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Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

alexrosen.com

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Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#21

Post by LukeShu »

seagaia wrote: post #2

Hey, this is good. And it inspired the guy to go deeper into some of the subjects! Sometimes, a problem is that people only go to sponge learning...and then stop. As a professor of my friend's said...people are getting better and better at being able to talk about something for five minutes...then that's it. Thanks to wikipedia, lots of people can seem smart, but not actually understand something in depth. I find XKC…

I feel like this is a problem too. You actually got me thinking about this, and since I don't think I do this, how I avoid it.

I don't think I do anymore. I mean, I do less than other people, but I don't go deeper like I used to.

I think the solution, is books. I'm normally a little disdainful of those who have bookcases of technical (read: computer/programming) books, I can get the same or better info on the Internet (certain books excluded, but these books don't take entire bookcases).

But this is because I've progressed far enough in my understanding of this field that I wouldn't benefit particularly much from these books. Which, I think is why my learning in other areas has slowed, I no longer go to the bookstore. That means I don't by chance pick up a book on extra-dimensional physics. Because I don't need a book to help me pick up CodeIgniter or Python. This, of course, implies a tendency I have, to not go shopping, I only go into a store if I know what I'm going to buy.

I think that it is hugely beneficial to just walk through a bookstore, and just pick up a book on a subject that is interesting to you, that you _don't_ know a lot about.

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#23

Post by alexmr »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #18
alexmr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. Figuring out what to spend time on is definitely one of the hardest parts since there's so much out there. But reading and hacking on 4 chapters of the django book in a day taught me more than reading for a year.

Looking into diving into Django as well -- what Django book are you referring to, if I may ask?

reading this one and I think it's super clear: http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#24

Post by raju »

Great post.

I have often thought about the way I learn, and it's very much 'sponge learning' (nice term BTW).

I am on a journey to learn Clojure, and improve my JavaScript skills. Much like the author, I read blog-posts, books, the Google groups as well as take any code samples found there and play with them in the REPL. A lot of the posts (especially some on the Google Groups) don't always make sense to me - but I hope that I will have filed it away somewhere. Maybe someday it will all come together :)

Again, nice post.

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#25

Post by irahul »

alexmr wrote: post #6
duopixel wrote: post #5

Sponge learning is awesome, but you must always remember to act upon it. Knowing that CoffeeScript is hot in the web dev scene is great, but in the end it amounts to little more than industry gossip. True understanding comes from actually trying to do it yourself, technologies stop being buzzwords and they become tools. That said, kudos to the OP for trying to Learn Python the Hard Way!

Totally. Figuring out what to spend time on is definitely one of the hardest parts since there's so much out there. But reading and hacking on 4 chapters of the django book in a day taught me more than reading for a year.

Your app mentioned in the blog post is throwing me an error.

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 700, in __call__ handler.get(*groups) File "/base/data/home/apps/twordsie/1.347280040146141318/main.py", line 55, in get 'rows': [{'c': [{'v': tweet["text"]}]} for tweet in tweets]} TypeError: string indices must be integers

You should install error handlers for server error(500), page not found(404), forbidden(403), and any others relevant for your app.

Regardless, 500 is the one you should generally install a handler for. It exposes details and flaws in your application which can be used in attacks.

Here is how you do that in django: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/views/#the...

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#26

Post by spacemanaki »

LukeShu wrote: post #21
seagaia wrote: post #2

Hey, this is good. And it inspired the guy to go deeper into some of the subjects! Sometimes, a problem is that people only go to sponge learning...and then stop. As a professor of my friend's said...people are getting better and better at being able to talk about something for five minutes...then that's it. Thanks to wikipedia, lots of people can seem smart, but not actually understand something in depth. I find XKC…

I feel like this is a problem too. You actually got me thinking about this, and since I don't think I do this, how I avoid it. I don't think I do anymore. I mean, I do less than other people, but I don't go deeper like I used to. I think the solution, is books. I'm normally a little disdainful of those who have bookcases of technical (read: computer/programming) books, I can get the same or better info on the Interne…

I think Rich Hickey's Clojure bookshelf is a testament to the fact that much of the really deep stuff is still in books. Sadly many of these books aren't even on the shelves of a brick & mortar bookstore.

http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#27

Post by krashidov »

Besides the technical stuff, the links and discussions here on HN have helped me with entrepreneurial concepts the most. It helps when really established and well known people, and people who have plentiful experience in starting, running, and marketing a business are discussing things.

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#28

Post by mark_story »

zobzu wrote: post #12
farnsworth wrote: post #11

I did this with Reddit years ago when much of the front page was programming/computer-related. I realized it was an awesome subject, spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they were talking about, and eventually changed my major to software engineering.

I hope this site wont become reddit ;-) The issue is that the communities are open and when it reaches a critical point, it all becomes like reddit/slashdot/whatnot as it will follow the majority of people's interest. So let's hope, this site doesn't grow too much ;-)

The same thing happened with Digg, it used to be tech based. Then it got popular, then they screwed it up, and now no one uses it. I think hacker news can avoid this by keeping their minimal UI and not adding shiny bits.

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#29

Post by aorshan »

Awesome post. I am in the exact same boat as you. I read this stuff every day as inspiration and to learn more about the world of programming and computers. I am also working through python to learn my first language (chose python because of xkcd). Feel free to email me if you want to discuss difficulties or challenges with programming in python or in general.

Re: Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

#30

Post by elxrr »

jasonrodriguez wrote: post #8

I'm right there with you. I have been an avid reader of HN for going on 2 years now. While I can't sit down and develop killer software from scratch, I am slowly learning more and more about technology and programming, and a lot of it is thanks to the great HN community. I just started ready the updated edition of Learn Python The Hard way, and really enjoy it. It's the first book on programming that I have read that…

"Feel free to send me a message or email me if you want to bounce and ideas off of each other with Python or anything else, I get the impression we are both starting off on the same page"

Is that open to all?

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