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Comment by cJ0th | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone of you report any long term benefits from these kind of courses? Personally, I think those classes (haven't looked into the coursera one) only present obvious stuff.

I've once worked through "Make it stick", a book that is often recommended when it comes to learning. What I've found is that there is nothing wrong with the content but it did not really help.

I imagine that most people who struggle with learning deal with some kind of psychological issues that need to get addressed. They need to learn how to deal with stuff like frustration, worries, perfectionism or self esteem.

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Reading this book (A Mind for Numbers) and taking the mooc changed my life. The main thing that stuck with me above all else was the idea that it's okay to feel dumb when learning new things and to push through instead of giving up. I wish I had learned that lesson much earlier.

> Can anyone of you report any long term benefits from these kind of courses?

None. It's like all self help books or "learning to read" books or etc. The only thing it does is make you feel like you are accomplishing something and actually "learning". But you are just wasting time.

The title is even self-defeating. "Learning how to learn". How can you learn to learn without already knowing how to learn in the first place.

In order for the class to be useful to you, you would have to already known how to learn to learn the material.

Ultimately, those truly motivated would have gone on to learn what they wanted regardless of this course. And those unmotivated will not go on to learn regardless of this course.

This is completely antagonistic, and close-minded, without providing evidence. The course is by people who have studied these things and back up the methods with research (evidence).

The goal is long-term retention and learning. The course addresses bad habits that people use for learning that don't accomplish this goal, and suggests better methods.

I haven't taken the course but I'm familiar with some of the methods, such as spaced-repetition. Spaced-repetition hasn't falsely "made me feel like I am accomplishing something" and I've been surprised with the results over time. There is a body of research and evidence showing positive results.

> How can you learn to learn without already knowing how to learn in the first place.

This might feel like a clever comment but it's pedantic and doesn't contribute to the discussion. Most people have some minimal capacity to learn new things, and can also improve how they learn.

Wow, what an incredibly narrow world view.

Are you under the impression that everyone in the world has had access to decent education their entire lives?

Are you under the impression that motivation is the sole factor in determining one's ability to learn?

>How can you learn to learn

By not taking everything hyper-literally. The course is educating people on strategies they can use to help retain and learn information. How is that self-defeating?

> The title is even self-defeating. "Learning how to learn". How can you learn to learn without already knowing how to learn in the first place.

Don't be overzealous in finding mistakes if you want to to understand. Approach things with a positive attitude. "Learn how to learn" can easily mean "Learn how to learn better". Almost nothing is black-and-white.

That's just a little trick for you to learn I guess :-)

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