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Comment by rg111 | Hacker News Reader

I was an A+ student up to Sophomore year in HS. I downgraded to A or B+ student after I knew how much fun actual learning is.

Before that, all I was doing was memorizing and practising heuristics to get A+.

I actually started learning Science since 11th grade. I grew and grew. And my scores tanked.

Got only 6.xx/10 in college as well.

But no regrets. Learning Math properly gave me a super solid foundation to learn Deep Learning very quickly. Now I do my semi-dream job as a Deep Learning Research Engineer building actual products with Deep Learning.

I have a truly realistic chance of getting my dream job within the end of this calendar year.

No regrets. Screw scores and learning systems designed for the mediocres. The education system has no care for the poor learners with no parental care. Neither it is good for future scientists and geniuses.

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This, 100%. I couldn’t agree more. I’m currently a Software Engineering undergrad in Europe and, at least by my personal experience, the whole education system just focuses on preparing people to pass an exam, not to properly learn a subject.

IMHO, the problem starts when the students get used to memorizing and repeating sample exercises which involve 0 creativity and then graduate and get an actual job.

What I said shouldn’t really be taken as an advice.

If you think that getting good scores will open doors for you, and you are in need of those, then, by all means, work hard to get good scores.

What many people like me do not realize is that learning something properly is among the material luxuries. You can only afford to do this if you do not have socio-economic disadvantages (like most people need jobs straight out of college- mostly for the money, but social norm is also a factor).

I am a person of simpler needs and I do not care about socio-economic norms. You might not be like me.

So, sticking to social design might achieve you benefits.

This nails it, and is something that took me some time to identify in myself. I was first in my family to finish college (and first to consider grad school, let alone go), my grandparents were refugees, and for most of my life my family was lower middle class. I went to school on scholarships and lots of loans, and that weight (plus the financial stresses we went through when I was growing up) led me to focus a lot on grades and 'playing the game' to the detriment of fully learning the material, exploring the material when my curiosity pushed me, and taking risks.

As I've understood that part of myself, I've had to regularly and actively push myself out of my comfort zones (studied neuroscience in grad school, then became a software engineer and have worked at startups for the majority of my career, founded a couple of tiny ones that went nowhere with some friends too) and still need to as a mid-30s adult today. It's much easier now with a steady income, but seeing my friends who had more stable homes take risks that I'd never be able to stomach or recover from really imprinted how important financial stability is to a child growing up.

Hopefully despite all this, I can raise my own kid in a stable environment that allows them to learn and grow without worrying about their life being completely ruined if they don't make perfect grades or don't follow obvious well-trod paths in life.

Fwiw it is not necessary to throw your college scores to actually learn as well: they just feel orthogonal sometimes. You can do both!

I understood it as that learning math is easy and fun in high school but becomes hard and boring work at university level.

It depends where you study and what courses you take / who teaches you. Sometimes the professor will drive a ferocious pace of instruction and assessment and you will simply not be able to meaningfully keep up unless you sacrifice the depth of your learning in exchange for getting everything done. I have been in that position and watched my grades tank. Then, a year later, I watched my peers struggle with follow-up material that seemed to make a lot more sense to me.

I was always pushing to take 16-18 units (5-6 classes), so never any extra time to "savor" the details, or deep dive into areas of interest.

If I did it again, I would take the minimum of 12 units (3-4 classes)... assuming I could afford to stay in school for 6 years. At the time, I was racing to graduate and get a job.

12 units was the sweet spot for me. I was able to digest and master the material because I had the chance to put in the necessary work to truly understand the material and still have a life outside of school. I decided to take more classes (21 units or 7 or 8 classes) and although I was still able to get very good grades (graduated with about 3.8/4.0), I wasn't able to master the material and I had no life outside of school.

> I was racing to graduate and get a job

This is also why I increased the number of units that I was taking.

> You can do both!

Not if you have other interests!

I am a very cultural person (reading books, writing, playing music, etc.). I volunteer after natural disasters, too. And I also value interpersonal relationships with people I care about.

It felt bad in HS, but in college, I was mature enough to simply not care. (I also gained enough skills in the meantime to be certain that I won't ever starve.)

> I actually started learning Science since 11th grade.

what event caused this? was it specific material or a specific teach or approach?

A teacher, or two.

One taught me about what rigor was. In so many ways.

Another taught me that there is another side of Math. The non-heuristic parts. The stuff where is there is reason, logic, etc.

Dad took a broadband connection, and watching YouTube became realistic. I got 3b1b, Numberphile, MIT OCW.

Edit: My discovery of Halliday, Resnick, Walker physics textbook and Feynman lectures also was helpful. It was mostly- the Internet.

> Edit: My discovery of Halliday, Resnick, Walker physics textbook and Feynman lectures also was helpful. It was mostly- the Internet.

thank you for the tips! much appreciated

> Now I do my semi-dream job as a Deep Learning Research Engineer building actual products with Deep Learning.

> I have a truly realistic chance of getting my dream job within the end of this calendar year.

So what’s your dream job? :-)

It’s a cliche, but yeah, Google.

Or any co/startup doing "deep tech" in the area of Deep Learning.

I am doing _applications of DL_ now, want to do actual DL.

Side-related note: You'll get there (actual DL), because your "want" is close enough to determination (as opposed to mere motivation, i.e. conscious decision versus mere fleeting feelings).

On academia and grades: yes, it's a "dark time" (as in "Dark Ages" for what we mean by it, regardless of the veracity of that historical perception). I often summarize all those collective F-ups by remarking that most people, either individually or collectively as institutions, have lost their purpose, they "have no mission in life" so to speak. Thus, we lose sight of the endgame, of the actual purpose of education for instance.

That's not about to change if the now widespread intuition that most institutions have been rotting too much for too long is true, so the solution might be some historical disruption of the domain — I think Khan was an early ripple in those foundations.

> Or any co/startup doing "deep tech" in the area of Deep Learning.

Send me a message, my email is in my profile.

I would love to chat sometime if you’re available. I’ve been teaching middle school math for the past 6 years. I’m now trying to transition into tech.

Send me something, like a Discord username, or an email.

Best would be Libera.chat, though.

Update your profile, and I will check back after 24 hours.

What do you want to do in tech? You want to do software development (like building apps, websites, etc) or something else? I pivoted into software after starting somewhere different and happy to give advice.

@Perez418, this person can give you better advice than I.

I have been in a tech since the last year of college.

This person has more relatable career trajectory as yours.

Absolutely need to check out 3Blue1Brown on youtube, especially for visual learners.

I think that the fact that there are special types of learners have been debunked thoroughly.

Veritasium recently made a video, too [0].

3b1b is a fantastic supplementary resource. But you can't start with it, or use it as your primary resource. That would be a mistake.

[0]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rhgwIhB58PA

That video is not convincing, at least for me, wrong style learning is more tiring. I can read a book about a subject all day, but I can only listen to about an hour of lecture a day.

I'll absorb the same amount - during that first hour, but after that nothing further is getting in my head.

Also the computerized thing about a diagram vs words isn't a learning style difference - both of those are visual, just one is more effective (obviously a diagram is better).

His on-the-street test is also bad, someone with a different style will, for example, say the image name out loud, if they need it auditory.

What you say and the video says are not conflicting.

These are just personal preferences. There are no inherent style at the biological level. That's what "learning style" s are about.

I personally have found a combination of all (with more focus in applications and teaching the topic to others) works best for me.

> His on-the-street test is also bad

Agree. It was amusing in a bad way.

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