Ask HN: How do you learn complex/difficult material online?

1 points by impish19 10y ago ↗ HN

I'm trying to go through some archived Coursera courses. Sometimes I have questions about the math in the slides or the lecture and I want to ask questions but I'm not sure where to direct them.

The discussion forums aren't active anymore since the courses are archived. Sometimes I use StackExchange but it doesn't always guarantee answers. Also sometimes people answer questions there in terms of other complex topics that you don't necessarily know about.

So what I want to know is, when you're studying something complex or technically hard to understand, how do you get your questions about the materials answered?

1 comment

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chirau 10y ago ↗

It might come as a surprise but Reddit is actually a very good learning platform. I have used it on several occasions to get help debugging scripts, discovering libraries, frameworks and tools to use etc. Even for explanations of complex concepts. The challenge is finding the right subreddit to post to.

Also, when you use reddit for troubleshooting, learning etc, I would encourage you to reward people who help you there. Be it reddit gold, a personal message or even something more, it's a nice thing to do.