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Study mode

openai.com

61–70 of 828 posts

Re: Study mode

#61

Modern day Cliff's Notes. There is no way to learn without effort. I understand they are not claiming this, but many students want a silver bullet. There isn't one.

But tutors are fine. The video is suggesting that this is an attempt to automate a tutor, not replace Cliff's Notes. Whether it succeeds, I have no idea.

Good tutors are fine, bad tutors will just give you the answer. Many students think the bad tutors are good ones.

Re: Study mode

#62
post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

Nah I'm calling BS, for me self-learning after college is either Just Do It(tm) trial-and-error, blogs, or hitting the nonfiction section of the library.

Re: Study mode

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always ask in stack exchange, IRC or forums.

Closed: duplicate Closed: RTFM, dumbass

My favourite moment was when I tried to figure a specific software issue out that had to do with obscure hardware and after hours I found one forum post detailing the solution with zero replies. And it turns out I wrote it myself, years prior and had forgotten about it.

Re: Study mode

#64
post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

>Now, everyone basically has a personal TA, ready to go at all hours of the day This simply hasn't been my experience. Its too shallow. The deeper I go, the less it seems to be useful. This happens quick for me. Also, god forbid you're researching a complex and possibly controversial subject and you want it to find reputable sources or particularly academic ones.

I built a public tool a while back for some of my friends in grad school to support this sort of deep academic research use case. Sharing in case it is helpful: https://sturdystatistics.com/deepdive?search_type=external&q...

Re: Study mode

#65
An acquaintance of mine has a start-up in this space and uses OpenAI to do essentially the same thing. This must look like, and may well be, the guillotine for him...

It's my primary fear building anything on these models, they can just come eat your lunch once it looks yummy enough. Tread carefully

Re: Study mode

#66
post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

>Now, everyone basically has a personal TA, ready to go at all hours of the day This simply hasn't been my experience. Its too shallow. The deeper I go, the less it seems to be useful. This happens quick for me. Also, god forbid you're researching a complex and possibly controversial subject and you want it to find reputable sources or particularly academic ones.

It is shallow. But as long as what you're asking it of is the kind of material covered in high school or college, it's fairly reliable.

This generation of AI doesn't yet have the knowledge depth of a seasoned university professor. It's the kind of teacher that you should, eventually, surpass.

Re: Study mode

#67
post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

I agree... spent last weekend chatting with an LLM, filling in knowledge gaps I had on the electromagnetic spectrum. It does an amazing job educating you on known unknowns, but I think being able to know how to ask the right questions is key. I don't know how it would do with unknown unknowns, which is where I think books really shine and are still a preferable learning method.

Re: Study mode

#68
post #53
post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

> I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. How do you know when it's bullshitting you though?

That’s the neat part, you don’t!

Re: Study mode

#69

Modern day Cliff's Notes. There is no way to learn without effort. I understand they are not claiming this, but many students want a silver bullet. There isn't one.

Cliff notes with a near-infinite zoom feature.

The criticism of cliff's notes is generally that it's a superficial glance. It can't go deeper, it's basically a summary.

The LLM is not that. It can zoom in and out of a topic.

I think it's a poor criticism.

I don't think it's a silver bullet for learning, but it's a unified, consistent interface across topics and courses.

Re: Study mode

#70
post #26

I'll personally attest: LLM's have been absolutely incredible to self learn new things post graduation. It used to be that if you got stuck on a concept, you're basically screwed. Unless it was common enough to show up in a well formed question on stack exchange, it was pretty much impossible, and the only thing you can really do is keep paving forward and hope at some point, it'll make sense to you. Now, everyone ba…

You can always ask in stack exchange, IRC or forums.

On IRC> Newb: I need help with . Does anyone have any experience with this?

J. Random Hacker: Why are you doing it like that?

Newb: I have constraint in my case that necessitates this.

J. Random Hacker: This is a stupid way to do it. I'm not going to help you.

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