Ask HN: How do you personally learn? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#61

Post by asdkhadsj » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 12:33 PM UTC

deepaksurti wrote: post #59

- I Don't learn for the sake of learning, in the phase of life, where I have to be picky! - Spend some time (few hours to 1 week max) based on the subject I am trying to learn - Augment my learning with mind maps and Anki flash cards for long term augmentation - My favourite: make a small from scratch, throw away version of whatever it is trying to learn, so I internalise it (again set a 2 week time constraint). Exam…

Can you go into more depth about mind maps, and specifically how they help you?

I'm building an information repository (of a sort..) and my plan for retention is spaced repetition (ala Anki/etc), but I've been unsure how to fit mind maps in it. I've got an inkling that I can automate mind map construction based on a form of labels, but tbh I'm not sure what problem I'm solving with mind maps. How do you find they help you?

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#62

Post by non-entity » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 1:25 PM UTC

Honestly thinking back, I can only really learn nowadays by doing, and I have to be genuinely interested in it. Furthermore, I've found only by jumping in can I retain the attention needed to learn.

As an example. I recently tried to learn a programming language I had some interest in. Initially, by attempting to follow a book chronologically which I grew bored of by the 4th chapter. Later, I had something I wanted to make, and decided to jump in using the book / docs as a reference when doing something I wasn't familiar with and amazingly, I was able to keep focus and actually learn.

Unfortunately recently, many of my learning projects are coming to a halt because I find I need to purchase X and wait for it to ship, usually temporarily losing interest in the meantime.

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#63

Post by mattrp » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 2:14 PM UTC

shay_ker wrote: post #23

Some really random, obvious things I do: - I really look for learning materials that have diagrams, or videos. Plain-text blog posts and documentation are really obtuse for me to actually grok what's up - I've got into a good habit of writing (with a notebook and a notes app). I actually do weekly check-ins, almost like "sprint retros", just for myself. Sometimes they're silly, but they're handy to crystallize whatev…

Good idea for a personal sprint retro.

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#64

Post by mattrp » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC

Create a list of the people who know the most on the topic and what they are saying / what position they have. For ex. If I want to learn about what Lidar is I start with What does Elon Musk think and then try to find all the people who have the opposing view and learn what they think about the topic. Once you have two or three parties on both sides of a topic you can start to formulate your own next-step questions /research topics.

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#65

Post by h0p3 » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 2:53 PM UTC

its_the_future wrote: post #55

h0p3 wrote: post #28

I use my wiki ( https://philosopher.life ) to help me reason about everything. Some things take a long time to discover or digest, and I like that I get to structure the path that I take.

Take this... it may help you on your quest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Heidegger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYKrWW8wyjQX6qmL94zNLg

These are lovely gifts. Thank you. =)

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#66

Post by benbristow » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 3:25 PM UTC

I learn best jumping in the deep end and learning from previous patterns in code and understanding why something was done the way it was done.

Reading books & loads of technical writing doesn't seem to set in very well for me.

Watching conferences and online course videos also helps understanding concepts. I couldn't for the life get my head around Redux when reading their website but I bought a udemy course for $5 and it basically clicked instantly!

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#67

Post by dawhizkid » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

I've found I need structure and accountability, which is annoying since usually that means you're spending money (i.e. a personal trainer, a paid class/bootcamp instead of googling).

A really interesting startup idea would be to figure out how to scale accountability in a way that, psychologically, would be similar to a coach/teacher/mentor but at a fraction of the cost.

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#68

Post by nestorherre » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 4:35 PM UTC

carapace wrote: post #24

I don't have time to do a proper write up this morning but I've got a pile of brain dump for you. First, learn to operate your "hardware" efficiently. Look into NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming, it gets some crap for being pseudo-scientific, which is not entirely undeserved, some NLP folks play fast and loose with science.) I recommend this book, but there are others: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3803577-get-t…

Would love a proper write up.

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#69

Post by ryanmercer » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

dawhizkid wrote: post #67

I've found I need structure and accountability, which is annoying since usually that means you're spending money (i.e. a personal trainer, a paid class/bootcamp instead of googling). A really interesting startup idea would be to figure out how to scale accountability in a way that, psychologically, would be similar to a coach/teacher/mentor but at a fraction of the cost.

>A really interesting startup idea would be to figure out how to scale accountability in a way that, psychologically, would be similar to a coach/teacher/mentor but at a fraction of the cost.

There are many services like this for losing weight and what not where you basically bet that you'll reach your goal in the given time. Sites like dietbet and healthywage.

It wouldn't surprise me of something already exists tha can be used as is for learning.

Re: Ask HN: How do you personally learn?

#70

Post by IceDane » Mon, Jul 15, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

spiderfarmer wrote: post #14

I only learn when I have a project in mind that I want to do. No matter if it’s work on or around my house, creating an app or designing something like a logo or interior. Then I just start. Walk into a wall. Stop. Look for learning material or inspiration. Start over. Reiterate. Learn more. Reiterate. I’m not easily frustrated by failure, starting over or general lack of progress. If I have an interesting goal I jus…

In my experience, that's the best way to learn. I think a lot of people are scared off by intellectual challenges that seem insurmountable because they underestimate what persistence can do.

I think my most important lesson in uni was not to give up, even if you feel like the subject matter might as well be in a foreign language. I distinctly remember sitting and reading documents on cryptography for a larger project and it was all more or less unintelligible to me. When it was over I explained all of those concepts and more during my presentation, and even got the highest possible grade.

That was accomplished by simply repeatedly banging my head against all the theory while researching it and reading different explanations and trying to go at it from different angles.