
Learn Anything White Paper - nikivi
https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-anything/wiki/White-Paper
======
ropeladder
Hey this looks really cool. Are you familiar with Metacademy?
([https://metacademy.org/](https://metacademy.org/)) (previously on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7617683](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7617683))
Looks like you are trying to do a very similar thing, although they are maybe
operating on a more conceptual level.

What have you used to build the site and do the layout? I'm always interested
in how people are using graph-based UIs since I've been working on one myself
over at Thicket.io: [https://thicket.io](https://thicket.io). (you can browse
a graph of academic paper citations and then connect papers to policy
arguments) It's a real challenge to display lots of information coherently.

~~~
nglgzz
Yeah we were partly inspired by it and the idea is similar. Although, they
seem to focus on ML and Math, while we hope to cover as many topics as
possible. Another difference is that we don't host any content, but just links
to resources.

For rendering the maps we're using React and D3. D3 is used for calculating
the position of elements on the page and, React for rendering and manipulating
those elements. Before we had a ref and let D3 manage everything on that ref,
but it got unmanageable quite fast.

EDIT: if you're interested here's an article that explains what I'm talking
about [https://medium.com/@Elijah_Meeks/interactive-applications-
wi...](https://medium.com/@Elijah_Meeks/interactive-applications-with-
react-d3-f76f7b3ebc71)

~~~
ropeladder
Thanks for the link. I'm using D3 + Vue.js, with D3 handling the data, layout
and rendering, and then Vue (with Vuex) handling events and state management.
I think this example is closer to what you are doing (but using Vue)?
[https://emiliorizzo.github.io/vue-d3-network/](https://emiliorizzo.github.io/vue-d3-network/)

~~~
nglgzz
I'm not familiar with Vue, but from the source of that link it seems a similar
approach.

------
nileshtrivedi
You are asking for contributions from people and at the same time, you have
plans to "monetize" the website by building premium-only features. It feels
like exploitation.

~~~
nglgzz
I'm really sad you feel that way. Wikipedia also asks for contributions and
donations, does that feel like exploitation to you?

No it doesn't, cause there's a massive amount of work that goes in projects
like these and there's costs too. Costs that donations don't always pay.

Would you prefer a huge banner while you're browsing asking you to donate and
telling you that if we don't meet a certain quota we're shutting down the
website, or would you prefer having an additional feature that you may or may
not want to pay for? I don't know you, but I'd definitely go for the second
one.

~~~
andrepd
Wikipedia is entirely free, and asks for donations to cover its costs. It does
_not_ lock any features to paying users only. There is a world of a
difference. For this to be the case, on a website made by user contributions
no less, is even more upsetting.

And yes, I prefer an unreservedly free website with banners reminding you to
donate to a website that makes money off locking certain features to paying
costumers only.

~~~
z0r
This is not related to your main point, but arguably Wikipedia is raising
millions of dollars under false pretenses (that is, they run scare ads
insisting that money is needed to keep the servers running) while the
Wikimedia Foundation spends most of it on projects users don't know about and
wouldn't want to fund. I think if the fundraising was more transparent more
people would never donate to them again. It's been a number of years since my
last donation and I won't be giving to them again until I'm sure the money
will be used responsibly.

~~~
foota
I don't know, taking a look at their 15-16 annual plan it looks fairly
reasonable to me.

------
balazsdavid987
Great initiative, but how it is different from a collection of links for
subject X? The mindmap approach is fancy but does it deliver more value than a
simple tree-like folder structure (especially on mobile)? Again, I think
that's a great idea but I'm not sure about the execution.

~~~
nikivi
Thank you. There is a lot of value in a simple tree-like folder structure as
you say. It is easier to navigate and plays well with mobile.

However, one of our goals with the website is not just finding the resource
that you need to learn some topic. But exploring all the different topics and
travelling from one topic to another. And we think that visualising these
learning paths would really help with this goal. Granted that the current
visualisation that you see live now on the website is not perfect. We hope to
improve and make it better in the coming times.

If you do have ideas on how we can improve it, the project is Open Source and
built with React so you can add the features and details that you think are
missing to make it more perfect for you and everyone else.

We also provide an API so anyone can build a 'list-view' version of the
website if anyone wants to.

------
mgadams3
This is a great idea but lacks the critical concept of a "cohesive narrative".
It's not enough just to know that the top resource for Javascript is Elequent
Javascript and that the next 3 concepts are promises, ES6 and package managers
(if that even is linearly correct in the first place). Each section needs a
summary of how it connects to the node before and after it, which obviously
should be edited by the community in wiki style.

~~~
nikivi
Summaries of topics are a planned feature we hope to add in the future. We
also hope to add user made 'notes' on each of the resources so anyone can see
what other people think of the resource or link before visiting it.

And we agree that the branching of one topic to another can be done in a
better way. We hope to add features for users to be able to not only add
resources but also create new 'nodes' and create and add new topics.

------
brrrr
I had a look at [https://learn-anything.xyz](https://learn-anything.xyz), and
for most topics it's just a link to the Wikipedia page, and occasionally also
a link to Reddit or StackExchange.

Is this really all there is to it? It reminds me of the hand-curated website
directories that were popular in the 1990s, before search engines had really
hit the spot. Nothing groundbreaking here from what I can see.

~~~
nikivi
Yes, there are some topics that are quite empty with resources sadly. However
this can change with contributions and users using the website.

For example there is a map for learning Machine Learning ([https://learn-
anything.xyz/machine-learning](https://learn-anything.xyz/machine-learning))
which is quite large. There are a few other maps like that in the database.

All together there are over 2,000 maps available currently but this number too
will grow with contributions.

~~~
gitgud
Have you thought about adding some kind of reputation system? To give
incentive for contribution by users.

A voting system could also be useful in verifying that the content is
accurate/relevant to users.

~~~
nikivi
A voting system is already in place. Users can upvote or downvote resources
according to what they like and think is useful.

Having some kind of reputation system is also a really good idea. You were
thinking of having it similar to Reddit where you get `karma` for posting good
resources?

~~~
gitgud
Thanks for the responses (to both threads). Yes, reputation is an important
factor to the success of all these platforms; Reddit, Stackoverflow, Imgur,
Hacker news....

It gives a quantifiable measure of how much you're helping a community.
Without it, members can't see the effects of the contributions they've made,
and are probably less likely to continue contributing.

I personally believe it's an extremely small minority of people who will
contribute to your website for altruistic reasons alone.

------
YaxelPerez
Kind of unrelated, but I've found that a good way to direct your research on a
subject is to write or edit articles on
[https://simple.wikipedia.org](https://simple.wikipedia.org). It forces you to
understand a topic to the point where you can explain it simply, kind of like
the Feynman Technique. Plus, other people can look at your writings and
understand the subject too.

------
lsc
One side of being an adult learner is that this is self-directed. I don't know
what comes before what; I want, for example, a good math education. What does
a good math education involve? I don't know! I mean, one of the big things
college does is that it serializes your learning. Gives it order. I kind of do
the same thing when I read; one book will recommend another in an
introduction; with the kindle, I'll often stop reading the first book, go buy
and read the recommended book, then return (or not) to the first book. But
that happens a lot more in Literature than in Mathematics books, it would
seem.

I type in 'calculus' and it seems to _start_ with calculus, rather than giving
me all the prerequisites. It does have a nice list of links (most of which
I've seen before, but that I've decided I need more math background to
properly digest)

The prerequisites, in my experience, are super important. if you skip the
prerequisites and think you understand, you are probably getting the "Malcom
Gladwell" version of the subject; which in many ways is worse than nothing at
all; that's how we've got so many people who have even less math knowledge
than I do who think they can explain quantum physics to me. I at least know
enough to know that I don't understand, I understand that shrodinger's paradox
is not enough to understand what's actually going on; I mean, I know the
paradox, and explaining it to me slowly saying, "You understand?" won't help.
I need the math background to give the paradox meaning. You do too.

I guess the other problem here is that for basic math, Khan academy is super
hard to beat. I can tell Khan "I want to learn calculus" and it will make me
do all the prerequisites for calculus. I think that doing this for basic math
after Khan is a little like starting a new encyclopedia after Wikipedia; I'm
not saying that creating value there is impossible, but you have a hell of a
competitor.

------
Mbioguy
Wikipedia harnessed the creative commons to create a massive store of
knowledge. It created a fantastic resource for topical learning. However, that
resource was not created with fast and efficient sequential learning in mind.
WikiBooks and Wikiversity were projects I had high hopes for, but as yet have
not succeeded in the way Wikipedia has.

The meta of how to learn effectively was not something I recall ever studying
in school, and only recently have focused on. It's hard because different
techniques may work for some better than others, and what works for an adult
may not work as well for a child.

I eagerly await the gamification of education. Books and videos can be
fantastic, but are not the end-all of education. You can't just be given
knowledge, you must interact with it, and use it. When I studied basic
anatomy, one of the most time-effective methods I ever discovered was using
anatomy apps on my phone that made a game of recall. When starting to program,
I appreciated websites that included input sections and would compile and run
them in-browser. I could practice what I was learning and learn from mistakes
as I went. Interactivity works well.

Nowadays I use Anki ([https://apps.ankiweb.net/](https://apps.ankiweb.net/))
on my PC and phone, following Wozniak's Rules of Formulating Knowledge
([https://www.supermemo.com/en/articles/20rules](https://www.supermemo.com/en/articles/20rules))
when creating my own study decks. I really like using decks created
collaboratively by the community, that correspond to an external resource like
a textbook. There is power in connecting books and videos to interactive
methods of learning like Anki and others. What resources can be
synergistically used together in a time-efficient way?

I hope this project curates and collates not just books and video sources but
also interactive methods of learning. The idea of using the collaborative
commons to create an entire system is intriguing. I hope the concept of
valuing resources by time spent and efficiency gets more attention.

------
aSockPuppeteer
Please add pre-requisites as well to the model. For the vectors > linear
algebra example: someone may need to re-learn a few techniques before diving
in.

Another revenue stream to consider may be
[https://coinhive.com/](https://coinhive.com/) It uses the clients computer to
mine monero(crypto currency) which you can then exchange for bitcoin or
anything. It is less intrusive than a banner or transaction request and a user
merely needs to click a checkbox to donate their cpu time.

Good luck and make it work without javascript as well.

~~~
arbie
Adding prerequisites would make a great beginning to a universal tech tree!

~~~
nikivi
That would be amazing indeed. This is only a beginning of what can be
possible, I am sure we can add something like this in the future.

------
BucketSort
I really like this initiative. As others have mentioned, there are similar
efforts. One thing I'd like to see is an adaptive lesson plan based on a
learners affinity. For example, let's say we have a calculus lesson plan.
There could be several modules on limits. Once a learning profile is
established it could be used to guide learners to the module best suited for
them. There are many ideas about this, but I just wanted to mention something
about adaptive learning, because I'm very keen on its applications.

------
ybalkind
I've thought about this concept before and I would tackle it as so:

For every subject you need to list:

    
    
      - the pre-prequisites
    
      - the subsequent subjects one can learn on top of this one
    

You then have a map of learning.

That's phase 1. the next phase is for each subject to list

    
    
      - where to learn it (books, articles, online courses)
    
      - where to practice it so that once you've learned it you can get better at it and commit it to memory (applies more to some subjects than others. You cannot practice History, but you can practice literacy, numeracy, human languages and programming for example)
    
      - where to get tested on it so that you can objectively test your level and get certification
    

The internet has opened up learning of everything. The problem is knowing what
to learn, where to start, and how to structure your learning. The above
solution would fill the gaps in my opinion.

In fact there is one more layer you can add to all of the above, Gamification.
Build a Strava for learning where you can get points for learning, practicing
and getting certified in various subjects, and share your progress with
friends and family who can motivate you to push on.

I can imagine the above framework being implemented from primary school to
basically enable self-learning as a primary form of learning. Teachers would
play a supporting role. Students would have much more freedom to align their
learning with their interest and would be able to learn exponentially faster
and more effectively.

I'm in South Africa, and I've thought of this as a solution to our public
education system which is producing a generation of semi-literate
unemployable. If someone believes in the model as I stated it and has the
means and capacity to launch a startup in this vein I hope you will loop me
in.

------
claudiulodro
Interesting. I'm solving the same problem but with a different approach![1] I
just finished the initial development yesterday so there isn't much in the way
of documentation yet, but I'll give a quick overview as a comparison to this
(since they have a similar goal but very different approaches):

I have one course put together so far and that course is still a little
rough[2] (again, just finished development yesterday).

I think manual curation of resources by topic experts is required for this
model to be effective. An expert on a subject will know where you should focus
your efforts so you don't get lost just wandering around the internet
digesting all the related information. mgadams3 touched on this with their
observation about learn-anything.xyz courses needing a cohesive narrative.

I also think tests are necessary. I have read many articles about all sorts of
things and more-often-than-not the information goes in one ear and out the
other. My approach involves a series of multiple choice quizzes every few
articles and a multiple choice final exam at the end. This way you know that
you have actually learned something before moving on. I don't have any tests
set up for the course I have made yet, but they are an integral part of the
process.

learn-anything.xyz is cool. The tech is very impressive! I'm just not sure
that it was made by someone that is actually going to use it for all of their
learning, and I would have no idea how to effectively use it for my learning.
Impressive work but that's just my 2 cents.

[1] [https://github.com/claudiulodro/multithreaded-
knowledge](https://github.com/claudiulodro/multithreaded-knowledge)

[2] [http://multithreaded.link/course/mid-century-modern-
furnitur...](http://multithreaded.link/course/mid-century-modern-furniture/)

~~~
nileshtrivedi
Please take some time to expand the README and a few screenshots, perhaps. :-)

~~~
claudiulodro
For sure. I wasn't expecting to talk about it anywhere for a few weeks. Keep
an eye on that repo; there will definitely be more documentation and stuff
coming soon.

------
jgrodziski
Yes, great initiative. I tried to do the same with my "Learn Computing
Directory" [0] website some times ago...with hand curated links towards
websites, books, video courses, etc. all on a github repo Should have add a
way to upvote the links...

I find the "Graph" way of presenting the topics very interesting. I think
trying to deal with all the conceivable topics is a dead end, but maybe
allowing to install the software, like discourse, in communities websites may
be a better strategy?

[0]: [https://www.learn-computing-directory.org/](https://www.learn-computing-
directory.org/)

------
hsikka
This is awesome, I’ve been following Learn Anything for a while, it’s been
inspiring to see it grow.

~~~
nikivi
Thank you a lot. This is really encouraging and helps us keep going with this
idea.

------
jngreenlee
So it's like a meta-wiki?

~~~
toomuchtodo
It’s supposedly a self assembling learning plan for any subject. Meta-Khan
Academy.

~~~
jngreenlee
So I tried "existentialism", and only got back a wrapper to the wiki:
[https://learn-anything.xyz/1338](https://learn-anything.xyz/1338)

I'd think there would be more content to grab from?

~~~
nglgzz
If you know any good resources feel free to add them, so next time someone
searches for "existentialism" they will find something more beside the link to
wiki.

------
canercandan
Sounds like the UI and the underlying mind map presentation are very different
from the one illustrated in the youtube video.

~~~
nikivi
It is. We recently released a big update to the Website that included a
complete overhaul in design. We will make a new video and upload it very soon.

------
ozcoder56
Also checkout [https://www.commonlounge.com](https://www.commonlounge.com)

------
DelightOne
Any success stories?

------
fiatjaf
I've seen "Learn Anything" links submitted here many times and every time I
open them and conclude I don't like this approach -- it seems like a worse
Google.

But I dislike even more the fact that now there is a "whitepaper" with
"abstract" and "conclusion". I didn't read it, though.

