
Ask HN: Hacking Learning Resources? - nekopa
I have put myself on a heavy learning workload, as I feel I need to update most of my skills. As a teacher, I have set myself challenging, project based goals for this learning. Through some old HN submissions I have found some excellent resources on the various subjects (Math, AI, statistics, design, programming to name a few)
The only thing that I can't seem to find are any resources about improving (or hacking) the process of learning (various google searches have led to articles on learning how to hack, but not hacking how to learn). I managed to uncover this site: http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/hacking-knowledge which has some good tips, but I would like to see if anyone here has some good book recommendations. 
One thing to keep in mind is that I don't want to <i>cheat</i> so to say, I am not going for any exams or anything like that, and I am not looking for short cuts (I do have a few books on the memory palace theory and such for helping my recall). I am just trying to find some good ways to make my methods of learning more efficient, as I have a lot of information to go through.
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jonsen
Isn't it somewhat paradoxically, that a teacher should ask for hack-how-to-
learn recommendations?!

No offense meant. Just struck me. Being a teacher myself I know no one really
knows the ultimate learning hacks.

Actually I'm in a similar process of brushing up my knowledge. For now I'm
doing some meta reading:

 _How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading_

<http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0671212095/>

~~~
nekopa
No offense taken. I have just spent most of my time hacking how to teach,
hence the way I have designed my own self-study course. But I realized that I
need to look more on the student side in how I deal with the materials and
organize it more. I think I know how to be a _good_ student, but then I
thought, what ways can I maybe hack this? So as always, I like to see what is
out there, and see what people have already done or tried, before I start to
re-invent the wheel.

That book looks interesting, how do you find it so far?

~~~
jonsen
I find How to Read a Book really promising. It seems like it will provide a
solid framework for reading for really deep learning.

I found so far, that I'm not a bad reader. Apparently I already master several
of the techniques described. But anyway I find it very valuable to become much
more consciously aware of my own reading abilities. And I definitely expect to
improve my abilities from the study of the book.

Also I find the arguments and supporting explanations in the book so far of
distinct value.

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samratjp
Cal Newport's Study Hacks is excellent place to start:
<http://www.calnewport.com/blog/>

In general, the best way to learn and retain memory of it is to collect,
organize and repeat in small chunks, which you know already. To optimize the
cycle is the tricky part. For collecting, keep a simple blog or a private
posterous, so emailing it to yourself for future reference. And, use tags, my
friend. Lots of tagging of your bookmarks. Amazing how much learning to know
where things are when you need them is a handy thing to do.

As about organizing, have a buffer time on Sunday (as Cal would say) to
organize the week ahead. And remember heavy ≠ optimal.

~~~
nekopa
Interesting link, that is the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

Yes, organizing is crucial. I am basically trying to do the collecting and
repeating recursively. All of the various projects I have set up use a fair
amount of similar "chunks", but in slightly different contexts, so I hope to
have built in the repetition, but in an interesting way. The overall
organizing I am still working on, as I am putting the finishing touches on the
'syllabus' I am going through. It looks as though I will have to write some
custom software to do it, which is kind of good news in a way, because by
doing that I will also work on areas which I am studying, i.e. data
visualization. Thanks for the link

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Mz
There is a series of books, which for the life of me I cannot remember, about
learning various programming languages and such. The front of the books has
tips like "Read just before bedtime" and talks about why the book is organized
the way it is (for maximum memorability). They have illustrations and witty,
engaging and generally interesting.

A quick google turns up the title "Head First" and I think that is the name of
these books. Even if they don't teach any subjects of interest to you, walk
into a book store and read the intro that talks about why these books are
organized the way are and the tips and suggestions they offer for learning
more efficiently.

~~~
nekopa
Ok, thanks. I think I have one of the head first books (UML I believe) so I'll
check that out

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pw
I'd suggest the book Why Don't Students Like School?
(<http://www.amazon.com/Why-Dont-Students-Like-School/dp/04702...>) to those
interested in applying the findings of cognitive science to their own
learning. I'm finding it very useful in that regard.

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whimsy
As far as I'm concerned, Piotr Wozniak is the expert when it comes to hacking
memory. Recalling important tidbits is inextricably linked to learning, and
his methods seem to work best for remembering things.

