Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 515 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#241

Post by ok_dad »

6ak74rfy wrote: post #237
forbiddenvoid wrote: post #229

1. Peter Norvig's Design of Computer Programs course on Udacity probably singlehandedly changed my perspective on thinking and modeling software solutions to problems. https://www.udacity.com/course/design-of-computer-programs--... 2. Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom is of similar quality. There are a lot of 'oh that's how that works' moments in this book. https://craftinginterpreters.com/ 3. Doyle Brunson's S…

I am reading Crafting Interpreters right now. It seems to be a solid book but I am curious how others read it? Do you reproduce all, or most, the code yourself? That’d be a great way to make everything stick but makes progress terribly slow.

I'm in the process of reading Part II (the Java interpreter) thoroughly on the toilet, then will implement Part III (the C bytecode interpreter) in Zig. That way I understand the concepts well but end up with something a bit nicer for my efforts. I know I wouldn't finish the bytecode interpreter if I did both parts fully.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#242

Post by haroldl »

domnomnom wrote: post #206
laylomo2 wrote: post #36

The thing that really made Haskell click for me was learning OCaml. I was getting confused about little things such as whether a particular token was a type or a value, particularly with some of the more advanced extensions enabled. Learning OCaml gave me a secondary perspective on the ML family, and now I can comfortably navigate Haskell code more or less.

I find this ironic, because I found ocaml extremely confusing.

I think starting with Standard ML is a good idea. It is the core of ocaml and really highlights the differences with other approaches to programming. I went from SML to ocaml to Haskell.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#243

Post by __rito__ »

1. Machine Learning by Andrew Ng on Coursera.

2. Linear Algebra from Imperial College course on Coursera. Course name: "Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra".

3. Eigenthings from Ella Batty's lectures on Neuromatch Academy.

4. Vector Calculus from Eugene K's YouTube.

5. Much of Physics from Halliday, Resnick, Walker's book.

6. How to actually do knowledge work and grow, and productivity in general from Cal Newport's book "Deep Work".

7. Economics from "The Economics Book" and "How Money Works" from DK Publishers.

8. Meditating from "The Mind Illuminated" and "Meditation in Plain English".

9. Differentiation from MIT Opencourseware course.

10. Buddha's teachings from "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#244

Post by novaleaf »

Pretty pedestrian compared to others here, but: Learning Blazor via the "Blazor In Action" online book + audio. https://www.manning.com/books/blazor-in-action

The addition of audio is surprisingly useful. It's like having a private tutor ready to help you continue learning at a moment's notice.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#246

Post by LouisSayers »

peterhadlaw wrote: post #152
xutopia wrote: post #97

I know this is a little out of left field but I couldn't understand why anyone was Atheist until I read The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan... quickly followed by The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Those two books together crystallized in me what it could mean to have a world view absent of supernatural forces.

Being somewhat skeptic myself in my younger years and coming closer to God through my relationship with my girlfriend (who isn't even a believer herself)... I just recently came up with a hypothesis why so many Math and CS people were famously Atheist. I grew closer to God through just observing the natural world, and my natural relationship (affection, friendship, etc.). My hypothesis is that so many of these (incre…

> not possible without a divine, all-giving power.

I would say the atheist view is actually the same as yours with the exception that "god" isn't a man in the sky.

The way I see religion is as a coping mechanism for dealing with emotion.

When things get hard or tough who can you turn to? What can help ease emotional pain, give you hope when there is none or look out for you when noone else will?

It's simple, let's create an imaginary figure that always has your best interest at heart => God.

Let's now utilise this to help drive the behaviours we want in our tribe => Religious scripture / Church.

Personally I find it much more satisfying to simply admit that we don't know what's out there. Noone on earth has the answers because we're still learning, and we're also stuck in our bubble which we call the universe. Death is just a part of life and a way to recycle our bodies, we're not all that special and that's OK.

Anyone that finds it emotionally helpful to believe in fairytales is free to do so, but I feel like you're missing something even more magical if you can bring yourself to search for it, which is reality itself.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#247

Post by foooobaba »

3blue1brown linear algebra + the linear algebra chapter from “all the math you missed but need to know for graduate school” - linear algebra and abstract vector spaces in general finally feel familiar.

Also, timbuktu manuscripts - showed a history that I had never really heard of. These are written manuscripts of african scholars which are hundreds of years old, and still exist today. Some record the history of great west african civilizations along with other things they studied (e.g. science, religion, math, literature, ect). I was never taught this history even existed but yet was made to learn the various details about asian, european, middle eastern, central/south american history. This, and the attempts to destroy/steal these manuscripts at various points in history, made it click how serious power of controlling information, and ultimately influencing beliefs can be, with respect to giving legitimacy to the various rulers/authorities. Beliefs/perceptions matter quite a lot. This 1hr lecture is quite good: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lQiqyyRfL2Y&t=16s

Behavioral biology class from Dr. Sapolsky (Sanford) - explains a lot of why we behave the way we do, from different biological perspectives https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqeYp3nxIYpF7dW7qK8OvLs...

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#248

Post by skydhash »

The Rootkit Arsenal: Escape and Evasion in the Dark Corners of the System. The chapter 3 is a good introduction to computer architecture and how it relates to the OS.

Structured Computer Organization by Tanenbaum. This book is the one that made every layers clear to me, from transistors to assembly code. Code no longer feels like magic for me once I've seen the greasy parts that move under the hood.

For being professional, it was So Good They Can't Ignore You, Getting Things Done, and Clean Coder. They helped with different aspects of my life that I was struggling with, as I never worked in an office (started freelancing online), so no real mentor.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#249

Post by Flimm »

The book The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton caused me to experience several lightbulb moments. Before reading this book, I didn't understand whether central banks truly could create money out of thin air, and why some countries (USA, UK) seem to have ginormous amounts of national debt without running into trouble, whereas other countries (Greece, Argentina) did experience tangible crises because of their national debt. Now I feel that I do understand and it all clicks, even though I was not persuaded to believe in the book's policy recommendations, such as a job guarantee.
Post reply on HN