Ask HN: What are you learning? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#621

Post by aashu_dwivedi » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

tomduncalf wrote: post #604

Started working through the Coursera Machine Learning course By Andrew Ng. I’ve always wanted to understand ML better, and this seemed like the ideal opportunity to actually do it, especially as I might have some work coming up using ML. So far, I’m very impressed, very clear presentation style and he does a good job of explaining the fundamentals and maths (which is good as I’m pretty rusty at maths!) while still ke…

The assignments in the old course are in matlab. There are also unofficial assignments available in python. They can also be submitted for grades in coursera. You might want to have a look at them.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#622

Post by shivekkhurana » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:26 AM UTC

MAMAMassakali wrote: post #617

shivekkhurana wrote: post #464

I have lost my contract as a developer and am helping a non-profit [1] streamline their operations. The organization aims to provide food and heath kits to the marginalized. We have already distributed over 600 kits and are on track to reach a 1000 in this week. Each kit is designed to support a family of 4 for 1 month. I was introduced to them by a friend who was helping them build an open platform [2], open in the…

How can I contribute on the software side?

The software has been built already. We might have minor updates.

There are other operations that you can help with, like blurring beneficiary faces using opencv before posting them on the internet. You can read more on the website.

Application and On-boarding Guide: https://karuna2020.org/guides/volunteer-application-and-onbo...

Volunteer Application: https://karuna2020.org/volunteers/

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#623

Post by Insanity » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:27 AM UTC

mikro wrote: post #175

I am learning game development in Godot, specifically with the intention of making an Oculus Quest VR game. I just finished the initial tutorial yesterday: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/3.2/getting_started/step_by_... Alongside that, I am also watching Disney's Imagineering-in-a-Box, which describes how they develop lands and rides for their theme parks: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/03/enjoy-a-one-o.…

I'm also learning Godot, it's great fun! Although I'm making something less ambitious than you, I just more or less finished a 'brickbreaker' type game. (more or less, all logic is in place but just 2 levels).

Also, no one asked, but I went with Godot instead of Unity because it was the only one I could get running without _any_ issue on Debian.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#624

Post by whatusername » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:28 AM UTC

CGamesPlay wrote: post #454

iratewizard wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would probably have fun building a hard magic system. Hard magic being a system that has strict rules for how things work. Soft magic being Gandalf style where how it works and how it's limited is unknown.

One thing I've been thinking about recently is conservation rules. are there any popular fiction worlds that explore conservation of e.g. magic? The only example I presently know about is https://www.hpmor.com/chapter/78 (search for "conservation").

Most authors will sacrifice some amount of "realism" in the interests of story-telling (compared to Yudkowsy with HPMOR at least). A couple of Magic examples come to mind: * Brandon Sanderson does a lot of Magic impacting Physics. The magic is often proper unexplained magic - but it's impact on Physics is pretty well modeled. In the most recent Mistborn book - there's a remark that explains that when the character magically reduces their weight while flying through the air - their velocity increases. I think Brandon points to that - but says that he loves the consequences at that level - getting to the point of red-shift/blue-shift for bubbles of fast/slow time is story breaking. See also his laws of magic: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/ * Pat Rothfuss in the Kingkiller chronicles has a magic called "Sympathy" where rule 3 is "The law of conservation".

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#625

Post by hkt » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:28 AM UTC

I'm deploying all my self hosted stuff to k8s and setting up with what I need to sell to other people. I think I've managed to pick a setup which is going to scale well horizontally which feels pretty good. It's going pretty well so far, will probably write it up and maybe even look at selling accounts after the fact. It has been a fun skills update.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#626

Post by Insanity » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:30 AM UTC

Since pluralsight is free this month (no affilition), I've decided to take up some machine learning courses on there.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#627

Post by Twisol » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:33 AM UTC

testerhn wrote: post #614

Twisol wrote: post #275

I'm working through Aluffi's Algebra: Chapter Zero , which covers abstract algebra (groups, fields, vector spaces, etc.) with category theoretic foundations. I took undergraduate algebra several years ago, and I'm really interested in category theory from a compositionality perspective, so this is a good opportunity to brush up on both topics. Aluffi is really well-written. It assumes some degree of mathematical matu…

If you don’t mind me asking, how long do you expect it will take you to go through that text?

I'm not sure! There's a good amount of material that I've never dealt with before, so I'm sure there will be parts where I go relatively slowly. I also have a day job, so I only spend time with the book when I feel up for it. It's kind of an open-ended thing for me right now.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#628

Post by liziwizi » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:35 AM UTC

w4tson wrote: post #548

nojvek wrote: post #540

How to raise a good human, be a good dad and husband. Relationships take a lot of commitment and effort. It took me a while to learn how to communicate effectively with my wife so we’re fighting problems and not each other. Babies really test your patience. They are hard to reason with so I have to keep my emotions in check and always be calm even if she is throwing a massive fit. But sometimes they really get your n…

It’s been both great and terrible to be cooked up in a small flat with my wife and child. I’m always happy to see comments like this. I wonder if there’s a community for the M(o|u|a)ms/Dads of HN Any tips for communications with partners?

most important is to come from a place of respect and to talk about the issue, not about the person. it should be about solving the problem together. never about pointing blame.

when i was still stuck in relationships that didn't work, most discussions were always about "who did (or did not do) what and why that was terrible". these days we talk about what problems we face, what we tried, how they didn't work and ask each other advice on how to deal with the situation.

i had to learn to be more humble and own up to my faults (that was hard). i also had to learn to reign in my temper when i was getting frustrated. (that felt impossible, but turns out to be easy when the discussions are not personally directed)

and another thing that has a huge impact on our communication: we validate, compliment or appreciate each others efforts constantly. we talk more about the good stuff than about the bad stuff, and that really makes a difference.

and lastly: allow each other personal space when needed

i know this is not really "new knowledge". every talk or tutorial about communication will tell you similar things. but it is what works for us.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#629

Post by REALiSTiC » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:36 AM UTC

phatle wrote: post #524

REALiSTiC wrote: post #16

Systems Thinking, mainly through reading Russell Ackoff's books. The Art of Problem Solving is good, Turning Learning Right Side Up is eye-opening (and definitely one of my favorite books lately) and currently reading Redesigning Society. Highly recommended.

I'm reading this subject too. Thinking in Systems: A Primer is also a good book. Highly recommended.

I started it couple of months ago, but couldn't get past the first few chapters. It was too dry for my taste. Even though she's a brilliant scientist (I'd recommend checking her classic The Limit to Growth), it seemed like the earlier resources about the topic are much better explained rather than the newer stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What are you learning?

#630

Post by brainlessdev » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 7:38 AM UTC

selfish-duck wrote: post #169

brainlessdev wrote: post #126

I'm learning how to build a backend for a web app using TypeORM, GraphQL and Apollo Server. I'm a frontend developer. Also, I've been toying with OBS Studio to learn how to make more professional video recordings to showcase applications at work, or bug reproductions, documentation, etc.

Hey, I recommend checking out type-graphql and especially Nexus to work with GraphQL on server-side. If you want to go serious about GraphQL I also recommend reading Production-ready GraphQL. I've been working with gql for 4 years now but this book really deepened how I think about modelling my schemas, queries and mutations. All the best on your learning journey!

Thank you! In fact I have been using type-graphql for this project.

I'll make a note to check out Nexus. Some other contenders to go into my tech stack were Hasura, Prisma and Postgraphile, but I wanted something a little bit closer to the vanilla GraphQL experience...