🐱‍💻 How to learn complex things quickly?

Vio Vanica
7 replies
I was wondering if you have a system or any advice in terms of learning things that are complicated, and learning them fast? Any advice might be helpful! How do you do it?

Replies

VISHNU SUBRAMANIAN
For me learning a complex topic by following different sources helps. For example, when I was starting with deep learning a subfield of AI, I would have read at least 4-5 books and several MOOCs, before I got a feeling that I understand it. It did not happen at one stretch, I gave up several times before starting to feel comfortable. So the easiest way to understand something is not giving up, which is actually not easy. I hope there are better ways.
Vio Vanica
@vishnu_subramanian l think so, personally I find willpower quite hard to hack. What I see also as the solution that might help is to look at the pain of not doing it. what do you think about this?
VISHNU SUBRAMANIAN
@viorica_vanica It depends on the reasons too. For me when I am curious about something then I overcome the willpower issues. But if it for some external reasons like passing an exam thats where it becomes quite a challange. For which I do not have a solution.
Chandan Das
Break whatever you're trying to learn down. Consider how much you need to learn to accomplish each. Start by just trying stuff and take break
Vio Vanica
@chandan_shopify thank you, how much break do you take?
Matt Romond
It really depends on what you're trying to learn. I've found frequently zooming in and zooming out to be helpful. I first try to understand the big picture and as soon as I have even the slightest idea of how things fit together I dive into a specific technical nuance that might be vital to the whole; trying to understand and replicate (i.e., practice) something small. Once I put some pieces together on the ground level I zoom back out and repeat the process. It's like putting together a puzzle. Eventually it's possible to see which pieces go where and why, even if the picture isn't complete.
Vio Vanica
@mattromond do you use visual board for that - I am just a visual type of learner and find it useful to have something you look at. So how do you do it?