Feynman Technique is often mentioned:
https://mattyford.com/blog/2014/1/23/the-feynman-technique-m...
Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
71–80 of 181 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#72Similar to what others have said, do a quick pass once to get a sense of what the context/main concepts are. pass 2) read the headlines of each section. pass 3) read the bold words of each section and make note of them. pass 4) read the first and last sentence of each paragraph in the chapter. pass 5) read the whole chapter as you normally would. The increased/repeated exposure helps you to contextualize/relieves anx…
Something similar to this is the SQ3R method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQ3R Several other comments on this thread mention similar methodologies, as well.
Thanks for the link. I watched a YouTube video[0] about this but the guy never gave it a name.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#73There's no single answer because it's a function of how you learn, and the subject matter in question. I'm one of those people who doesn't believe that anyone can learn anything -- there are some constraints (despite having a growth mindset) that will limit how far you can go.
I think semantic tree/first principles/physics-based approach (popularly attributed to Elon Musk) is one way to approach it. It's actually a really difficult approach and you need a certain level of intelligence and personality to do it well, so it's not for everyone. I can do it to some extent but it's actually really difficult to hold lots of ideas in tension and to be questioning all the time -- it's just not my thinking style.
The other approach is what many smart (but non-geniuses) take: the buffet approach. You graze at the table of books, Wikipedia, online articles, and hang out in online communities (like Twitter) to overhear what experts are discussing. The thing about most areas of knowledge is, there's usually only 20% of the subject that matters--the rest rarely come up (Pareto Principle). To know what 20% to focus on, you need to understand the sociology of the subject matter and what experts think are important. Unlike the previous approach, you won't have watershed-level insights, but you'll know enough to be considered "educated" on the subject.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#74I usually dive headfirst into a project and start coding. The first step is often the hardest but once you start you will have some difficutlies but be rewarded in the end with a deep understanding of why you should do this or why you shouldn't do the thing you want to accomplish.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#75I'm a big fan of the idea of using Spaced Repetition for this. The idea is that it allows you to both: - be able to keep your knowledge / understanding of an area around for the long term; but also - be able to gradually build up your understanding by first committing the fundamentals to memory, and then using that to build up your level of abstraction and get to the more complex ideas and principles. Michael Nielsen…
SRS is great for memorizing truly unconnected pieces of information, like names of capital cities. For anything where the information is connected, it's a lot better to use those connections instead of drilling it in a decontextualized fragments via SRS.
> it's a lot better to use those connections instead of drilling it in a decontextualized fragments via SRS.
Or, you can use SRS for "spaced repetition" of making these connections. That is, instead of treating it as rote memorization, use it for the timing effects. When I see a card about X1 which is part of a larger concept Y, I don't think "what was the exact answer to X1, which I remembered without any understanding and will just recite now?".
Instead, I often think "how do I come up with the answer to X1 right now? how does it connect to the larger concept Y?". Even better, if I've recently seen card X2 about the same concept, I might think "how does X1 relate to X2, which I just saw recently?". Sometimes, this actively helps you to make new connections. Of course, you need to explicitly make an effort to do so, yourself. If you practice pure recall only, that's what you'll get from SRS.
As another commenter mentioned, it's a false dichotomy.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#76I use confluence ( you can get a one person license for free) and completely outline everything I'm reading. Sometimes I use bullet points, sometimes I type in code samples using the code-block plugin. I use headers to divide chapters and sections.
I write everything - and if I can't understand it I type it in verbatim. Just the act of reproducing it often clarifies it in a way that reading ( or, if we're frank, skimming ) can't match. If I'm trying to understand Kubernetes CNI plugins
https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/extend-kubernetes/comput...
I'll type in exactly the statement
* Kubenet plugin: implements basic cbr0 using the bridge and host-local CNI plugins
And trust that as I go further in to the documentation I'll understand more and more what that means.
No copy-and-pasting. Type it in and force my brain to process it in and out. I've found it invaluable.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#77Just as an aside, I'd like to give a hand to the HN community for all the great answers on this thread. Very enjoyable read!
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#78Dense technical documents require several passes of reading. Often it's difficult because unfamiliar terms and concepts.
Do a first pass just to quickly skim through the documents, looking at titles, subtitles, introduction, first paragraphs, summary/conclusion, etc. The goal is to get the scope of the document and do a quick assessment of the landscape.
The second pass would be do a detail read but note down the terms and concepts you are not familiar. Do some research on them.
The third and later passes would be to go into detail to understand what the document is talking about. When reading, try to build concrete examples and try to relate to what you have known before.
Nth pass, it helps to write down what you have learned. Do it as though you are teaching someone. Writing/teaching often forces you to understand the real detail.
Remember more practice brings more understanding, so do it more often.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#79Material is dense because some me times we don’t know the background material. So you need to understand it. Ask question search internet read books. there is no easy way.
Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?
#80I always just tackle things head on, hit a roadblock, research how to get through it, and continue. But having a goal that's interesting to me is paramount.
Wrote learning doesn't do much for me, but having a goal, finding working examples of solutions or implementations of the parts of solutions helps me internalize how things actually work, and put it all together.