Actually one thing that really distracts you from actually getting the list done is blogging about it! :-)
How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
41–50 of 68 posts
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#42I have an elaborate system using text-files and tags/subtags, evolved over the last 5-6 years. I keep track of a lot of things: -expenses -gym sessions -leads for my magazine -startup ideas -personal development insights -diary entries -brainstorms -quotes (see this: http://ideashower.posterous.com/idea-for-some-tiny-web-softw... ) -stuff I should read later (but almost never get around to) -ideas for lyrics -fragmen…
Emacs org-mode (http://orgmode.org/) seems to provide most of your requirements. Haven't used it myself, though.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#43I have an elaborate system using text-files and tags/subtags, evolved over the last 5-6 years. I keep track of a lot of things: -expenses -gym sessions -leads for my magazine -startup ideas -personal development insights -diary entries -brainstorms -quotes (see this: http://ideashower.posterous.com/idea-for-some-tiny-web-softw... ) -stuff I should read later (but almost never get around to) -ideas for lyrics -fragmen…
Emacs org-mode ( http://orgmode.org/ ) seems to provide most of your requirements. Haven't used it myself, though.
Yeah, I might switch to something like that in future.
But, I still have a HUGE pile of legacy cruft containing valuable notes.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#44I 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 ca…
It's funny and sad when you realize that you care more about knowledge, learning etc. when you're out of school. Or maybe I was just not mature enough to appreciate it.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#45I have an elaborate system using text-files and tags/subtags, evolved over the last 5-6 years. I keep track of a lot of things: -expenses -gym sessions -leads for my magazine -startup ideas -personal development insights -diary entries -brainstorms -quotes (see this: http://ideashower.posterous.com/idea-for-some-tiny-web-softw... ) -stuff I should read later (but almost never get around to) -ideas for lyrics -fragmen…
That software already exists and is called org-mode :)
Some reasons to use org-mode:
* Org-mode is part of Emacs, so you can extend it in Lisp. If you so desired, you could record your weight each morning by sending yourself an email and scheduling an Emacs function... But someone has probably already done that in the 35 years of Emacs' existence. If not, Emacs macros are very easy to write, because they emulate the actions you would take yourself. (See my 9 liner for incrementally searching for keyboard shortcuts: https://github.com/aantn/castle/blob/master/home/.emacs.d/cu...)
* All org files are plain text
* All "items" in org files are part of a foldable hierarchy
* All items can be tagged
* TODOs are really just items whose headline starts with "TODO". Org-mode adds features for toggling, finding, and visualizing them
* You can extend org-mode any way you want. For example, I added a DEFER status for my TODO items. (https://github.com/aantn/castle/blob/master/home/.emacs.d/cu...)
* You can scatter your notes across as many files as you want. Org-mode can parse them to build your daily agenda (http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html)
* Org-mode displays formatting without hiding the markup (e.g. everything between two asterisks is bold)
* Org-mode exports to LaTeX, pdf, and html. (Embedded LaTeX is rendered too.)
* Org mode allows awesome links of all kinds (http://orgmode.org/manual/Hyperlinks.html#Hyperlinks)
* Code snippets can be embedded in org-mode and even executed
* Org-mode supports tables with formulas. It also includes a ledger for accounting. (http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages/ob-doc-l...)
See my comment below for a discussion on organizing notes and searching in them.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#46I have an elaborate system using text-files and tags/subtags, evolved over the last 5-6 years. I keep track of a lot of things: -expenses -gym sessions -leads for my magazine -startup ideas -personal development insights -diary entries -brainstorms -quotes (see this: http://ideashower.posterous.com/idea-for-some-tiny-web-softw... ) -stuff I should read later (but almost never get around to) -ideas for lyrics -fragmen…
That software already exists and is called org-mode :) Some reasons to use org-mode: * Org-mode is part of Emacs, so you can extend it in Lisp. If you so desired, you could record your weight each morning by sending yourself an email and scheduling an Emacs function... But someone has probably already done that in the 35 years of Emacs' existence. If not, Emacs macros are very easy to write, because they emulate the…
Sure, I'm convinced. But I still have tons of legacy data.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
That software already exists and is called org-mode :) Some reasons to use org-mode: * Org-mode is part of Emacs, so you can extend it in Lisp. If you so desired, you could record your weight each morning by sending yourself an email and scheduling an Emacs function... But someone has probably already done that in the 35 years of Emacs' existence. If not, Emacs macros are very easy to write, because they emulate the…
Sure, I'm convinced. But I still have tons of legacy data.
It isn't all or nothing. You can open all your old files in org-mode and slowly start taking advantage of org-mode.
It's all text. No conversion necessary.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, I'm convinced. But I still have tons of legacy data.
It isn't all or nothing. You can open all your old files in org-mode and slowly start taking advantage of org-mode. It's all text. No conversion necessary.
Sure, but what I need to do then is to write a semi-automated converter which just shoves everything with a clear tag formulation into org-mode and asks me what to do with the rest.
Thanks, this actually sounds doable to me now!
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#49Much 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…
Two weeks later: Browser takes 10 Minutes to fire up. (One could leave the computer running, I guess, but argh, too many tabs..) How do you deal with this?
There ought to be a way to run your tabs in the cloud... I'd pay for such a service!
The only downside is that I would need to invent some kind of SQL variant to find stuff among the tabs, as they would no doubt soon number in the thousands.
Re: How do you track and decide what topics you want to spend time learning?
#50I 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 ca…
It's funny and sad when you realize that you care more about knowledge, learning etc. when you're out of school. Or maybe I was just not mature enough to appreciate it.
I think it's not about maturity, it's about having reasons to know. School can kill ones's interest in pretty much everything, as soon as your curiosity gets replaced by tests, grades, homeworks, rote, memorizing etc. But it's a long topic, covered on HN many times.
For me, most of the school subjects were utterly meaningless. I didn't understand then why could I care about how we produce electricity, where are the resources located. I didn't see any use for learning about kings and battles of the centuries behind (the only date I really remembered back then, is the 6th of June 1944, Operation Overlord; Second World War at least seemed interesting to me personally). Or genetics. Or social things. Or entrepreneurship. Or whatever.
I don't miss the school per se. I only wish I put up with crap back then, I wouldn't have to learn some this stuff right now the second time.
I still believe the subjects, the way we're taught, are devoid of meaning. To pick one example, physics and geography classes contain enough of knowledge for people to make smart decisions about complex subjects, which scales up in democracies to nation-level. Instead, we see e.g. young mothers boycotting the construction of nuclear power plant in Poland, or whatever. Society seems to be unaware as of where do we get power from, how much do we need, and why it is a damn important problem. People only complain about gasoline prices going up; but hell, if the society doesn't care (or, doesn't even understand enough to be able to care) about energy, how can it expect politicians to care? It's a lack of mental picture of issues the world is dealing with. And energy is only one example.
I remember being taught all those things in school; I didn't really understand anything back then, and I think most of the people didn't. Things like "renewable" / "not renewable" resources were to me like Lisp symbols. Their only meaning for me was in tests, like: (member 'coal renewable-resources); get it wrong, have 0 points. Somehow, between grades, tests and homework, the real meaning of things we learn got lost.
Anyway, I wish to go once again through the school material, this time for real, and try to extract some meaning out of it for myself and others around me.