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How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

swanson.github.com

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Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#21

Post by swanson »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #20

Much better than my lazy default which involves leaving relevant tabs open on my browser ... So I just did this exercise now, and at the risk of overtooling I'm going to keep a detailed list of the precise things I did to learn each thing. Because otherwise, I have that same tendency to convince myself I've spent 2 hours learning more about graphical models by browsing some blog posts, or about cooking by looking thr…

Mind sharing your list? I really enjoy seeing what other people are excited about.

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#22

Post by wattjustin »

I did this about three months ago and have been laser focused on learning ever since instead of spreading myself too thin as it's too easy in this industry. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but I genuinely hope everyone takes 10 minutes out of their week to do this for themselves. I can attest to this simple exercise being very much worth it.

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#23

Post by kevinalexbrown »

swanson wrote: post #21
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #20

Much better than my lazy default which involves leaving relevant tabs open on my browser ... So I just did this exercise now, and at the risk of overtooling I'm going to keep a detailed list of the precise things I did to learn each thing. Because otherwise, I have that same tendency to convince myself I've spent 2 hours learning more about graphical models by browsing some blog posts, or about cooking by looking thr…

Mind sharing your list? I really enjoy seeing what other people are excited about.

It's a little long so I won't write it all out, but among the things with overlap were better math/stats, and circus things:

- Graphical Models - R - Better understand stochastic dynamical systems - Advanced spectral analysis - Handstand - Flip - Box juggling throws

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#24

Post by sliverstorm »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #23
swanson wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing your list? I really enjoy seeing what other people are excited about.

It's a little long so I won't write it all out, but among the things with overlap were better math/stats, and circus things: - Graphical Models - R - Better understand stochastic dynamical systems - Advanced spectral analysis - Handstand - Flip - Box juggling throws

Nice to see I'm not the only one who likes circus moves. One of my goals is handstand pushups. Needless to say, most of getting there is just exercise/weights/gym.

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#25

Post by TeMPOraL »

I have a lot of non-IT stuff that I'd like to know at one time - so, in a spirit of sharing our TOKNOW lists, my current one:

    - Economics
      - Micro
      - Macro
      - "Applied" - stock markets, credits, all that stuff - how it works, etc. (I know almost nothing about it)
    - Knowledge about societies - how they form, how they function, etc.
    - Bayesian probability (working on it right now, thanks to AI Class), set theory, maybe category theory
    - Control theory (I do really, really regret I didn't care about this at university)
    - Biology
      - Genetics 101 & blood groups (I forgot all this stuff since high school)
      - Nutrition 101
    - First aid
    - Pretty much whole physics (Feynman's lectures sitting on my bookshelf and waiting ;))
    - History
      - of civilization, especially Roman history
      - of science, technology and enterpreneurship
      - of modern geopolitical structures
    - Geography
      - World energy infrastructure
      - How many resources do we have, where they are, how fast we use them
      - How the world trade works
    - Literature
      - "Homeless People"
      - "Crime and Punishment"
      - ... and then some other good books
And that's really just (non-IT) knowledge; there are also some skills I'd like to acquire that are not listed. I know some (most?) of that stuff was covered in high school, however I somehow missed it all then (I didn't care / school wasn't really helpful to make me care). This list reflects some topics I spend time thinking about / worrying about, but at some point I realized I should either sit down and learn some of it, or stop caring that much about things I don't understand.

From the technical side (which is actually the main topic ;)), I keep all of this in plain text; it used to be .txt files somewhere on my hard drive, now it's in Org Mode.

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#26

Post by nyellin »

If anyone is struggling to stay on top of notetaking or organizing their life digitally, I highly recommend org-mode and deft-mode.

One day I will blog about what org-mode has done for my life, but for now just accept my word: I have typed tens of thousands of words into each of EverNote, Tomboy, and TiddlyWiki. I attempted to use Remember the Milk, Google Tasks, and other todo apps for years. I also unsuccessfully struggled to recall information by bookmarking and tagging three thousand websites in delicious. Nothing worked and I was on the verge of giving up for sanity's sake and just emailing myself reminders and notes.

Then I discovered org-mode and took control. I can recall and store any information in seconds. Org mode can do absolutely everything. Ask and you shall learn.

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#27

Post by Cyph0n »

Interesting idea. I'll list down what I want to learn here then:

- Python - Django - jQuery - Bash - XHTML and CSS - Physics (currently learning at college) - Mathematics (same) - Psychology - Philosophy - Sci-fi reading - Islamic finance - World history

Now that I look at the whole picture, most of the topics are unrelated, save the first two..

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#28

Post by breathesalt »

wattjustin wrote: post #22

I did this about three months ago and have been laser focused on learning ever since instead of spreading myself too thin as it's too easy in this industry. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but I genuinely hope everyone takes 10 minutes out of their week to do this for themselves. I can attest to this simple exercise being very much worth it.

I feel the same way. It wasn't until now that I realized my learning "hitlist" was really a histogram at heart. However, instead of tick marks I use list item comments. I also have to add that formatting my notes well (I use html) is essential--otherwise I'll avoid reviewing them.

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#29

Post by TeMPOraL »

nyellin wrote: post #26

If anyone is struggling to stay on top of notetaking or organizing their life digitally, I highly recommend org-mode and deft-mode. One day I will blog about what org-mode has done for my life, but for now just accept my word: I have typed tens of thousands of words into each of EverNote, Tomboy, and TiddlyWiki. I attempted to use Remember the Milk, Google Tasks, and other todo apps for years. I also unsuccessfully s…

Do you use deft-mode along with org-mode, or as an alternative? Could you share some thoughts and experiences? I'm a happy user of org-mode and I'd like to know more :).

Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?

#30

Post by HeyImAlex »

I keep all of my ebooks in my ipad and have library, active, and completed sections. I have four books in my active section that I read through as time goes on and every time I complete a topic I pop a book from active onto completed and push another into my active section. I found I was shifting too quickly between books whenever I got disinterested or the material got tough and I would never pick them up again until weeks later which gave me very little context for what I was learning. Finishing books and being able to review them gives you much more closure on topics and makes you retain the material better. By having four I still allow myself to shuffle a bit but it reminds me to force my way though the hard parts when a book's been sitting there too long. Maybe once a month I'll map out my interests and try and find books pertaining to them and add them to my collection. Most of the major publishers have good daily deals on ebooks, and my library has a really good collection of hard copy books when I'm strapped for cash.
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