No matter what field you’re involved in, you’ve probably heard of the phrase “machine learning”. It’s a field that many people don’t know anything about, but it sounds obscure and advanced, all the crucial ingredients of a trending “buzzword.” I’ve found that many of the most “basic” explanations of machine learning are still far too verbose and complicated, so I’ll do my best to explain the gist of machine learning (this is not meant to be super rigorous and formalized, but rather a gentle introduction into the topic of machine learning).
Category: How to Learn: X (Page 1 of 2)
Most people I know took a foreign language some time during their school careers. Guess how much they remember?
Language learning in school is ineffective and useless. Students don’t invest nearly enough time and effort into their work in these courses (they’re seen as less rigorous and unimportant fluff classes), and the traditional school infrastructure is not conducive for learning languages.
However, I do believe that learning foreign languages is extremely useful. Learning foreign languages expands your global perspective and widens your net of possible communication. Culture is inextricably linked to language, and only by completely understanding can you enlighten yourself to the nuances of a country’s culture. Not only that, there have been scientific studies demonstrating that language learning improves learning dexterity greatly. The list of benefits goes on and on.
Classical music takes a certain amount of intellectual depth and maturity in order to understand the nuances and intricacies of the music. This is why the attendees of classical music performances are largely older people.
However, to truly appreciate classical music, you must learn how to play an instrument. It isn’t enough to merely know how to read music, or be familiar with musical works. There’s an incommunicable beauty in struggling and then succeeding in playing music that you must experience.
I remember back in elementary school when everyone loved science. Then, fast forward to high school, and most kids hate it. What changed?
I think there are two reasons. The first reason is that science in the younger years focused around empirical study. If you learned about botany, you actually grew a plant and learned how to care for it, thus indirectly learning about the requirements for living creatures to survive. Contrast that to the dry, boring lectures of high school science, and it’s easy to see why science isn’t so interesting anymore.
The second reason is due to the increasing involvement of math in higher level sciences. Math carries a stigma and most students avoid it like the plague, which makes it nearly impossible for them to be successful in advanced science. Try doing physics without having a grasp on algebra and calculus — it’s impossible.
In this module, I’ll be talking about each of the Big Three of science: biology, physics, and chemistry.
Ah, computer science. I’m a relatively new acolyte to the field of computer science. It’s embarrassing really, because I am from Silicon Valley and both my parents are computer engineers. Nevertheless, I shall attempt to relay as much information I know about learning computer science (henceforth, I will refer to it as CS) effectively and efficiently.
During my short tenure in CS, I’ve discovered that it’s a very interesting field (understatement of the year). A quick disclaimer here: I’m going to use CS and programming fairly interchangeably, but know that they are not the same thing. CS is the study of what computers can theoretically do, whereas programming is the actual art of making the computer do something. Many top-notch programmers do not understand CS, and vice versa.