How to Learn Advanced Concepts Fast

Key Takeaways

hello world it's Suraj and today I'm gonna share 10 strategies I personally use to learn advanced concepts as fast as possible computer science is my one true love there are endless subtopics to explore from basic concepts like abstraction to more advanced concepts like machine learning security distributed systems and teledildonics and because I find it so incredibly exciting I love the process of learning it which brings me to my first point find a reason to learn before you start your learning journey you've got to have that motivation that drive to learn that means finding a cause you really believe in this is my first point because it's the most important giving yourself the space to reflect on yourself your life and the state of humanity is one of the most important things you can do in this regard that means traveling seeking out new experiences meeting new and interesting people connecting with them and really trying to understand their motivations in life to help you formulate your own for me traveling through Asia for a few months gave me the perspective I needed to finally realize that solving AI was the most important thing in the world I realized that despite having failed in so many other tasks I was a gifted communicator and I saw an opportunity to apply my unique skillset to help achieve this goal but once you're ready to learn how do you know where to start what we're all lucky in that the internet provides us with a huge variety of learning resources that we could potentially use it is the new University and it is our responsibility to use it as such the only way to know which resources work best for you is to try out as many of them as you can and reinforcement learning this is called the exploration versus exploitation dilemma how does a learning agent know how much to explore possible options before choosing one and utilizing it to its full capacity different people learn best in different ways for example whenever I'm researching a topic I'll google it and open up at least ten different browser windows dedicated to informational links on that topic simultaneously some of them will be articles some will be video some will be papers some will be podcasts I'll quickly skim through each of them getting as much of the gist as I can before settling on one that I find especially interesting and retains my interest longer than the rest my personal favorite way of learning is to watch videos at 3x speed on YouTube I use a Chrome extension to do this link to it is in the description it feels like when neo had data downloaded into his brain I'm getting both auditory and visual input into my head at 3 X the normal speed it was hard for my brain to get used to that much of a speed-up so I started off only a little faster and over time gradually increase the speed the brain will adapt it will learn to process input faster and eventually normal speed will feel too slow the same logic can apply to podcasts and audiobooks don't discount any medium of learning the more diverse your inputs the better or more generalized your understanding of a topic will be but if you have a bunch of possible learning options you want to start off with the absolute simplest ones first you've got to have a basic understanding of a topic first before you move on to the harder stuff I usually look for a li 5s on reddit for super-tough concepts those are really helpful also short introductory explainer videos on YouTube are awesome so if I want to learn about say gradient descent rather than first going through the scientific paper that introduces gradient descent with a bunch of equations I'll first try to understand the concept at a very high level and the reasons for it then once I have a basic idea from a few sources I'll read some in-depth tutorials from people who've gone through the process of learning it already the experts hopefully with code samples so I can build off of their knowledge it's like a tree of abstractions if you can peer into someone's representation of a concept in their mind by consuming their contents you can grasp that concept much faster when it comes to code I use github like a google for code samples I look for really basic code samples that don't have too many lines of code ideally under 100 that programmatically implement some concept I'll analyze the arc texture and then move on to a more detailed implementation if you start with the hardest stuff first it will be way easier to get discouraged and give up so you have to create a set of small achievable goals in your journey whenever we begin the learning process we go through a honeymoon phase where we experience a release of dopamine as we encounter novel concepts but there is always a dip in excitement a period when our progress slows and we get frustrated many people end their journey at that dip they convince themselves that they aren't smart enough or they've run out of money or they'd rather watch Game of Thrones but if you can stay motivated through the dip period then eventually you'll get to the point of mastery a place where you can finally feel that you've learned the topic and be proud of that fact set deadlines for each of these goals the research shows that doing this motivates you to complete each one breaking up your larger learning goal into smaller ones will help keep you motivated you're receiving a dopamine reward every time you've learned some small part of a larger concept and since each goal you've created isn't too hard or too easy it keeps you interested allowing you to maintain a flow state a state of maximum concentration and focus creating your own well-planned Learning Path doesn't come naturally it's a skill and like all skills it needs to be honed learning which are the right questions to ask is a really useful exercise when designing your learning goals what are the burning questions you'd like to have answered take some time to write them down it's surprisingly useful to be able to see them outside your own head let your curiosity drive your learning path and it'll be a lot more enjoyable learning isn't just about consuming content it's about doing studies show that you should spend a third of your time researching and two-thirds of your time doing for example you can stare at the chain rule all day and look at code samples but unless you implement it yourself you won't truly understand how backpropagation works in deep learning doing means finding some medium of applying what you've learned for me that medium is teaching I am constantly writing scripts of what I've speaking reading out those scripts and editing adding relevant assets to be displayed alongside my voice practice finding the most dense description of a topic you can how can you summarize an entire algorithm into one sentence you can also take notes by hand or create flashcards both proven methods for knowledge retention but look let's be real learning advanced concepts isn't easy so you've got to allow yourself to be uncomfortable nothing worth achieving comes easily those experts weren't born with the knowledge they have they put in countless hours of study to get there that uncomfortable feeling you get when you encounter a topic you know nothing about is the learning process you've got to get okay with that discomfort just know that the more you look at a topic the easier it'll get your brain behaves like a muscle so you've got to Train it like one just like how the best athletes train every morning no matter how sore they feel or the best writers write every day no matter how bad it turns out the best students know that it's all about having a disciplined study regimen there are so many potential distractions out there you have to have the discipline to tune out everything else and focus on your tasks do it in intervals every 50 minutes give yourself some intense highly focused learning time take a 10-minute break and repeat and because the learning process can be difficult remember to seek out feedback if you have a question that you're having a really hard time answering ask it on Stack Overflow or a subreddit or a slack channel ask a friend find someone you really admire who excels in that topic and ask them on Twitter directly you'll find that most people are more than willing to help you out if you ask a question in a short concise and easily digestible way and lastly take care of yourself that means treat your body like the machine that it is you've only got one that means avoid too much sugar remember to eat fruits and vegetables and find a fun way to exercise jogging biking fencing anything that will improve blood circulation to your brain at least three times a week anyways I hope my tips helped you I've summarized them all in the video description below and no code Challenge this week please subscribe for more programming videos and for now I've got to feel to learn so thanks for watching