LESSWRONG
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All of Evzen's Comments + Replies

Amsterdam, Netherlands – ACX Meetups Everywhere 2021
Evzen40

Hey, are English-speaking and never-been-to-a-meetup-ing individuals welcome as well?

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3[anonymous]
Yes, definitely
Trapped Priors As A Basic Problem Of Rationality
Evzen10

It could also be that the brain uses weights that are greater than 1 when weighting the priors. That way, we don't lose the gradation.

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Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Evzen10

If the plan was to understand the given subject, then yes, that would work. And of course, that is the ultimate plan.

However, the more pressing matter are the exams. I would be afraid that the intersection of the two programs won't contain all of the important concepts; that's my experience with "other" textbooks (meaning, other than the few recommend ones), at least.

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Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Evzen10

A month+ is plenty of time for spaced repetition to work its magic.

Thanks, that sounds encouraging.

For math, I recommend Anki; for non-Latex-intensive subjects like biology, I recommend SuperMemo for fast card creation while you read and review material.

I have to admit, I despise Anki. I love well-designed tools, to the point it's probably detrimental to my life. But alas, it is like it is — and so every time I see Anki (and I've made around 300 cards for it past the last few years), I have an urge to throw the computer out of the window.

But, that's just a... (read more)

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2TurnTrout
Why not use Google for notes from other schools?
Lessons I've Learned from Self-Teaching
Evzen30

It so happens that every six or seven months an article like this pops up, and revives my interest in Anki for a short while. So far, it has never stuck with me, but maybe this time…
 

I’m preparing for a bunch of Maths (linear algebra, analysis, automata and grammars, and the like) and Biology (molecular bio, immunology, genetics) exams, all due in June. I haven’t seen/used any of the subjects in question for at least a year, although I have passed each of them with perfect marks back then.

  1. Is it too late to construct the cards now as part of the refres
... (read more)
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4TurnTrout
Definitely not too late to make cards. I've learned a great deal of basic chemistry in the last month or so, just studying for random 30-minute chunks and binging interesting-looking wikipedia articles. A month+ is plenty of time for spaced repetition to work its magic. For math, I recommend Anki; for non-Latex-intensive subjects like biology, I recommend SuperMemo for fast card creation while you read and review material. Unfortunately, I have yet to write up my thoughts on the latter. I like to look at the "cheat sheets" for courses and ensure I know how to reason using the key concepts. Add cards for the key concepts you find in course review notes. For definitions and concepts, I like cloze deletions - they're easy to make and easy to learn. For exercises, add small practice problems for the key concepts and the items you know will be on the tests.  Don't learn every definition and theorem. 
Early career choices to maximise learning?
Evzen10

use all vacation time to pursue this

 

I understand your point, however on the other hand isn't this unhealthy? It's actually an interesting question; 'workaholism' is usually looked down upon, and this could be classified similarly, but what about situations when the persons really enjoys the 'work'? But then, don't alcoholics also enjoy drinking?

That's wildly off-topic, though. Thanks for your viewpoint, I think in general it's important to realise that it's good to invest both time and money in learning, even outside of school and work.

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2Viliam
There are people who like to spend extra time at work, in order to avoid their families. This would presumably not be your case. Doing voluntary overtime is frowned upon by colleagues, because you are defecting in a Prisonner's Dilemma. By sacrificing your free time to Moloch you may make a better impression than they, but if everyone followed your example, you would all be worse off (except for your boss, who would get a lot of extra work for free). Also, some colleagues would not be able to follow your example, e.g. because they need to take care of their families. The company would be tempted to fire them, and replace them by more people like you. (Only to fire them when they get older, and replace them by another fresh wave.) Please, do not defect against the social norm of 40-hour work-week! -- This again would not apply to you, if you do the extra work outside your job. Then, there is also a question of alternative things you could have been doing in your free time.
3RedMan
I found it fun, in some cases it wasn't 'recharging', in others it was. All in all, 'take a vacation and learn something new that's only vaguely related to my day to day routine' was pretty great. I still take vacations like this, and have now reached a point where I am running out of ideas for them
Early career choices to maximise learning?
Evzen30

Thanks, this is a nice POV, and sounds about right. Once I'm there (wherever that is), what should I strive for? Being in a small team with a dedicated person to ask things? Or being alone so that I ave to do everything myself, i.e. learn to do everything? 

That's the problem I see with going small, by the way. I think having a 'mentor' (or something as close to one as possible) would be really good for my learning, but show me a startup that can afford more than a week or two of onboarding time; I'd be afraid they just show you the basics and leave you to struggle alone.

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2Viliam
It is a lottery. You may meet awesome experts. You may also meet people who know less than you do, but have high status within the company, because they were hired 1 year before you and they suffer from a strong case of Dunning–Kruger syndrome. Often it's something in the middle: people who have lots of experience and lots of strong opinions, some of them wrong, but they generally get the job done. I am not sure how typical is my experience, but I learned most when I first spent some time in a team that worked with some technology, and later was alone or almost alone on a different project (sometimes in a different company) that used the same technology. Within the team, I learned what are the right tools to use, and what can be done with them; later alone, I had to connect all the pieces, and fully understood the big picture. Without previous team experience, I wouldn't know which technologies to use. It is difficult to make a good opinion on a technology without using it first, and there is not enough time to try them all. You need luck; or a trustworthy expert who already tried them. Popular opinion is unreliable, because many people are stupid, so they praise or condemn things for wrong reasons. Also, if many people complain about X, it may be because X is shit, or it may be simply because many people use X (probably because it does its job well). On the other hand, if you work with a more experienced team, the important decisions are made by someone else (sometimes before you join the team), the infrastructure is already set up, and you can develop within the existing project, but you never know whether you would be able to set up a similar project from scratch -- and that's a difference between junior and senior developer. Make notes. Remember that when you change jobs, you will never see your old code again. Today, if you need to make e.g. another controller, you probably look at the one you made a month ago, and follow the same structure. One day, this w
2johnswentworth
My current model is that people usually learn better by having to figure things out IF they don't just break down under the stress. If you aren't too stressed out by feeling lost and confused and having to figure it out on your own, and/or you can handle the stress, then that's probably the way to go. But for a lot of people, one or both of those conditions do not hold.