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GPT makes learning fun again

vipshek.com

11–20 of 243 posts

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#11
post #7

I'm in two minds about it. On one hand the internet (in general) has become so hard to find information on, and I agree with the author that GPT is a breath of fresh air. On the other hand I've seen GPT fail so miserably at topics that I'm knowledge about that I have a very hard time trusting anything it tells me. I'm not sure what the answer really is, but I'm not sure it's GPT. I wish we could go back to having sea…

Just out of curiosity are you using got 4 or 3.5?

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#12
post #6

It’s nice to be able to ask ChatGPT a half baked, poorly researched, poorly worded question with bad grammar yet get a totally good faith response back that’s a springboard for follow up questions. Whereas if you did the same thing on any stack exchange site you get downvotes and comments like “please read the guidelines and edit your question.”

Kindness and patience have always been in short supply on the public internet, but AI can simulate them in infinite amounts.

That’s a positive thing about this generative AI revolution that I haven’t really thought about in those terms until now.

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#13
You can downvote me but I think OP hasn't learned how to learn yet. If OP reads Wikipedia by understanding every sentence and clicking on every link, that's deliberately sabotaging his own learning. Attitudes like "I don't really feel like spelunking through a ton more articles" simply shows OP isn't interested in learning per se, just quick answers.

OP learns in a way that's very child-like. When you are a five-year-old it's okay to learn by asking everything. That stops being acceptable by the age of fifteen. OP hasn't learned any research skills yet, and when OP's needs inevitably exhausts the ability of LLMs, OP would be utterly unable to read an encyclopedia or a research paper or perhaps a textbook.

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#14
post #6

It’s nice to be able to ask ChatGPT a half baked, poorly researched, poorly worded question with bad grammar yet get a totally good faith response back that’s a springboard for follow up questions. Whereas if you did the same thing on any stack exchange site you get downvotes and comments like “please read the guidelines and edit your question.”

Completely agree. ChatGPT can be an incredible tool for getting a lay of the land on a subject or topic you don't know much about.

On that note, search in that regard always reminded me of those times where you ask a teacher how to spell a word and they say to look it up in the dictionary.

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#15
post #7

I'm in two minds about it. On one hand the internet (in general) has become so hard to find information on, and I agree with the author that GPT is a breath of fresh air. On the other hand I've seen GPT fail so miserably at topics that I'm knowledge about that I have a very hard time trusting anything it tells me. I'm not sure what the answer really is, but I'm not sure it's GPT. I wish we could go back to having sea…

It's become hard, and will become harder, precisely because of things like GPT (unintentionally) spreading misinformation. I'm against censorship in general, and this is no exception, but I do hope it leads to people becoming more critical of what they consume. However, I suspect that instead we will unfortunately see the continued cycle of creating large masses of people "educated" on such widely-propagated half-truths, while only a tiny subset of the population will have the actual truth.

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#16
post #5

It is very helpful to learn new stuff indeed, I am personally using https://www.phind.com .

im using phind too - phinding it pretty incredible. As someone learning development - it has helped me with so many of the annoyances of learning dev environments, like:

setting up a venv.. environmental variable issues in windows. *diagnosing a UTF-8 issue in windows.

i get that professionals problems would be harder to answer...however, getting responses without wading through stack exchange entry after entry has really kept me focused, and prevented the often times frustrating recursive spiral which is getting an issue with your issues issue...

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#17
post #13

You can downvote me but I think OP hasn't learned how to learn yet. If OP reads Wikipedia by understanding every sentence and clicking on every link, that's deliberately sabotaging his own learning. Attitudes like "I don't really feel like spelunking through a ton more articles" simply shows OP isn't interested in learning per se, just quick answers. OP learns in a way that's very child-like. When you are a five-year…

Just out of curiosity what would say is the optimal way to learn from an encyclopedia, research paper or Wikipedia?

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#18
post #7

I'm in two minds about it. On one hand the internet (in general) has become so hard to find information on, and I agree with the author that GPT is a breath of fresh air. On the other hand I've seen GPT fail so miserably at topics that I'm knowledge about that I have a very hard time trusting anything it tells me. I'm not sure what the answer really is, but I'm not sure it's GPT. I wish we could go back to having sea…

> On the other hand I've seen GPT fail so miserably at topics that I'm knowledge about that I have a very hard time trusting anything it tells me.

ChatGPT’s current super power is helping people get from 0-to-1 on a new topic. In particular if that topic is adjacent to or a different niche with your expertise.

It’s not currently amazing at taking someone from intermediate to advanced knowledge.

At least in my experience. If I’m using a new library/framework/API for the first time it’s amazing at answering the endless newbie questions I have.

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#19
I noticed a while back that the internet has made me terribly prone to skimming. It got to a point where I could hardly stand to read anything longer than a short news article.

To learn anything useful on the internet, you pretty much have to skim. So much of the internet is so loaded with filler and BS that it is hardly worth reading at all.

With ChatGPT, it’s incredibly refreshing to be able to ask a question and get nothing other than a concise answer. No skimming required. I feel so much more focused and better able to learn this way.

Re: GPT makes learning fun again

#20
post #7

I'm in two minds about it. On one hand the internet (in general) has become so hard to find information on, and I agree with the author that GPT is a breath of fresh air. On the other hand I've seen GPT fail so miserably at topics that I'm knowledge about that I have a very hard time trusting anything it tells me. I'm not sure what the answer really is, but I'm not sure it's GPT. I wish we could go back to having sea…

I've been using ChatGPT as a brainstorming tool rather than just relying on it for specific examples. Stuff like asking it for some ideas for things to learn on a topic.
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