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Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#31

Post by TheEzEzz »

sl1ck731 wrote: post #28
BossingAround wrote: post #23

I am fairly sure this is not the optimal way, but I've been learning complex information/structures in passes. For example: - 1st pass - I consume the materials as well as possible, and apply my knowledge. Typically, I have to look things up, some things are unclear, I can't remember much. Applying the knowledge is quite difficult. That's ok. - 2nd pass - I return to the materials, re-read much less thoroughly. I rea…

I do this in reverse. First blaze through reading with very little comprehension, then go back thoroughly. My reasoning is "I don't know what I don't know" on the first pass and my first goal is to understand that all of the things "exist", then how things individually work.

This is my philosophy as well. Start by touring the forest quickly, then go back to appreciate the trees. When learning technical material, the first pass means skipping any exercises.

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#32

Post by lawn »

Go from the big picture to the small. Begin by summarizing the information on a high level, then start drilling down in select areas but always be sure you know where it fits in the big picture.

This is good because to remember something you need to anchor it to something you know. It's impossible to learn something in isolation, which is why you'll often become confused if you start from the details working yourself up. You simply have no context for the details.

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#33

Post by casualrandomcom »

xamuel wrote: post #22
AlchemistCamp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find that my brain sort of automatically uses connections. The really interesting thing about SRS is that you don't have to consciously think about how you're going to remember the cards. Like, you don't consciously think, "Ok, what's the pattern here, how can I turn it into a mnemonic..." Rather, your brain subconsciously does that for you.

I have used SRS and found it powerful, but not that powerful. SRS only commanded the times of rehearsal but not the way memory consolidated. And it consolidated by creating connections. So I needed mnemonics, prompts and all the likes, on top of SRS.

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#34

Post by commandlinefan »

I’ve found that I’m able to absorb math and programming resources well, but I approach each slightly differently. With math, I pick up a textbook and read through the exposition, trying to work each sample problem based on the explanation before I read the author’s solution, then compare my solution with his. Then, of course, I work as many sample exercises as I can. With programming, on the other hand, most of the materials don’t (unfortunately) include sample exercises, so I at least type in each sample program by hand rather than cutting and pasting them. Then, when I run it, I try to modify different parts to make sure I really understand what they do - that is, I try to predict what making each change will do before I do it, and then verify whether or not I was right.

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#35

Post by confeit »

https://fs.blog/2012/04/feynman-technique/

There are four steps to the Feynman Learning Technique:

1. Choose a concept you want to learn about

2. Pretend you are teaching it to a student in grade 6

3. Identify gaps in your explanation; Go back to the source material, to better understand it.

4. Review and simplify (optional)

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#36

Post by 764_OC »

sl1ck731 wrote: post #28
BossingAround wrote: post #23

I am fairly sure this is not the optimal way, but I've been learning complex information/structures in passes. For example: - 1st pass - I consume the materials as well as possible, and apply my knowledge. Typically, I have to look things up, some things are unclear, I can't remember much. Applying the knowledge is quite difficult. That's ok. - 2nd pass - I return to the materials, re-read much less thoroughly. I rea…

I do this in reverse. First blaze through reading with very little comprehension, then go back thoroughly. My reasoning is "I don't know what I don't know" on the first pass and my first goal is to understand that all of the things "exist", then how things individually work.

Me as well. In one of my CS courses, I was recommended Keshav's How to Read a Paper (https://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/keshav/home/Papers/data/07/...) which I have adapted to all kinds of technical material, not just papers.

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#37

Post by jackinloadup »

stared wrote: post #24
IvanVergiliev wrote: post #8

I'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…

Personally, I am a big anti-fan of the Spaced Repetition. IMHO it is a wonderful solution to a wrong problem (i.e. memorizing random things). Sure, there are use cases: learning words in a language one is not exposed to on a daily basis or cramming for a medical school exam. When one actively uses something, there is a natural spaced repetition of the things that matter. With the frequencies as these things are used…

Do you have any suggestions on alternative methods, personal or otherwise?

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#38

Post by SonnyWortzik »

Everyone learns differently with a combination of what you mentioned. visual aids, auditory aids, reading. There is no secret to learning only that you are consistent.

There are times that a technical manual comes along and there is a need to go off into the bowels of other technical information that is also provided and that to me does not help in any way. I must learn what I set my eyes out to learn and nothing more. The rest comes naturally as I begin to experiment and running into the same learning curve as others. That is when I begin to dig a little deeper. Again with all of the aids available, visual audio, reading and experimenting, until I feel that I have a strong grasp on that specific subject.

There is no secret, the only thing I suggest is to stay on it, and stay consistent. The more you do it the more understanding you will get. There is truth behind "practice makes perfection".

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#39

Post by dghughes »

tomlong wrote: post #5

I've learnt recently (not much former higher education) the power of making long hand notes on pen and paper. It helps me connect with and think through the material and take it in at a pace I can process it. It's not quite the same, but I recently studied for a technical exam/certification where the syllabus included about 400 slides (about 10 days of teaching & lab work). I failed the exam just reviewing the slides…

There is a reason for that I've seen articles on it. If you take notes using a pen to write on paper you retain more. Using a computer to type notes into a text application is terrible. There is a disconnect between listening, then looking to type (or at the screen).

I've noticed it myself. I went back to school late in life (48) and at first I wrote in notebooks. Feeling a bit old compared to my much younger classmates I went digital. In class I typed notes into Word. I convinced myself it was neater, safer and I could make backups. In reality I discovered I learned the material better if I wrote my notes by hand in cursive, block printing was too slow.

I'll see if I can find the article about it.

edit: this isn't the exact article but it is similar: https://www.npr.org/2016/04/17/474525392/attention-students-...

Re: Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?

#40

Post by Frost1x »

Reading, digesting, internalizing, and interconnecting information to your internal knowledge pool is a time consuming process, no matter how much business demands want everything yesterday and how competitive the world gets. The true factor for me is time and I've found no shortcuts around it.

For me, I re-read multiple times with gaps of time between which allows me time to internalize information and then pickup and incorporate concepts I missed before in subsequent passes.

Often in a given set of knowledge or information, there are interdependencies that are overlooked by authors/editors and information you gather chronologically (or in the sequence present) later actually helps (or is even needed) to understand concepts correctly that you covered before (or may be outside to body of information you're studying).

Some gaps are omissions, some are due to gaps in your own understanding of a concept (everyone has them), some just require a lot of thought to properly internalize.

There's this trend of rapidly digesting and spitting out information as knowledge as a facade of understanding and I think neglecting critical thinking along the process is a fool's errand, personally. This leads to blindly following trends and taking everything at face value to me.

I couldn't count on my hands and toes the number of times I've heard people say "singleton" in the past 6 months who don't understand what it actually means or how/when to use the pattern (they're not developers). They heard some developer say it and then try using knowledge transfer to confidently use it outside the context where it actually fit because they never truly understood the concept but want to appear they do (instead of, for example saying, "hey, I've heard of a 'singleton pattern,' would that work here?")

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