Ask HN: For someone who was under a rock, what should they do to gain knowledge?

What kind of rock are we talking about?

I want to answer your question but “gain knowledge” is too broad and I don’t know how to respond. Consider making the question more specific. What kind of knowledge? What would they use the knowledge for?

- Provoke conversations with people about topics they find interesting. Ask them about the parts you don't understand. Then go off and do research on the internet / at the library about the topic. Then, if possible, talk with that person again now that you have a good understanding of the topic. They may be able to tell you things that aren't written down.

- Do things. One of the best ways to learn is by doing. If you want to learn about programming, write programs. If you want to learn about thermodynamics, build a small Stirling engine. If you want to learn about politics, join a political party (or form your own).

- Find people who want to learn the same thing you do, and learn together. I think that probably the primary advantage that universities offer over just learning things from books is that they gather together a bunch of people who are all interested in learning the same things.

But how should you choose what to learn about? What knowledge is important and worth having, and what knowledge could you do without? Some ideas:

- Learn about what interests you.

- Consider practical applications. Learn about things that seem useful.

- Learn a little bit about everything. Even if you don't know much about physics, you should still know enough to expect that your uncle Frank's perpetual motion machine isn't going to work.

- But also develop a very deep knowledge about a few areas. Ideally these should be both useful, and interesting to you.

- Try and get a good idea about what the future will look like as early in your quest for knowledge as possible. This will probably involve learning some history and some science. Unless you're some kind of superhuman, you should be envisioning a probability distribution over possible futures, not predicting a single future that is "definitely going to happen". In doing this, be as honest with yourself as possible about the assumptions you are making, and how likely they are to be correct. You should also update this probability distribution whenever you come across a new piece of pertinent information, especially if it contradicts your assumptions.

- Then try and learn things that seem likely to be useful across many possible futures.

Final advice:

- Remember that getting knowledge isn't the ultimate goal in life. You should get out and have some fun once in a while. Social skills are more important than book learning.

- This comment was written by a random person on the internet. Take it with a grain of salt.

Find something that fascinates you and research it. It's an amazing time for learning now, with introductory through to really deep knowledge and supportive communities available throughout the internet. Youtube itself is a goldmine, with some extremely well produced content exploring different topics. Then of course there are books and documentaries, forums and papers. Topics could include:

- History

- Science, Tech & Futurism

- Motorcycle, Automobiles & Engineering

- Art & Art History

- Philosophy

- Religion

- Geopolitics

- Economics

Now if you are like most people, this will kill a few hours but you wont quite "get into" the topic. Or you may feel excited about a topic for a few weeks/months and then loose interest. However, eventually you may find something that really interests you and take it further, until it becomes a hobby or a career. And if you don't, well you'll still more knowledgable than when you started.