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Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

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101–110 of 116 posts

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#101
> Watching lecture videos isn’t learning—it’s passive consumption.

this x1000

watching something is more akin to entertainment, even if the contents are educational

videos are great for piquing interest and keeping motivation going, but the real learning is in the doing (which is hard and takes time)... there is no way around it

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#102

Anyone who's professionally coding right now has one super-effective option that's rarely talked about: Hire someone knowledgeable to walk you through what you're learning. I've been doing a heavy C++ project, and as a web developer, I was basically a walking footgun. I realized this early on, hired a total expert in the field (the guy has contributed to C++ standards committees before), and am Loving how smoothly th…

There's a reason why top performers in any industry (CEO's, athletes, actors) have coaches. I can explain to you how to ski all day long, but if I get you on a hill you will learn many times faster. Coaching works (in programming contexts as well).

I've been learning spanish for years via videos and it has gone a long way to show me how little I can learn from them by passively ingesting the information. I moved to a spanish speaking area recently and within a few months being able to really apply the knowledge (outside of duolingo or basic exercises) it has given me more understanding and confidence than years of more passive approaches.

The knowledge is great and required, but being able to apply it, fail, learn, apply it, succeed is absolutely the fast track.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $150/hr in 10 hour chunks and get the most in-depth insight into what I'm doing Yeah, it's... an option, I guess, if you've got the dough. Many of us don't have that kind of budget so we look for some of those experts who have blogs and youtube channels.

I'm trying to figure out what I know well enough to charge $150/hour to teach people now...

I've charged that rate and it's usually veeeery niche knowledge that somehow seems to combine more than 10 years of experience. Like I worked in information security and aerospace and am a C/C++ coder and someone is thinking about a software product that's a C++ library for securely communicating with satellites.

I'm usually contacted by engineers or companies that do market surveys and have the detailed knowledge of my background, so doing a lot of those (which are usually also compensated at like 40 to 60 per hour) pays off.

I haven't been able to engage in any of these for two years now because I moved to the US on an H1B visa, but the offers still keep on coming. I got like five in 2019 and two in 2020 and I had to say no.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#104

I spent over a 100 hours working through MOOCs and video tutorials over the past month only to find out that all I would learn at the end would be the basics that wouldn't really be help if someone asked me to 'go build'. I'd have the same feeling even after completing an advanced level course. What we need are technical MOOCs that discuss what decisions to make when approaching a problem, evaluating trade-offs, what…

I thought tech lead was a satire (as a millionaire). Practical application is an area I've always thought was sorely lacking. There's lots of places to learn the theory, but I still don't get it until I understand the applications. Then I start to get a fingertip feel (Fingerspitzengefuhl if you want to come from a certain view). Whenever I see "Application is left as an exercise for the reader", I read that as "I do…

I checked his channel after your comment and it seems he's gone all-in on the satire recently. He does put out a really good video occasionally.

To give you an idea of what he does that's missing in MOOCs, take a look at his video in which he migrates a database to a new server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4EYnCgIwc

Throughout the video he talks about why he chooses a particular method among the different approaches available, discusses their pros and cons, what are some of the issues you might encounter in the real world that you should consider. Even if the video is about migrating a database he goes through many other related topics like DNS, choosing the server hardware and OS. He also talks about his past experiences and observations throughout. It feels more engaging and you feel like an apprentice rather than a passive consumer.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#105
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $150/hr in 10 hour chunks and get the most in-depth insight into what I'm doing Yeah, it's... an option, I guess, if you've got the dough. Many of us don't have that kind of budget so we look for some of those experts who have blogs and youtube channels.

I hesitate to throw this out here, because it goes against the "do it as a business" ethos here on HN. However, if you are really interested in some topic, why not trade your knowledge for the knowledge you seek? In centuries past, if there were a mathematician who wanted to know more about botany, it was the most normal thing in the world for him to contact a botanist interested in math and trade the knowledge. This…

But this problem is exactly why we invented money in the first place... If I'm an interventional radiologist and I want to learn algebraic topology, what are the chances of a coincidence of wants? How many algebraic topologists do you think there are in the world who will trade their time for a chance to get better at placing arterial stents?

On the other hand, I can basically guarantee you that someone somewhere is willing to pay money for an arterial stent, and somewhere else there is a world-class expert mathematician who will accept money in exchange for tutoring.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anything that I haven't kept practicing is almost gone. I can't even remember most of the courses or books I've read. I don’t think this is unique to MOOCs. I think this is a fact of life.

scary to get treated by a doctor who forgot most of the stuff they learnt in med school.

That's why it's important to find specialists when you need actual treatment, because they are treating the same thing all over all the time.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anything that I haven't kept practicing is almost gone. I can't even remember most of the courses or books I've read. I don’t think this is unique to MOOCs. I think this is a fact of life.

scary to get treated by a doctor who forgot most of the stuff they learnt in med school.

Even scarier when you realize most of the stuff they do they didn't even learn in med school.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#109

If you find a really good tutorial by programmers who are both excellent teachers and experienced in that particular field, it beats JIT learning on a personal project in one important respect. You get exposure to the One True Way of doing things. What do I mean? Years ago, I learned to program iOS from the Big Nerd Ranch book. The most important thing I got out of that was learning enough about the Cocoa-Touch frame…

Steve Huffman's web development course was excellent on Udacity.

Re: Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC

#110

Anyone who's professionally coding right now has one super-effective option that's rarely talked about: Hire someone knowledgeable to walk you through what you're learning. I've been doing a heavy C++ project, and as a web developer, I was basically a walking footgun. I realized this early on, hired a total expert in the field (the guy has contributed to C++ standards committees before), and am Loving how smoothly th…

> I pay the guy $150/hr in 10 hour chunks

$1,500 seems....excessive.

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