HN Books @HNBooksMonth

> I think rote memorization is less useful in engineering than critical thinking/problem solving

i think this is exactly the right take in entirely the wrong direction.

proficiency and mastery are about committing more and more complex things into sub- or un- concious action; muscle memory as it were. grandmaster chess players dont think about solving puzzles that stump novices, they absorb whole board states and many/all permutations instantly. BJJ black belts dont have to think about arm bars, they anticipate complex possibilities of moves and countermoves that a novice simply cannot fathom. this is as true in engineering as any other field. a simple litmus test: is there a difference between a college grad and a 40-years experienced engineer? of course there is

I think GPs point is exactly right. there is a certain lost magic to simply smashing your brain into something and absorbing as much as possible. big eyes, big ears, ego to attempt but humble to fail. one might call such a person a hacker.

edit: see The Art of Learning, Waitzkin

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743277465/

⬐ ehnto

I have pretty much the same outlook as you have described, so it's notable that we disagree at least a bit on this point of memorization. I think this is my fault as I misunderstood the GP a bit in my reply. But I would suggest in some ways that practice is different to memorization in some interesting ways. Memorizing a manual on motorcycle riding wouldn't make you a good rider if you have never ridden a bike, and you can become a better rider without it, but it would prepare you for the topics involved and you would likely be far more effective at absorbing the learning from the practice having read the manual.

In other instances memorization is a foundational requirement, like language learning. Can't leanr a word if you don't know the alphabet, for example. In that sense practice only serves to reinforce the memorization it is the memory that is most important to being effective in that case.

One of the books that has had the biggest influence in my life is "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin, the child chess prodigy of "Searching for Bobby Fischer" fame.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performa...

⬐ kovek

What are some key learnings you got from that book?

⬐ warent

I heard the audio book version, which was read by the author, and found it to be an excellent piece of literature. Highly recommend it to anybody.

Big takeaways for myself are the differences in what it takes to be "good", "great", and "among the best"

Also, once you become a master at something, then your opponents are more or less equally matched to you, and the final winner comes down to psychology

And, don't stick to one thing for too long if you don't want to. Put it down when you're finished, and begin mastering something else that's more fun / interesting.

⬐ djg3

My experience was the complete opposite. I genuinely do not understand why this book is recommended. It's been years since I've read it but whenever i see it recommended it irritates me. Especially as people who do never list anything of actual significance that's to do with learning, other than clichés.

⬐ adrice727

You're not the first person who has told me that.

It's been ~5 years since I read it, so I can't remember too many specifics. I was ~6 months into starting to learn to program and I think I would have probably given up if I hadn't read Waitzkin's book. He talks about how certain people tend to give on something if they struggle in order to protect their intelligence, to keep from feeling stupid or like a failure. It may be common sense but it's something that really clicked with me as I realized that it was something that I had done my whole life up until that point.

I kept going and eventually made a career transition into engineering. But something else happened that was actually much more important, and that was that I developed a much deeper understanding of and appreciation for the whole learning process. I was so tuned in to the whole thing that I would have these insights where I would I could pinpoint almost all of the things he talks about in the book in my personal experience. Years later, I’m able to make parallels in my present experience to all the things I experienced then, which in many cases provides some encouragement because I know I’m on the right path.

The science underpinning the idea of learning, memory, recall and is based/described in neuroscience at at cellular level. So you can read papers. The coursework is really at a more abstracted level describing the processes as a model based on cited research. This is a high level course to improve learning, not STEM as such. Still very useful.

Chunking is described in more detail at Week2 https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/we... and books:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101982853/ref=as_li_qf_sp...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544456238/ref=as_li_qf_sp...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743277465/ref=as_li_qf_sp...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674729013/ref=as_li_qf_sp...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579220541/ref=as_li_qf_sp...

I just started reading the Art of Learning https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performa...

I finished Linchpin a few weeks back and that was an amazing book https://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin...

Will It Fly is a great book I learning a lot of great marketing tricks from https://www.amazon.com/Will-Test-Business-Waste-Money/dp/099...

⬐ hmate9

Thank you, I think I will read all 3 of them!

⬐ samblr

Will it fly has a 5 star rating from 450 odd reviews!!

⬐ bbcbasic

450 fiverr gigs.

⬐ tmaly

I doubt that, he has a lot of fans.

I have to say, I learned a ton of cool tricks that one would have to spend weeks reading through forums to learn.

The part on how to build a market map is worth its weight in gold.

I opted for the kindle book, and the audio add on was only $2 which is an amazing price if you have bought other audio add ons.

My 2 cents, and somewhat related: everyone should read Josh Waitzkin's The Art Of Learning [1].

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance...

Josh Waitzkin (of chess movie fame) wrote this one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Learning-Journey-Performance/d...

⬐ cpayne

That's a fantastic book!

The comparison to chess is spot on. I used to play competitive chess when I was younger and I currently compete in bjj. One interesting book on the relationship between martial arts and chess is the Art of Learning http://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performan...

The author was a top ranked chess prodigy (remember the movie Looking for Bobby Fisher?) and now is a Marcelo Garcia student (one of the top bjj masters)

"Teach yourself programming in 10 years" by Peter Norvig (http://norvig.com/21-days.html)? There's Alice and Squeak. Funnily enough, I actually think I was more fascinated by the map editor in Starcraft than the game itself. (Of course, I've only started picking up a little bit of programming recently.) I think for slightly older kids who would have fun building robots and physical things that can do tasks, there's Lego Mindstorm.

Other than that, there are 2 books which cover kid prodigies which might be applicable. "In Code - A Mathematical Journey". [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Mathematical-Sarah-Flannery-Dav...] It's the story of Sarah Flannery, who got interested in cryptography at a young age due to her family environment.

Another interesting book is "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Perform...] Josh Waitzkin was an American chess champion, before burning out at around 20. He then picked up Taijiquan, becoming the Taijiquan world champion.

If you are getting into competitive martial arts, I highly recommend that you read The Art of Learning (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performan...).

⬐ Gibbon

I just read that last week.. great book! The end is absolutely riveting.