com it was really effective.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn new things better?

#50

Post by buzzybee »

Find a cyclical, ritualized behavior that you can engage in as a way to ramp up towards your main task of the day. For example, first you clean your tools, then you do a warmup, and then you are prepared for something high intensity. You can learn a lot of things by engaging persistently in the warmup activity, and as you feel able, you can "break through" to deeper levels. Don't jump around to different intensity levels or try to force calendar time on them; smoothly build up and then break.

This is how I'm trying to make it work, at least.

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