Ask HN: Hacking Learning Resources?
I have put myself on a heavy learning workload, as I feel I need to update most of my skills. As a teacher, I have set myself challenging, project based goals for this learning. Through some old HN submissions I have found some excellent resources on the various subjects (Math, AI, statistics, design, programming to name a few)
The only thing that I can't seem to find are any resources about improving (or hacking) the process of learning (various google searches have led to articles on learning how to hack, but not hacking how to learn). I managed to uncover this site: http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/hacking-knowledge which has some good tips, but I would like to see if anyone here has some good book recommendations.
One thing to keep in mind is that I don't want to cheat so to say, I am not going for any exams or anything like that, and I am not looking for short cuts (I do have a few books on the memory palace theory and such for helping my recall). I am just trying to find some good ways to make my methods of learning more efficient, as I have a lot of information to go through.
9 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] threadIn general, the best way to learn and retain memory of it is to collect, organize and repeat in small chunks, which you know already. To optimize the cycle is the tricky part. For collecting, keep a simple blog or a private posterous, so emailing it to yourself for future reference. And, use tags, my friend. Lots of tagging of your bookmarks. Amazing how much learning to know where things are when you need them is a handy thing to do.
As about organizing, have a buffer time on Sunday (as Cal would say) to organize the week ahead. And remember heavy ≠ optimal.
Yes, organizing is crucial. I am basically trying to do the collecting and repeating recursively. All of the various projects I have set up use a fair amount of similar "chunks", but in slightly different contexts, so I hope to have built in the repetition, but in an interesting way. The overall organizing I am still working on, as I am putting the finishing touches on the 'syllabus' I am going through. It looks as though I will have to write some custom software to do it, which is kind of good news in a way, because by doing that I will also work on areas which I am studying, i.e. data visualization. Thanks for the link
A quick google turns up the title "Head First" and I think that is the name of these books. Even if they don't teach any subjects of interest to you, walk into a book store and read the intro that talks about why these books are organized the way are and the tips and suggestions they offer for learning more efficiently.
No offense meant. Just struck me. Being a teacher myself I know no one really knows the ultimate learning hacks.
Actually I'm in a similar process of brushing up my knowledge. For now I'm doing some meta reading:
How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0671212095/
That book looks interesting, how do you find it so far?
I found so far, that I'm not a bad reader. Apparently I already master several of the techniques described. But anyway I find it very valuable to become much more consciously aware of my own reading abilities. And I definitely expect to improve my abilities from the study of the book.
Also I find the arguments and supporting explanations in the book so far of distinct value.