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Learning and Internalizing the Lessons from the Sequences
I'm just beginning to go through Rationality: From AI to Zombies. I want to make the most of the lessons contained in the sequences. Usually when I read a book I simply take notes on what seems useful at the time, and a lot of it is forgotten a year later. Any thoughts on how best to internalize the lessons from the sequences?
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Comments (9)
Eliezer has recommended that one read them twice. I found this helpful.
Yeah, I really didn't understand the metaethics sequence the first time, but now consider it to be a clear and important section. The difference was in my own ability to understand. I think this is a good reason to do rereading rather than notes or flashcards.
I also experienced this and agree that one can't meaningfully memorize what one has yet to learn. I find that's an especially common mistake with flashcards.
I have an Anki deck called Sequences - Useful Bits, where I threw some interesting things. Aside from that, re-reading is a good idea, as is talking with people who are familiar with the content.
There used to be recurrent Sequences readthroughs. Basically somebody would just post a link to the next entry in the Sequences and it would sit in Discussion for a week or so and be discussed. I found that re-reading them at a slow and deliberate pace really helped with absorption.
This spaced repetition deck was also somewhat useful, though I don't know if it was quite worth the time investment.
My experience was that the Sequences, like most pieces of writing densely packed with information, cannot be understood on a first read-through.
Instead, following how memory works by association, the first time you read through them a little will stick, and the next time more, and so on.
To be slightly more clear:
I suggest that the first time you read through them, focus on the bigger picture. Don't worry about any particular piece you don't understand, just keep going until you finish it. A decent metaphor for this might be how buildings are constructed: during your first reading, you are laying the foundations and creating the skeleton of steel girders.
Your next read-through will help to flesh out more of the meat, and so on.
I stress that it's important to keep going; Rationality is long, and a slog the first time through. If you have to skip ahead, skip.
Hope that helps.
Restating stuff in different words is a good rationalist exercise, and "words used in empirical economics and psychology" is probably a better choice than most others.
Not sure how the language of empirical economics and psychology would help with the quantum physics, or even Bayesian equations, though.