How I use LLMs to learn complex topics • Hacker News Board

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#311

Post by ixsploit » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:04 AM UTC

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

I like to use them to generate me tutorial series for technical topics I want to learn or improve. So I start a prompt like this:

> I want you to create a tutorial series about X for me. The prime objective is that I improve in topic X so never provide a solution but guide and teach. (for programming never write code). First create a question catalog to assess my current level.

Then I would ask it to structure the tutorial challenges in the following way: - Goal - Concept - Instructions

I figured that if I don't need to read any additional material on the topic the LLM is giving me too much information and I need to change the prompt. Works for me and I used this too learn topics I feel now comfortable with, like nushell, opencyper, elisp, boot loaders etc. But maybe you don't consider this "complex"

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#312

Post by SwtCyber » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:05 AM UTC

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

The test I'd like to see: take a problem set or task you couldn't solve beforehand, learn the topic this way, then try to solve it without the LLM in the loop

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#313

Post by SwtCyber » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:07 AM UTC

ixsploit wrote: post #311

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

I like to use them to generate me tutorial series for technical topics I want to learn or improve. So I start a prompt like this: > I want you to create a tutorial series about X for me. The prime objective is that I improve in topic X so never provide a solution but guide and teach. (for programming never write code). First create a question catalog to assess my current level. Then I would ask it to structure the tu…

I think the key difference here is that you're using the LLM to create exercises, not to replace the learning material

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#314

Post by brooke2k » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:07 AM UTC

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

I would tend to agree in the case that someone is using LLMs as their primary source for learning. But I've found a lot of use in having a claude project containing the PDF of a textbook I'm working through so that I can ask it to clarify or help me through parts I find confusing. I would definitely say that's greatly accelerated my learning - or at least greatly accelerated the speed at which I integrate information from textbooks.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#315

Post by tito » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:09 AM UTC

I ran this on ship tracks to see the global warming result. It built a toy climate model for cloud forcing: https://ship-tracks-tycoon.netlify.app

For background, in 2020 the International Maritime Organization changed fuel standards globally. The intent was to reduce pollution, which is great for human health. But, it turns out some of that pollution was supporting cloud formation and creating a cooling layer globally. And temperatures started to climb when the pollution was removed.

I haven't looked through how it's doing the calculations yet but this kind of visualization is full of possibilities if done right.

Thanks for making this guide!

Here's the code and publications/sources on Github for anyone to poke through: https://github.com/titojankowski/ship-tracks-tycoon

And since the details of ship tracks are a newer topic for me, I'm curious about Gell-Mann Amnesia. Next I'm going to apply this to a topic I understand well and will report back. Stay tuned! (will be tomorrow, bookmark or reply to this thread)

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#316

Post by SwtCyber » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:09 AM UTC

8bitsout wrote: post #48

I thought LLMs were a great tool for learning new topics - perhaps even complex ones. But overtime, I have had several frustrations with this. First, I get exhausted reading LLM prose. I really don't want to read anything generated by something like Opus 5 at this point. Second, as I dive deeper, I need a way to organize the information in a useful way as I begin to branch out in many different directions. I have tri…

I think there's an underrated difference between information generation and pedagogy here. LLMs are very good at producing more explanation, yet "more explanation" is often exactly what you don't need when learning something difficult

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#317

Post by ziofill » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:10 AM UTC

It depends what you mean by “learn”. To have a superficial idea of the high level concepts of a step-by-step process, sure, a 3d visualization like the ones this author makes can work. But it stops there.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#318

Post by SwtCyber » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:12 AM UTC

wxw wrote: post #31

> What you get is a beautiful animation that is 100% accurate and free of hallucinations. I'm not sure I follow how this is actually guaranteed? The fact-checking process mentioned just seems to involve asking AI to review its own work.

The "100% accurate and free of hallucinations" claim should probably be replaced with something much weaker

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#319

Post by noisy_boy » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:15 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #307

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

> don't really teach you anything Dunno, I've been learning a lot of Rust in the past few days. Just dove right into a project and asked AI to teach me stuff on a need to know basis. I'm actually getting used to Rust by now.

Same. I setup a practice skill that has a curriculum/list of topics, teaching methodology, approach to drills, progress tracking and spaced repetition.

Additionally I asked it to also give me problems relevant in my business domain so that I learn how to directly apply the knowledge in a realistic scenario.

I am getting much more comfortable writing rust than I was barely two weeks ago. More than I was just reading tutorials.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#320

Post by ignoramous » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:16 AM UTC

ixsploit wrote: post #311

matherial wrote: post #306

This is, without exaggeration, probably the fiftieth blog post or long-form comment about how someone is using an LLM for "complex learning", and I'd just really like to see at least one of these to be accompanied by a statement saying what are the kinds of problems the author can now confidently solve that they couldn't before. In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like y…

I like to use them to generate me tutorial series for technical topics I want to learn or improve. So I start a prompt like this: > I want you to create a tutorial series about X for me. The prime objective is that I improve in topic X so never provide a solution but guide and teach. (for programming never write code). First create a question catalog to assess my current level. Then I would ask it to structure the tu…

Curious: Why not pick up a book or two on the topic, and use the LLM to help you through it [0]? To me, prompting the LLM without grounding it sounds like a sure shot way to end up learning "pop-sci", as GP puts it, instead of the actual science?

If today's top LLMs are reliable enough (without grounding) to academically learn "complex topics" from, may be I need to adjust my priors. I must say, I do find myself chatting about other topics (without the need for grounding) that I'm trying to "absorb" (not really learn), like Behavioural Psychology & Philosophy.

[0] Products like NotebookLM are built specifically for such usecases.