My favorite way to learn is to read about various topics until something piques my interest. Most recently I’ve become interested in genetic algorithms (GA). I had a general sense of how they worked and decided to see if I could create one without cheating so to speak (by looking up algorithms).
In addition to being interested in GA, I recently began learning Go and decided I’d implement my GA in Go. This project was challenging but in many ways I learned a lot more in 4 weeks working on this project then I did in a semester of school because what I learned through discovery is cemented into my brain and now I have a much more complete understanding of the topic. Now when I read about GA it makes much more sense because I have so much context and experience with the subject.
So next time you’re learning something consider trying to figure it out at least partly on your own and use learning material as a way to guide you when you get stuck.
Although this strategy probably doesn't work for all learning, It personally has worked quite well for me and unfortunately not the way learning is done in most schools except maybe Elon Musk’s school.
Thanks for reading. Here’s a gif of an image that evolves into Harambe overtime through 1000s of generations.
