Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

laurentiugabriel.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

521–530 of 567 posts

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#521

Post by [deleted] »

turzmo wrote: post #501
engineer_22 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument sound remarkably familiar. Humor me: "For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory.“ -Socrates, on writing. From Phaedrus Secondary source: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3439

I don't think so. There are many objections to methods of making learning "easier" and the invalidity of one does not imply the invalidity of all of them. We've also seen the effects of LLMs on learning, at least when used instinctively by students. An entire generation of students seems to have atrophied their critical thinking skills this way. Talk to 21-year-olds today and you'll see what I mean.

[deleted]

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#522

Post by runarberg »

bryzaguy wrote: post #514
hackrmn wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been research done (I know, big words -- don't have any links readily available), where it was pointing to the fact that what goes easily in (into the brain) also goes easily out, and conversely, what the brain requires effort and literal calories and energy to understand, stays there longer (investment must be rewarded / recouped somehow). So while there's no doubt that facilitating learning is a net-positiv…

Spaced repetition could address this, no? Also, the right example or metaphor can make a difficult concept both easier to understand and stickier in my mind which I think is different than something easy to learn.

Spaced repetition is a good way (perhaps even the optimal way) to get large amount of trivial memorization into your brain, but it not a good way to understand a complex subjects.

Memorizing one word in a foreign language is not that complex, nor hard. The tricky part about learning a language is that you have to memorize thousands of words, and the trickier part is that you have to retain most of those words over a long period of time. Spaced repetition helps by finding an optimal schedule to for the exact same activity as you would otherwise.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#523

Post by engineer_22 »

turzmo wrote: post #501
engineer_22 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument sound remarkably familiar. Humor me: "For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory.“ -Socrates, on writing. From Phaedrus Secondary source: https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3439

I don't think so. There are many objections to methods of making learning "easier" and the invalidity of one does not imply the invalidity of all of them. We've also seen the effects of LLMs on learning, at least when used instinctively by students. An entire generation of students seems to have atrophied their critical thinking skills this way. Talk to 21-year-olds today and you'll see what I mean.

>There are many objections to methods of making learning "easier" and the invalidity of one does not imply the invalidity of all of them.

I am pointing out a pattern of technological hubris stretching thousands of years.

>An entire generation of students seems to have atrophied their critical thinking skills this way. Talk to 21-year-olds today and you'll see what I mean.

Ah, yes, the old "kids these days" routine... quite fond of it myself sometimes. But I find myself benefitted when I take care to learn from the young.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#524

Post by cromka »

PaulStatezny wrote: post #222
cromka wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very well observed. I found one more thing: they fail to consider what a 3rd person might understand from your conversation, so when you ask it to dump stuff into a Documentation, they keep making references to facts you had previously discussed or to the train of thought, completely irrelevant to bystander.

100% -- this is the worst . Referencing all sorts of "words with made up contextual/analogous meanings" based on the conversation...outside of the conversation. Does anyone have a read on if this is primarily a Claude issue, or if all LLMs do this?

I think it's fundamentally and issue with LLMs, for this to not happen they'd have to constantly think "what does other person think right now/what's their state of knowledge" AND also apply that to am additional, third person which would be reading the Docs. They can't even do the first bit well. I think it's a limitation we'll have to live with.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#525

Post by engineer_22 »

runarberg wrote: post #520
hackrmn wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been research done (I know, big words -- don't have any links readily available), where it was pointing to the fact that what goes easily in (into the brain) also goes easily out, and conversely, what the brain requires effort and literal calories and energy to understand, stays there longer (investment must be rewarded / recouped somehow). So while there's no doubt that facilitating learning is a net-positiv…

I also think that this broad claim (LLMs are good for learning) is also a testable hypothesis, and given the size of the AI industry I think it is reasonable to assume that AI companies would be eager to proof that LLMs are good for learning (and then pushing their own proprietary implementations into school systems and make more money). The absence of evidence here feels very much like evidence of absence. At least…

LLM have only been useful for ~12 months (arguably <6 months). Too early to throw the baby out with the bathwater...

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#526

Post by daishi55 »

Terr_ wrote: post #199
daishi55 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any reproducible hallucinations on any of the currently available OAI/Anthropic models? I’m not aware of any. And even if they are related - if Opus 4.8 always has a 1:100 chance of a specific hallucination - then running the same model twice does indeed dramatically reduce the odds of an error in the final output.

If simply running things thrice-over was enough to stop "hallucinations" (and not incur other problems) we wouldn't be here talking about it today, it'd have been "solved" months or years ago.

I mean they have been solved practically I think. I use these things all day every day and haven’t seen a hallucination in a long time.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#527

Post by runarberg »

engineer_22 wrote: post #525
runarberg wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think that this broad claim (LLMs are good for learning) is also a testable hypothesis, and given the size of the AI industry I think it is reasonable to assume that AI companies would be eager to proof that LLMs are good for learning (and then pushing their own proprietary implementations into school systems and make more money). The absence of evidence here feels very much like evidence of absence. At least…

LLM have only been useful for ~12 months (arguably <6 months). Too early to throw the baby out with the bathwater...

LLM‘s have been useful for ~12 months for the past 3 years. I’m not buying this any more: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1753056000&dateRange=custom&...

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#528

Post by daishi55 »

fluoridation wrote: post #343
daishi55 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any reproducible hallucinations on any of the currently available OAI/Anthropic models? I’m not aware of any. And even if they are related - if Opus 4.8 always has a 1:100 chance of a specific hallucination - then running the same model twice does indeed dramatically reduce the odds of an error in the final output.

Even if your conditions are granted, different LLMs can easily consistently hold divergent "worldviews". LLM A might consistently state that fact P is true (i.e. it will never hallucinate a string that states or implies ¬P), while LLM B consistently states that fact ¬P is true. You don't have a way out of this with these two, and adding a third LLM is an additional confounding factor, not a solution. You can't settle…

This is really a theoretical problem and not a practical one though. Practically, for everything I use these tools for today (complex low-level systems programming), hallucinations don’t even exist anymore.

When they don’t know something, they figure it out empirically. For things they already know, they are consistently correct.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#529

Post by turzmo »

BeetleB wrote: post #506
turzmo wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baby Rudin is a special textbook: it comes from a time when mathematics textbooks were not at all judged by their pedagogical value, but instead by their aesthetic appeal to mathematicians (a la Bourbaki). If you actually want to learn analysis, there are a nearly infinite number of friendlier resources (e.g., Understanding Analysis by Abbott). Learning to unpack difficult text on one’s own is a valuable skill. Resea…

> I would argue that if you’re going to use an LLM to make Rudin easier to understand, you are not learning how to absorb difficult material, nor are you learning analysis efficiently. I would argue that if he can solve the problems on his own, without LLM assistance, than he has mastered it.

That may be, but my point stands. It is neither learning to absorb difficult material nor efficient.

Re: How I use LLMs to learn complex topics

#530

Post by abustamam »

qnleigh wrote: post #375
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…

Well everyone needs some downtime, and then I think it's important to acknowledge that there is a range of quality within the category of "educational entertainment." You can learn a lot of interesting things from 3BlueOneBrown and Veritasium, even though neither compares to working through a textbook.

I agree, and I dont know much about the channels you mention but im referring more to the short videos with fast cuts that are just designed to keep you watching instead of teaching you anything. Its like the overly processed vegetables you see in many stores ‐ it seems healthy because its real veggies but its actually junk food even if it is better than sugary junk food.
Post reply on HN