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How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

laurentiugabriel.github.io

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Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#441

Post by skydhash »

fluoridation wrote: post #402
elbear wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's talking about learning that makes you operational. If you can speak with someone, then you've learned language. If you can get a computer to do something, then you've learned some programming. The equivalent for biology would be to grow a plant or a few plants and animals successfully. That's operational at a certain level, you could also be operational at a lower or higher level.

No, it doesn't necessarily need to be applicable, it just needs to be testable. The size of the Earth for example may not affect you directly in any way, but it's something you can verify to some degree of precision. But if you just read about it, can you really say that you know it? What if all you believe about the size and shape of the Earth is from what you've asked an LLM? Do you still know it? EDIT: Perhaps not…

I’ve been burned by this enough that I no longer say that I’ve learned something if my only interaction with it is explanation from books. You can get snippets of knowledge and a framework of understanding, but true learning only comes with deep interaction of the concepts (practice, simulation, experiments, observations) and not merely reading.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#443

Post by locknitpicker »

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…

> In my experience, LLMs are really good for taking up your time and making you feel like you're learning, in the same way that many of the popular educational videos on YouTube are fun to watch and don't really teach you anything.

You wrote a wall of text just to say you struggle with learning when using some media. That's fine, each one of us struggles with different things. However, I hardly think it's fair to extrapolate your personal struggles with learning styles to everyone in such a sweeping approach, or that this is relevant to the topic.

If you want to go back to the basics, LLMs in the very least work as chatbots that you can use to follow the Socratic method to guide your way through your learning journey. If you still struggle with learning when asking questions and getting specific answers to them then it's safe to say LLMs are not a factor.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#444

Post by defmacr0 »

sublinear wrote: post #423
manfromchina1 wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don't get this attitude. For one thing, nobody on earth can give you a 500-word summary of quantum physics in a way that lets you internalize even a tiny bit of it. That's not how you learn anything. Here's how I do it: I open Baby Rudin (3rd ed.), second chapter, and read the main text - absolute brutality. I unpack almost every sentence with Claude/GPT until I finally get what's going on. No ELI5 nonse…

Is that meaningfully different from the study methods of the past? That doesn't require an LLM, and using one risks correctness in exchange for speed. You might not even get that speed if you're stuck in the weeds often enough. A decade ago, a google search for study guides written by another professor would have been slightly slower. A decade before that, you'd be even slower fumbling through several books. Every si…

I certainly would only trust my textbook as the authoritative source, but i can see that in the absence of an expert teacher it's nice to have something that can critique a proof. Imo the fact that it's hard to verify that your own proof is correct is one of the main barriers in self-studying math, especially if one is at a level where one is not completely fluent in applying the various techniques. This also applies to judging answers to open-ended questions in any other field.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#447

Post by EagleEdge »

For me the bigger value comes from explaining complex stuff. I remember Andrej Karpathy once said (He was quoting someone else actually) "You can outsource your thinking but you cannot outsource your understanding".

I can keep asking LLMs to explain a complex topic until I get it. Ask to explain it 10 different ways, explain it using physical analogies, explain it using visualization. If I don't get it, just say that out loud so that they can keep explaining it to me in different ways. We can keep going that until I really get it. That is the value I get the most using LLMs to learn things, especially complex topics.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#448

Post by einpoklum »

EagleEdge wrote: post #447

For me the bigger value comes from explaining complex stuff. I remember Andrej Karpathy once said (He was quoting someone else actually) "You can outsource your thinking but you cannot outsource your understanding". I can keep asking LLMs to explain a complex topic until I get it. Ask to explain it 10 different ways, explain it using physical analogies, explain it using visualization. If I don't get it, just say that…

> I can keep asking LLMs to explain a complex topic until I get it.

Or you'll be confused by the slop it generates, which is very conversational but may be just false. Or - you could "get" something wrong and believe it to be the truth because the AI said so.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#449

Post by intrasight »

piloto_ciego wrote: post #321
andrekandre wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wonder if people who use llm's for business critical documentation would have the same opinion, and if so why?

I have used LLMs for safety sensitive tech writing and so have people I know. It’s pretty good at it, and you usually have a 95% ready to go product at the end of it. The last 5% can pretty easily be filled in by technical experts with way less time spent battling the type writer. Is it perfect? No. But it suffices most of the time in a pinch. Can’t speak to the nuke industry, but it’s pretty good at aviation related…

A good compromise would be to have the LLM write the outline. That also helps get over the activation energy of starting.

Then elaborate in small chunks so the human domain expert can remain focused during review.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#450

Post by defmacr0 »

9dev wrote: post #372
abustamam wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many of the popular educational videos on YouTube are fun to watch and don't really teach you anything. As a tangent, I think the concept of pop science has wasted so much time of what could be considered brilliant minds. I can't believe how much YouTube people I consider really smart consume under the guise of "learning stuff." And the videos are always designed to be addicting and to entice you to watch other of…

I’m a bit too old for the YouTube generation (can’t stand the fast cuts and permanently agitated voices), but am absolutely guilty of reading a lot of pop-sci books. I feel like they do a better job at teaching stuff for the most part, but probably also make you fall into the trap of believing you actually learnt something… On the other hand, I’m fine with not being an expert on topics outside of my domain, as long a…

There's a spectrum between "barely scientific entertainment" and "dry technical reference". Also, it's not fully a zero-sum tradeoff, great authors have written serious textbooks that are quite entertaining to read, and there are pop-sci books that do a great job at covering advanced material.
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