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Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

#31

Post by wenc »

mahalol wrote: post #30
wenc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

75 pages, 31k words.

I think your approach sounds interesting. When you say you write things down in log format, do you use a field as a tag? Any chance you can paste an example entry?

I don't usually tag my entries though I could. Here are two interesting ideas (by other people) that I came across, which I jotted down in order to process later. As I come across other related ideas, I cluster and rewrite when I feel like it, if they pique my interest.

--

Credit cards are a form of microfinance for the privileged — they’re essentially 30 day interest free loans.

--

Tobi Luetke: use systems thinking as a shared language. Drawing diagrams elucidates an idea and exposes assumptions.

--

Re: Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

#32

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

I found a hackernews link like a month ago about making a daily TIL (today I learned) on github. I liked the idea enough so I made my own version:

https://github.com/vincentntang/TIL

It's where I store my code snippets, and a way to rubber ducky to myself. Everything I write on there is directly something I had to look up and didn't know off hand. Something to note is I do add things to my TIL during work hours and spend 10-15 minute tops writing each `.md` file

I haven't really blogged much lately but this makes it easier to transition after. I wrote a React useState and useEffect guide this morning from my TIL notes

https://www.vincentntang.com/react-use-effect-explained/

I highly recommend making a daily TIL since I can rich search all my notes for copy paste code I can use for projects

Re: Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

#33

Post by kleer001 »

I try to learn new things with the goal of:

(1) attaining an intuitive sense for them

(2) memorizing as little jargon as possible (only the amount necessary to look up things later).

(3) making my life richer

(4) making more accurate predictions about the world I encounter

How? It varies. Lots of lectures and listening with no written notes. I had a professor who spoke so quickly I couldn't take notes as he spoke so I learned to listen as learning.

Materially I make entries in a Google Doc which morphs often. The headings change and move around, entries are deleted and modified.

-

Precise dates and proper nouns do not interest me. IMHO that's all dry memorization, bits that don't connect to other bits, that's stamp collecting and tantamount to hoarding (which I think is gross, a literal failure of hygene).

Re: Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

#34

Post by anukriti »

Arun2009 wrote: post #8

I find it terribly distracting to have all the things that I have tried to learn in my "active" memory. So I cycle between phases where I am engaged with a subject for a while, and then move on to the next item in my (circular) list until I cycle back to the original subject again. This is a serious impediment to developing any useful expertise in any area, but I have sort of made peace with this tendency. But not al…

"I am no expert on memory, but from what I have read on the topic, our long-term memory is virtually unlimited, the main constraint being inability to recall rather than the memory content being erased. If you have once learned a topic well but haven't visited in a long time, you may not be able to recall it very easily, but you will be able to recognize or relearn it better than someone who doesn't have any exposure to the topic. "

I agree with your this part and personally my memory behaves the same way, but I am not sure if it should be like this, because then for example if I am having a conversation with someone about a topic I studied long back but did not recall recently then I am unable to contribute anything to the conversation although back in my mind I know that I studied or read about this but because of this poor memory thing I have to remain silent.

Re: Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

#36

Post by AtomicOrbital »

I have a main text file I refer to and make edits in throughout the day ... as a developer I keep any programming specific nuggets here ... each topic has its area as in

ubuntu tricks ___________

keeping one file makes it easier to search or browse ... separately I have other text files for broad categories like nyc, shop, bb ( catch all )

from a terminal ( Ubuntu ) I enter this to search

svl 'some string here'

where svl is an alias to a bash script containing

stringPattern=$1

cat ~/MEGA/notes.txt | grep --color=auto -B 10 -A 15 -i "$stringPattern"

I use mega nz for cloud storage so all this is mirrored on any box I use ... been using similar my entire career so this file today has over 90,000 lines of text notes ... I find such a process essential to be productive across a vast array of problem domains

Re: Ask HN: Do you maintain a log of what you learn? How often do you go over them?

#38

Post by chipuni »

deepan_s wrote: post #11
chipuni wrote: post #9

I put new facts into Anki ( https://apps.ankiweb.net/ ) and then they get reviewed daily, with a steady, slow addition of new facts. It's a very effective way to keep everything in long-term memory. (It's also very difficult. You're trying to recall items that are just at the edge of your memory.)

Interesting. Do you have fixed schedule every day to go through the facts in Anki or is it more on a ad hoc basis ?

Yes, I use Anki every day.

When I was working from an office, I used the commute time (I take the train) to practice Anki. Now, it's the evenings.

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