Comment author: bramflakes 24 January 2014 12:49:02PM 2 points [-]

I quit the Coursera information theory one because it was presented so drably and gave very little high level insight into what was going on. It was essentially just the guy reading from the textbook. It's all the things wrong with traditional teaching with none of the benefits of MOOCs (aside from the forums).

I'm currently working my way through these lectures. The instructor is engaging, and actually explains what it is we're doing and why we ought to care. I'd be on board with working through them together!

Comment author: Markas 24 January 2014 08:06:49PM 0 points [-]

I had the same issue with the Coursera class, but thought it might be tolerable with a partner - this looks much better, though. I'll message you to discuss details.

In response to Find a study partner
Comment author: Markas 24 January 2014 06:02:45AM 4 points [-]

I'm active on Coursera - currently taking Game Theory II. Other courses that just started but look interesting include Cryptography, Computational Molecular Evolution, and Information Theory. I'm up to try one of those or any other quantitative course that looks interesting with a study partner.

Also, I have a decent background in data science/machine learning through Coursera courses but not much practical experience. If anyone wants to partner for either a competition (something like Kaggle) or to analyze a real data set, I'd be happy to work on that.

Comment author: Markas 24 January 2014 05:53:47AM 6 points [-]

I've been using a similar tactic lately. When an ugh field is blocking some important task, I'll explicitly ask myself "if I actually wanted to solve this problem, what would I do?" That seems to immediately generate enough emotional distance that I can come up with a more granular plan like the one you described.

Comment author: ephion 12 January 2014 03:46:24PM *  5 points [-]

I'm heavily interested in instrumental rationality -- that is, optimizing my life by 1) increasing my enjoyment per moment, 2) increasing the quantity of moments, and 3) decreasing the cost per moment.

I've taught myself a decent amount and improved my life with: personal finance, nutrition, exercise, interpersonal communication, basic item maintenance, music recording and production, sexuality and relationships, and cooking.

If you're interested in possible ways of improving your life, I might have direct experience to help, and I can probably point you in the right direction if not. Feel free to ask me anything!

Comment author: Markas 12 January 2014 07:01:11PM 0 points [-]

Do you use any quantitative self tools for this? If so, could you elaborate on your data tracking/analysis processes?

Comment author: jsteinhardt 12 January 2014 06:59:18AM 11 points [-]

I'm a PhD student in artificial intelligence, and co-creator of the SPARC summer program. AMA.

Comment author: Markas 12 January 2014 06:59:16PM 1 point [-]

Could you talk about your graduate work in AI? Also, out of curiosity, did you weight possible contribution towards a positive singularity heavily in choosing your subfield/projects?

(I am trying to figure out whether it would be productive for me to become familiar with AI in mainstream academia and/or apply for PhD programs eventually.)

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