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How much does the course cost?
All the Coursera courses I've looked at can be audited for free. There are some advanced features of the courses that require enrolling for a fee. If you enroll, and pay the fee, you also get a Certificate of Completion. If you cannot afford the fee, you can apply for financial aid.
1. Grab all the textbooks I can find on Libgen on the topic.
2. Read tables of contents to get a high level view of the main components of the subject and the scope of what you want to learn.
3. Start reading (I usually skip introductions too) from the textbook that looks most appealing/authoritative (cross check on Amazon, or curricula from well known universities, but sometimes even the design of the textbook can make it more motivating/easy to consume, e.g. I hate most "modern" textbooks that have 25 random boxes of text per page — very confusing reading experience).
4. Keep going until you get confused/tired.
5. If still motivated/have enough energy, see how other books cover the same topic to see if it's clearer.
6. If you're too tired to read, try Youtube videos covering the topic.
7. Sleep.
8. Repeat, start over from where you feel you have good command of the topic.
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Mindless practice will get you substantially further than not doing anything. Even when you have only the vaguest idea what you’re doing doing something beats doing nothing almost universally. Deliberate practice is great but with a tight feedback loop just doing things works wonders. If you spend 1000 hours doing mindless practice you won’t get as far as someone who spends 500 hours practicing deliberately but you a…
More than "practice makes perfect", it really is "practice makes permanent" At least in martial arts, I have learnt the hard way that if you had practiced a particular form wrong, then it takes that much more time to undo the learning, especially if it is the basics.
Growing up, I asked so often for guidance for how to learn to write essays. I got told “just do it” and “just write the damned essay” and “just buckle down” so much I concluded that there wasn’t a way to learn a better writing process. So, I practiced writing via my having an emotional breakdown, procrastinating heavily and doing something at the last minute. As a 29-year-old, I’m trying to unlearn this and figure out how to write a technical blog post in a calm this-is-merely-work sort of way. Its really hard.
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Practice is what separates most people who are good things from those who aren't. Yes, but mindless practice doesn't help, isn't it? Is there a deliberate method to your practice? How do you keep track of your weak areas, and how do you specifically practice those weak areas?
Indeed. That is why I included "Find good books and good teachers/videos/other instruction". They point out to you what and how you should practice, but practicing is still the key component.
Learn by doing. I taught myself morse code by actually using morse code on ham radio, not by drilling myself silly with code practice tools (which is imperative to learn the alphabet, but after that it's less practical). There's no number of videos or essays or books etc that will make you magically get better. You must take what you discover from those sources and put muscle (and/or brainpower) into the activity you…
Throw yourself into it, such as by speaking Chinese, in this example. I've learnt much more that way than theoretical reading, videos, etc. I learnt 100x more about running a startup after starting one, and initially doing a bad job, than by reading thousands of blog posts.
I’ve found in that sort of situation, it is tremendously useful to find a good book or other form of guidance so that I have a mental framework to organize information and a way to imagine myself succeeding. You know the OODA loop? I think theoretical knowledge really helps with the ‘Orient’ step.
I just commented this in another thread, but I highly, highly recommend the free Coursera course Learning How To Learn . In particular, I found that the following worked especially well for me: * Emphasis on balance between focus and diffuse mode: taking a walk or exercising after a focused study session. * Spaced repetition: Anki works wonders. Reviewing notes multiple times is also tremendous. * Sleep: ignored the…
I have tried a few times to get on the anki/supermemo bandwagon but have always struggled a bit figuring out how to structure the cards. Maybe I just have some hangups with it but would love to see a good workflow or best practices for incorporating it into my study. I think specifically I would second guess myself for the syntax of the cards I was creating - and if there was another better way to do it. I always wan…
I used Anki for 7 years without these rules and figured some of it out on my own.
After I used Anki / supermemo to learn these rules, I can learn at a much higher rate with less reviews and higher recall.
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I have tried a few times to get on the anki/supermemo bandwagon but have always struggled a bit figuring out how to structure the cards. Maybe I just have some hangups with it but would love to see a good workflow or best practices for incorporating it into my study. I think specifically I would second guess myself for the syntax of the cards I was creating - and if there was another better way to do it. I always wan…
This article on SuperMemo might help you - https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/20ru...
Use both liberally and you will learn how to learn.
I often make an explicit effort to convert frequent actions from "System 2" to "System 1" (in the language of Daniel Kahneman) as soon as I can. For example, if I'm learning a foreign language, I commit common expressions (not words) to memory as soon as possible. If I'm learning a new software (say Adobe Illustrator or emacs), I commit the common shortcuts to memory as well. It's often one of the first things I do.…
For example, learning all of the HTTP status codes before you know anything about HTTP could seem like a waste of time.
However, when you are writing a server that makes api calls to a third-party service, when you receive a 400, if you know the codes by rote you won't have to research / reason why you are receiving that code.
I think "learning by doing" usually ends with more self-directed, problem solving learning. This type of learning can show your weaknesses and provide you with holes in your knowledge that you can use rote memorizing to fill.
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How does Tinycards compare to Anki? I've been using Anki for years. In terms of learning, it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Similar, both flash card based, and with spaced repetition. Anki is downloadable and TinyCards is web based and online. TinyCards has a community around it but Anki is probably more individual focused. Both are great tools and you will learn something everytime. Another comparison highlights differences [1] > They are both spaced repetition systems, but here are some key differences: > - They have a different look an…
Huge deal breaker for me. I have thousands of cards. If I study for any certification exam, I will have a minimum of a couple hundred cards.