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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

Love the post. I think it comes from a good place.

> And I got to where I am thanks to people like me who wrote down and shared their knowledge openly and freely. I’ve benefited from open source. From books people have published online for free and courses they’ve given away. I’ve learned a great deal from people I chat with online, over forums, and at meetups where people give presentations to share their knowledge and work.

I can relate to that.

However, though I don't need an LLM, I have found them to be extremely useful in learning new stuff. I probably used an LLM to learn a dozen different new things, just today.

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It has been generally agreed for years that different people learn best differently. I have found that I tend to learn very well reading books and taking notes (and, as applicable, doing projects) and not so great watching videos. I'd probably even prefer audio lectures rather than video content, if maximum learning was my goal.

I find LLM learning to be mixed. I can ask questions, seek clarification, and that helps me get to a specific answer quickly, or helps me to get past misconceptions quickly. But it seems to fall somewhere in between reading books and watching videos for me -- I still feel like I learn best through books, even if it takes longer. Specifically, it feels like actually being a little bit harder forces me to think deeper and/or retain more.

I do not wish for LLM learning to go away, but nor do I wish for it to replace books. I hope that many people continue to write in traditional formats.

LLMs can be incredible at cutting through misconceptions. I remember learning to code 20 years ago, and getting stuck building a mental model of a Hash. I remember being able to recite the definition verbatim, but I just couldn't put it into use until it eventually clicked after what felt like an eternity.

I think about how an LLM could have dramatically shorted that, like it did recently to teach me Bayes' theorem.

This seems like an example of what the parent comment was saying, which is that everyone learns best in different ways. Learning via book works better for them, but maybe not as well you you. It still isn't clear to me that an LLM would be more effective for everyone in the circumstance you described though, and I think that's the point they were trying to make; new learning techniques are mostly helpful because of the variance in how people learn, and in practice the best choice is likely going to depend at least as much on the individual as the circumstance and topic.

Yes! Hooray for whatever helps you learn best!

It's interesting about text versus video -- I never ever look for video instruction for code, probably because I just came up on thick-ass books from the library and actual text on the computer in the 90's.

THAT SAID, a while back I stumbled across some Three.js video tutorials on YouTube by Wael Yasmina [0] that were so informative and crystal clear that it completely changed my opinion about learn-code-through-video. I guess it just depends on the subject matter and presentation. I'm way more open to it now, and find some odd videos on there that cover topics that never seem to come up in blog posts and searches. YMMV

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHIm_RXfYBM (example)

YouTube is actually one of my very first places to go for new concepts. For example, one of the recent Advent of Code puzzles was solvable with "coordinate compression," a technique I had never heard of before. I didn't find much, and what I did find wasn't an especially high-quality presentation, but it did teach me a magical new concept that helped me to finish the puzzle.

I have also benefited so much from MIT OCW lectures. The quality of their teaching is so high that it showed me that when my children go to college, it will be worth it to send them to a much more expensive elite school.

I agree. We still need people like the author to write things down. But I do think that LLMs will be one of the important methods of consumption for this material. Many/most people will still just directly read what the author writes, but a large percentage of people will get it via an LLM -- and I think that's a good thing.

I wonder how long will people write things when LLM's will just steal the content and leave no attribution? I doubt for very long.

How long were they doing it when people would just steal their content with no attribution? Or do you personally thank every stack overflow that helped you?

> I probably used an LLM to learn a dozen different new things, just today.

Did you learn 12 new things or did you find out about 12 new things? Or did you use it as a component in the learning process?

Everyone probably has a different interpretation of what it means to learn, or how to go about doing it effectively, but my hot take might be that there's not much learning going on if there's not much understanding going on, and understanding rarely comes quickly or without practice, and by extension, most reading or watching doesn't constitute learning unless it's a multifaceted activity of exploration and practice.

The ability to produce information that adds clarity to subject matter certainly can aid in learning and finding out what to learn or where to look further, but I can't learn guitar by reading about how to play guitar, nor can I learn German by exclusively listening to podcasts, and I think this us true for many things.

> use it as a component in the learning process

That one. I gotta know what I want, and what questions to ask. I’ve been self-directing learning my whole life, and have gotten good at consulting references.

I often know an answer, but maybe not the correct answer, so I simply ask the Delphic Oracle.

I will ask it something like “Here’s how I would do it. Does this look correct? What alternatives are available?”.

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