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Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#61

Post by chadbuckmeister »

nickjj wrote: post #29

I create the shortest possible time loop between consuming something (text, video, etc.) and applying it to a real project or problem. Then shortly after applying it, perhaps at the end of the day I'll write about the process as if I were explaining it to someone who doesn't know about the topic beforehand. If I can't write about it while clearly explaining it while having a complete and total understanding of every…

Having tried and failed repeatedly to learn some new things over the last 8 months mainly due to getting busy and having to divert my attention away for too long too many times your approach is gold. That is the way I intend to learn when I next sit down with ample time.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#62

Post by peakaboo »

mikewarot wrote: post #52
daenz wrote: post #36

This might sound kind of bizarre, but I don't really try to learn. I think I have a minor learning disability where I have a very hard time remembering things that I deem (consciously or not) as unimportant in the long term. Instead, I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details. An example might be: learning the purpose of a wristwatch and its power source, ve…

>I try to focus on extracting the nature and patterns of relationships, instead of the specific details. You're a mapper , like me. The only reason I ever want to learn details is if they are important corner cases. >In tech this can be an obstacle when communicating because many engineers have an extremely fine-grained memory, seemingly all the time. Those folks are packers , they know all the corner cases, and worr…

Interesting but there are never just two kinds of thinking. I bet many people fall into other categories that may not even have a name or a description at this point.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#63

Post by lolive »

BonsaiAU wrote: post #32
lolive wrote: post #7

Obsidian. I copy/paste what I think are the "atoms" of the thing to learn. And i build a small graph of interconnected .md files in Obsidian. To me, it is very important to break the medium that brings the information into a graph that suits you the most. (call that process my knowledge ETL, and the result .md files my personal knowledge graph :) PS: the funny thing is that you indeed refactor your graph when you com…

Thank you for this - I'm really like the way you've described your process and am going to steal your method for myself :). Obsidian looks really cool - I'm doing a lot of projects in a very chaotic manner and have been wanting something for personal knowledge management, that graph / links thing is really cool. I chuckled when you mentioned refactoring your graph being an interesting process - because I've done simi…

Be sure to know how to put iframe in Obsidian pages. And make them folded by default. Oh, And you should be amazed at the capability of the tool to keep HTML format when copy/pasting a part of a web page.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#64

Post by throwawaynay »

I think the only way to really learn is to do. So I'll skim through the content first without trying to retain knowledge

then I ask myself, is there anything interesting I can build involving this concept? or any useful activity I can do?

and I try to build it or do it, while using multiple sources of knowledge, but I never try to just remember stuff, the brain naturally remember the pieces of the knowledge that were actually needed the most while practicing. you don't know what's important to remember until you practiced, so in the end if you try to just retain knowledge you remember very badly a lot of things, but if you practice really early you remember very well what was actually important

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#65

Post by nefitty »

1. I make mind maps and do inline annotation a la marginalia.

2. I haven't figured out a process for compilation but my plan is to condense big concepts into readable texts with the intent of sharing them with others.

3. Spaced repetition works, but it is labor-intensive. I use a combination of spaced repetition, mnemonic images (like Sketchy.com), memory palaces and reflective journaling to process my hands-on experiments.

4. I can combine my mind maps to see connections between texts. For example, maybe one book talks about scalability in passing, and another goes in-depth. If I compare those two maps I can see the gaps between each and it helps me see how the two texts are related.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#66

Post by ThalesX »

1, 2) I always take notes, but then I discard them. It's just for mental correlation;

3) Never tried it, curious but not that curious;

4) Take long walks and think about nothing.

I don't really fell that I have the space to incorporate notes in my type of learning as I love reading about all sort of random stuff and getting to the peak of Mt. Stupid [0] and kinda leaving it there unless it's of real interest to me.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#67

Post by klyrs »

I do math, and most of what I know about learning is derived from my experience with math. YMMV.

Homework. So much homework. Do all the exercises in the book. Taking notes helps me focus on a lecture, but I might as well use a brush with water on slate -- I rarely ever actually look at them a second time. I do not learn by watching. I recall a few nuggets that my brain can reach for when doing the work. I learn through application. It's common in math that students do not understand the contents of a class until they're halfway through the next class that depends on it. That's where the integration (unavoidable pun acknowledged) happens.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#68

Post by thenerdhead »

I follow a very simple formula nowadays.

1. Always be reading.

2. Teach everything you know.

3. If you don't know, learn enough to start teaching.

4. Take notes when you feel compelled to.

5. Use sleep as a memory tool. One nap during the day, and before going to bed each night think about what you're learning or want to learn more about. You'll wake up with more clarity every time.

The best book on this topic is probably "Learn Like a Pro" which came out last year.

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#69

Post by teleforce »

thenerdhead wrote: post #68

I follow a very simple formula nowadays. 1. Always be reading. 2. Teach everything you know. 3. If you don't know, learn enough to start teaching. 4. Take notes when you feel compelled to. 5. Use sleep as a memory tool. One nap during the day, and before going to bed each night think about what you're learning or want to learn more about. You'll wake up with more clarity every time. The best book on this topic is pro…

Thanks for the book recommendation.

It seems that teaching is the most underrated crucial elements to understand a new and/or difficult subjects. The FAST method proposed by Jim Kwik also includes teaching as one of proven elements to quickly learn and understand [1].

[1]Jim Kwik’s FAST Method Will Help You Learn Faster

Re: Ask HN: What's your learning strategy?

#70

Post by KolenCh »

Just my 2 cents, this is what I find working for me:

- I found that I can retain much better if the course has readings. It can be lecture notes in textbook form (not presentation), or just a textbook. I found that without this, if all they provide are presentations, or blackboard work, then it is very hard to retain what I learnt long after the semester ended. (You could say I should create my own notes, but paying to learn is essentially to be more time efficient. I really don’t have time to create my own “textbook” from their blackboard work. I envy those that can transcribe in LaTeX in real time.) - creating cheat sheet (even if the exam don’t allow them and just for personal reference) is useful to keep the big picture, make you be successful in the semester, and can be useful in the long run. But especially if you are page limited due to exam requirement, the cheat sheet can becomes cryptic for your future self. I think this is a must for any course. - I lately also creates personal wikis to hold my knowledge. Basically Wikipedia is a very successful medium even for stuffs you know, you can look it up there to retain your old stuffs. Personal wiki is basically try to recreate the Wikipedia experience tailored for personal use, meaning only for relevant stuffs (say san history), or even links to various useful sections and other site such as math world. One tip is that in Chrome there’s an extension to force MathJax on Wikipedia, and with that you can click on a Math equation and copy and paste LaTeX in your personal wiki. (As it is personal, there’s no copyright issue, but if you share make sure the license is compatible and cite.) - 2nd brain: the last point about personal wiki may be similar to what some might call a 2nd brain. I still didn’t attain it (my “database” is fragmented in various places.) But I should learn more about that and may be one day I can build one.

What I said is more about being able to retain knowledge in the long run. Eg the real world doesn’t care if you make a search to find stuffs. So what I said is more about how not to let what you learnt be wasted because you can’t retrieve them.

Lastly, I find teaching very useful too. Being about to teach makes sure you truly understand a subject, and even reorganize it in a manner that’s easier to understand. But often you can’t control what you teach. You can’t say today I want to master Stochastic Differential Equation and let’s teach a course about that. But on the other hand, try to spend some time teaching some concept you find hard to grasp can be useful (audience and feedback like questions can provoke your mind to finally click.)

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