How to learn hard things in tech(technicallychallenged.substack.com)
technicallychallenged.substack.com
How to learn hard things in tech
https://technicallychallenged.substack.com/p/how-to-learn-hard-things-in-tech
38 comments
Yes, learning what syntax you need to write to make something execute is knowledge. When to use that approach is wisdom.
My biggest challenge is recognising that, having learned a particular approach, it doesn't need applying everywhere. For example, just because I know how to configure Kubernetes, it doesn't mean I need to host every application with Kubernetes.
My biggest challenge is recognising that, having learned a particular approach, it doesn't need applying everywhere. For example, just because I know how to configure Kubernetes, it doesn't mean I need to host every application with Kubernetes.
Knowledge is information you can recall. Wisdom is knowledge you know how to apply.
Can’t agree more! It was until I started my first full time job when I realized how ugly and disorganized my code was… I stopped maintaining one app of mine which I really like and still take pride in only because the codebase was a disaster…
Maybe you should continue to maintain the codebase and make it elegent, then you'll learn more.
Yeah there’s definitely different types of hard things that don’t fit this
Love the link to https://slowlearnerclub.com/. I'm definitely in the club.
Kinda sad that they didn't go with https://slowlearner.club
One can forgive slow learners for that ;)
When I encounter something new and hard I try to find a conference presentation around this topic. I'm guessing public speaking in a time constrained format really forces speakers to prepare well and provides the best time/information balance. Even better if there are questions from the audience that dig deeper into the why questions.
Perhaps I'm a slow learner, but it is really hard for me to understand something just by watching a conference presentation. I can usually get some basic idea about the topic, but as soon as it gets into the technical details, I am always lost. I can only learn by reading the slides/notes, typical talks are just a bit too fast for me.
I've found the value I get is more in the exposure to ideas or projects I hadn't otherwise heard about, and a jumping off point to learn more. For example I first heard about wireguard at a conference talk
The problem I find is that there are two kinds of hard things in tech, things that are actually hard, and things that people make hard, and you have to figure out which is which.
>Start with the smallest working example —it doesn’t matter where this comes from, it could be a website, blog, the documentation for the technology, a friend or coworker, it could be from anywhere. This is your basic working example. It’s the baseline for building further knowledge.
This is the main idea behind over 400+ micro samples I created for ASP.NET Core https://github.com/dodyg/practical-aspnetcore
This is the main idea behind over 400+ micro samples I created for ASP.NET Core https://github.com/dodyg/practical-aspnetcore
Is there a similar resource for golang? One that goes over things you need when developing for a cloud native app, for example.
There's gobyexample.com, but it contains usually basic stuff to get started with the language.
There's gobyexample.com, but it contains usually basic stuff to get started with the language.
Read the book Distributed Services in Go. You implement a complex micro service oriented commit log like Kafka. The code is beautiful and the author created Kafka.
That's a fantastic piece of work.
I don't even work nor have much interest in ASP.NET Core , but I just starred your repo and plan to read through it.
First time I've seen such a well put together list of code samples for a language. Would love this in other languages
First time I've seen such a well put together list of code samples for a language. Would love this in other languages
Incredibly impressive work
I can only second learning from documentation rather than using (video) tutorials or blog posts.
If you're strong in reading and gaining knowledge from documentation, you will generally be able to decrease your time to create working solutions. The reason is that you get faster in finding the information you need and become independent of the availability of explanations by other developers.
I'd only consult other explanations if the documentation is poorly written or my way of using the software is uncommon and I'm looking for opinions or alternative solutions.
If you're strong in reading and gaining knowledge from documentation, you will generally be able to decrease your time to create working solutions. The reason is that you get faster in finding the information you need and become independent of the availability of explanations by other developers.
I'd only consult other explanations if the documentation is poorly written or my way of using the software is uncommon and I'm looking for opinions or alternative solutions.
[deleted]
Is anyone learning by not doing a variation of this?
I am also self-taught and mostly learn by the same process described in the article. Playing around with small, isolated experiments and observing the behaviour of the system is essential to how I understand new things.
But I would like to add that getting a high-level overview also helps me to gain a clearer and better integrated, more contextual understanding. This is especially important when I learn “hard” things (although this is a very relative term), since usually those things have a lot of unknown unknowns that often reveal themselves in this process.
That is why I like watching talks about the subject, reading articles and opinions, etc. which are more related to the conceptual stuff and the thought processes behind it. Usually I will then build a concept map and connect things I know that relate to the subject (I like using a PKM tool like TheBrain for this).
But I would like to add that getting a high-level overview also helps me to gain a clearer and better integrated, more contextual understanding. This is especially important when I learn “hard” things (although this is a very relative term), since usually those things have a lot of unknown unknowns that often reveal themselves in this process.
That is why I like watching talks about the subject, reading articles and opinions, etc. which are more related to the conceptual stuff and the thought processes behind it. Usually I will then build a concept map and connect things I know that relate to the subject (I like using a PKM tool like TheBrain for this).
I'm trying to learn category theory. It's not the kind of thing you can learn the way this article suggests. I find learning new abstractions rather difficult especially at the level of category theory. If anyone has any tips I'd love to hear them.
As Jensson recommended I would learn abstract algebra first to understand concrete examples in category theory.
If abstracts algebra is too difficult then learn introduction to proofs before continuing with abstract algebra.
Try doing problems and posting them online to have them checked. Currently you can use discord, reddit, math stack exchange etc
Don’t worry about rushing it. Everything builds on itself. For instance once you rigorously study introduction to proofs you’ll see the same sort of proofs again when you begin studying abstract algebra and will already be familiar with the concepts.
If abstracts algebra is too difficult then learn introduction to proofs before continuing with abstract algebra.
Try doing problems and posting them online to have them checked. Currently you can use discord, reddit, math stack exchange etc
Don’t worry about rushing it. Everything builds on itself. For instance once you rigorously study introduction to proofs you’ll see the same sort of proofs again when you begin studying abstract algebra and will already be familiar with the concepts.
Any good resources for proofs and/or abstract algebra?
for proofs i really liked two sources: susanna epps’s discrete math book and also rosen’s discrete math text (though epp’s is friendlier for the beginner)
supplement those books with these lecture videos:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl-gb0E4MII28GykmtuBXNUNo...
they appear to follow rosen but they’re the same topics you’d see in epp
if you’re the complete beginner go with epp and then use rosen as a supplement.
if you are an advanced undergraduate in math but don’t know category theory then:
https://math.jhu.edu/~eriehl/context.pdf
or
Basic Category Theory by Tom Leinster
(even though i’ll list a bunch more resources below i’d probably start with leinster and work up enough math maturity to push through it.)
i also liked this: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.10642.pdf
if you don’t know advanced math then there is an upcoming (not yet released book) called “the joy of abstraction”
i cannot attest for the book as i haven’t read it but may be good for true beginners:
https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/mathematics/l...
(click “look inside”)
they say “no formal mathematical background needed”
you can read the description and see if that is something that would be of interest to you.
this guy has videos + a book
https://youtu.be/fY02LIW8fvk
there are a lot of books like “category theory for programmers”, “programming in categories” and the “seven sketches” books along with lecture recordings and videos that you may find helpful.
category theory for programmers might be the easiest of those three books. i worked a bit out of the programming with categories (http://brendanfong.com/programmingcats_files/cats4progs-DRAF...) book and ignored all the haskell sections and just focused on the math parts (this is a distinct book from “category theory for programmers”. people confuse the two due to the names and the fact they both use haskell).
if you know category theory and want to learn topology then there is “ Topology A Categorical Approach” by bradley et al.
supplement those books with these lecture videos:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl-gb0E4MII28GykmtuBXNUNo...
they appear to follow rosen but they’re the same topics you’d see in epp
if you’re the complete beginner go with epp and then use rosen as a supplement.
if you are an advanced undergraduate in math but don’t know category theory then:
https://math.jhu.edu/~eriehl/context.pdf
or
Basic Category Theory by Tom Leinster
(even though i’ll list a bunch more resources below i’d probably start with leinster and work up enough math maturity to push through it.)
i also liked this: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.10642.pdf
if you don’t know advanced math then there is an upcoming (not yet released book) called “the joy of abstraction”
i cannot attest for the book as i haven’t read it but may be good for true beginners:
https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/mathematics/l...
(click “look inside”)
they say “no formal mathematical background needed”
you can read the description and see if that is something that would be of interest to you.
this guy has videos + a book
https://youtu.be/fY02LIW8fvk
there are a lot of books like “category theory for programmers”, “programming in categories” and the “seven sketches” books along with lecture recordings and videos that you may find helpful.
category theory for programmers might be the easiest of those three books. i worked a bit out of the programming with categories (http://brendanfong.com/programmingcats_files/cats4progs-DRAF...) book and ignored all the haskell sections and just focused on the math parts (this is a distinct book from “category theory for programmers”. people confuse the two due to the names and the fact they both use haskell).
if you know category theory and want to learn topology then there is “ Topology A Categorical Approach” by bradley et al.
This is what makes HN amazing. I now have a much better path to learning something that I've been struggling with for some time.
Have you studied abstract algebra first? Category theory is an abstraction level above abstract algebra, so the normal way to learn it is to first get a solid foundation in abstract algebra.
In the same way that being an athlete is a step up from using a PT the gym:
It is a very big step up. Probably this would be your career.
I have not. Thank you I'll start learning that first.
Eugenia Cheng has some interesting and accessible videos, e.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho7oagHeqNc
and in a similar vein I am enjoying her book: "How to Bake Pi".
Getting more into the technical side of things, Bartosz Milewski has good lessons in this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8LbkfSSR58&list=PLbgaMIhjbm...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho7oagHeqNc
and in a similar vein I am enjoying her book: "How to Bake Pi".
Getting more into the technical side of things, Bartosz Milewski has good lessons in this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8LbkfSSR58&list=PLbgaMIhjbm...
I second that, a super quick overview I find useful. The Fireship YouTube videos which explain things in”100 seconds” are great
A few times when I was working with a new technology in a project, I've found it extremely useful to set it up in a completely clean project, learn everything and proceed from there. I have seen people who tried to read the docs and jump straight into implementing stuff in the existing code base struggle with the basics.
My hard thing right now is how to layout a modern project in terms of folder structure, how big should files be, where to put things. Separating gui from app, nice clean architecture.
I’m enamoured by the concept of functional core imperative shell but I’m struggling to see how to refactor my own projects to be like that.
(In python if it matters)
Would love screencasts, books, blogposts, other resources that cover this kind of intermediate “working on the code” not working “in the code”
I’m enamoured by the concept of functional core imperative shell but I’m struggling to see how to refactor my own projects to be like that.
(In python if it matters)
Would love screencasts, books, blogposts, other resources that cover this kind of intermediate “working on the code” not working “in the code”
I can recommend Architecture Patterns with Python [0] to learn how to refactor code in this way. I don't know Python but I found the examples to be relevant to many other languages as well!
[0]: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/architecture-patte...
[0]: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/architecture-patte...
Check out this book Grokking Simplicity Taming complex software with functional thinking by Eric Normand
The thing that's hard is something like how to make a project maintainable. You have to have the experience of screwing it up over a long period of time, feeling the pain each time there's a bug to find or a new feature to implement. You won't find a tutorial in how to do this, because the pain is a necessity to learning.