Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

http://alexrosen.com/blog/2011/05/sponge-learning/

by alexmr • 15 years ago

373 89 15 years ago

seagaia2• 15 years ago

Hey, this is good. And it inspired the guy to go deeper into some of the subjects!

Sometimes, a problem is that people only go to sponge learning...and then stop. As a professor of my friend's said...people are getting better and better at being able to talk about something for five minutes...then that's it. Thanks to wikipedia, lots of people can seem smart, but not actually understand something in depth.

I find XKCD also to blame for part of this. If I had a dollar for every time someone made a joke about the Axiom of Choice...

FrojoS• 15 years ago

Good observation. Ironically there is an xkcd comic about this, too.

http://xkcd.com/903/

Frankly, I probably have to watch out myself to not fall into this trap. I'm not a CS major either and yes, its true I can probably bullshit for 5 minutes on many topics that I read about here or learned from friends.

LukeShu• 15 years ago

I feel like this is a problem too. You actually got me thinking about this, and since I don't think I do this, how I avoid it.

I don't think I do anymore. I mean, I do less than other people, but I don't go deeper like I used to.

I think the solution, is books. I'm normally a little disdainful of those who have bookcases of technical (read: computer/programming) books, I can get the same or better info on the Internet (certain books excluded, but these books don't take entire bookcases).

But this is because I've progressed far enough in my understanding of this field that I wouldn't benefit particularly much from these books. Which, I think is why my learning in other areas has slowed, I no longer go to the bookstore. That means I don't by chance pick up a book on extra-dimensional physics. Because I don't need a book to help me pick up CodeIgniter or Python. This, of course, implies a tendency I have, to not go shopping, I only go into a store if I know what I'm going to buy.

I think that it is hugely beneficial to just walk through a bookstore, and just pick up a book on a subject that is interesting to you, that you _don't_ know a lot about.

spacemanaki• 15 years ago

I think Rich Hickey's Clojure bookshelf is a testament to the fact that much of the really deep stuff is still in books. Sadly many of these books aren't even on the shelves of a brick & mortar bookstore.

http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH

seagaia2• 15 years ago

Usually books are interesting and useful. CS seems to be a different thing, as most things are available online for free, and there is a large community. Bookstores are still fun to go to (although I feel like they may be a dying breed).

It always helps to work on exercises (for stuff like math), but for CS, to pick something interesting you want to do in a language(s), but is small - and that can be a hard part. It's getting harder for me to figure out what to use a language for - picking up a language's syntax and nuances is relatively easy (okay, excluding Haskell), but it's worthless unless you have something you want to work on.

JonWood• 15 years ago

I agree to an extent - there is a lot of stuff that I know just enough about to be able to say "I know of it", but there are only so many hours in the day.

When it comes to starting a project all the stuff that I know of comes in useful, because I can fairly quickly determine which particular tools will be most useful in that circumstance and then start learning about them in more depth.

blackboxxx• 15 years ago

I did the exact thing with Slashdot, when I first got on the Internet in '98. And I'd read Linux Journal although much of that was over my head as well.

But slowly you learn, and get to know the stuff, and then it gets boring and so you check out something else you know little about. That's what happens to me.

I think you're on to a good strategy alex.

Andrenid• 15 years ago

Yeah Slashdot started it for me too (well IRC, but website-wise the first was Slashdot). I'm a high school drop-out (now 31) who somehow managed to make a comfortable career off web development and IT project management thanks almost entirely to "sponge learning" off IRC, Slashdot, HN (more recently) and the Internet in general.

I've never done any formal training, I just wholeheartedly believe in immersing yourself in what you want to learn, and specifically immerse yourself at a deeper level than you're comfortable with to force yourself to work harder.

I can quite literally say my entire adult education from Year 10 onwards came from the Internet, and I owe my career, house, vehicles, all of it to sites like HN :)

duopixel• 15 years ago

Sponge learning is awesome, but you must always remember to act upon it. Knowing that CoffeeScript is hot in the web dev scene is great, but in the end it amounts to little more than industry gossip.

True understanding comes from actually trying to do it yourself, technologies stop being buzzwords and they become tools.

That said, kudos to the OP for trying to Learn Python the Hard Way!

alexmr2• 15 years ago

Totally. Figuring out what to spend time on is definitely one of the hardest parts since there's so much out there. But reading and hacking on 4 chapters of the django book in a day taught me more than reading for a year.

khwang• 15 years ago

Isn't that always the funny part of life? Whenever I have hack parties with my friends, I always end up learning everything at like 2:00 AM when we finally start in earnest. ;)

ineedtosleep• 15 years ago

Looking into diving into Django as well -- what Django book are you referring to, if I may ask?

irahul• 15 years ago

Your app mentioned in the blog post is throwing me an error.

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 700, in __call__ handler.get(*groups) File "/base/data/home/apps/twordsie/1.347280040146141318/main.py", line 55, in get 'rows': [{'c': [{'v': tweet["text"]}]} for tweet in tweets]} TypeError: string indices must be integers

You should install error handlers for server error(500), page not found(404), forbidden(403), and any others relevant for your app.

Regardless, 500 is the one you should generally install a handler for. It exposes details and flaws in your application which can be used in attacks.

Here is how you do that in django: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/views/#the...

jasonrodriguez4• 15 years ago

I'm right there with you. I have been an avid reader of HN for going on 2 years now. While I can't sit down and develop killer software from scratch, I am slowly learning more and more about technology and programming, and a lot of it is thanks to the great HN community.

I just started ready the updated edition of Learn Python The Hard way, and really enjoy it. It's the first book on programming that I have read that throws you right into the thick of things, get's you started writing code from the outset. Feel free to send me a message or email me if you want to bounce and ideas off of each other with Python or anything else, I get the impression we are both starting off on the same page. Should be a fun adventure!

elxrr6• 15 years ago

"Feel free to send me a message or email me if you want to bounce and ideas off of each other with Python or anything else, I get the impression we are both starting off on the same page"

Is that open to all?

colson042• 15 years ago

I just started LPTHW as well and would like to get in on the discussion too

jasonrodriguez4• 15 years ago

Yeah, absolutely. I'm always open to chatting with HN people. I would absolutely like to get in on a study group situtation for LPTHW like suggest below.

dhughes• 15 years ago

It's nice to know there are more of us spongers out there, some of us don't have a blog though suspicious look

farnsworth• 15 years ago

I did this with Reddit years ago when much of the front page was programming/computer-related. I realized it was an awesome subject, spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they were talking about, and eventually changed my major to software engineering.

zobzu• 15 years ago

I hope this site wont become reddit ;-) The issue is that the communities are open and when it reaches a critical point, it all becomes like reddit/slashdot/whatnot as it will follow the majority of people's interest.

So let's hope, this site doesn't grow too much ;-)

mark_story• 15 years ago

The same thing happened with Digg, it used to be tech based. Then it got popular, then they screwed it up, and now no one uses it. I think hacker news can avoid this by keeping their minimal UI and not adding shiny bits.

jorgeortiz853• 15 years ago

Eternal September.

brianwillis• 15 years ago

Are you really going to criticize someone for acknowledging that they're new and have stuff to learn?

jorgeortiz853• 15 years ago

I think it's great. I wish more people were as eager to learn new things as the OP.

I do think it comes at a cost to the rest of the community, though, when so many people participating in a technical community don't really understand much of the discussion.

Dramatize2• 15 years ago

I think this is why I love listening to Build and Analyze by Marco - http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze

Anti-Ratfish• 15 years ago

The other 5by5 shows often have stuff to offer too. Although I'm sure you know this...

Dramatize2• 15 years ago

I'm subscribed to 8 of them :)

B&A is relevant because I'm not a iOS developer (though I do like coffee).

bprater• 15 years ago

And even when you understand a lot about these technologies -- it can be a great reminder of things to dabble in and see if they fit your model of how you work. This week I jumped into using Less (a CSS tech like Sass) after noticing a post on it.

How happy I am -- Less (or a similar tech) is now going to be a permanent fixture in my webdev world!

rlander• 15 years ago

Two years ago, when I started reading HN, I was a php programmer who didn't even know what functional programming was.

Now most of my personal projects are written in my new favorite language, Erlang. Sponge learning is awesome, specially when you supplement it with lots of hard work. Thanks HN.

maren• 15 years ago

Totally agree - I'm a complete newbie when it comes to tech but I am learning at a fast clip because of HN :)

ericelias• 15 years ago

Alex, thanks for the post. This is definitely how I read HN and the links to the learning resources has helped accelerate learning new material.

matmann2001• 15 years ago

Nailed it.

raju2• 15 years ago

Great post.

I have often thought about the way I learn, and it's very much 'sponge learning' (nice term BTW).

I am on a journey to learn Clojure, and improve my JavaScript skills. Much like the author, I read blog-posts, books, the Google groups as well as take any code samples found there and play with them in the REPL. A lot of the posts (especially some on the Google Groups) don't always make sense to me - but I hope that I will have filed it away somewhere. Maybe someday it will all come together :)

Again, nice post.

minikomi2• 15 years ago

Any sponge friendly links on clojure will be most porously appreciated

raju2• 15 years ago

One of my favorite resources is the #clojure tag on Twitter. I use Tweetie and have bookmarked a search on that.

Here are a few sites from my GReader

http://www.bestinclass.dk/blog.html

http://nakkaya.com/

http://freegeek.in/blog/

https://groups.google.com/group/clojure

And here are a few tabs that I currently have open (Maybe this weekend I will get to them :D)

https://github.com/dbushenko/ClojureBlog

http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/scala/talk-by-patrick-fredri...

http://brehaut.net/blog/2011/ring_introduction

http://www.codequarterly.com/2011/rich-hickey/ (Interview with Rich)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2682191

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2709319

Hope these help :)

krashidov• 15 years ago

Besides the technical stuff, the links and discussions here on HN have helped me with entrepreneurial concepts the most. It helps when really established and well known people, and people who have plentiful experience in starting, running, and marketing a business are discussing things.

aorshan• 15 years ago

Awesome post. I am in the exact same boat as you. I read this stuff every day as inspiration and to learn more about the world of programming and computers. I am also working through python to learn my first language (chose python because of xkcd). Feel free to email me if you want to discuss difficulties or challenges with programming in python or in general.

canistr• 15 years ago

Judging from the fact that he helped make twordsie, I wouldn't say he's exactly at level zero. Rather misleading.

elebertus• 15 years ago

this is almost exatcly how I learn. It is certainly the reason why I read hn, and associate with people who are generally much more experienced than I am (they're great friends of primarily).

I am still very much learning about programming in general, but the beat advice I ever got was this: just write programs any way you can, and learn what you did 'wrong'. there are always different ways to solve problems but the best way to get better is through practice.

its cool to see someone else (and by the comments, many others) doing the same thing I do.

schme2• 15 years ago

I have been the victim of sponge learning for many years now, HN being part of it for about a year. I can talk about a wide range of techy subjects but I've never really made or done anything to show for it. I learn bits from here and there without never going very deep. I've read through (and done most of the exercises from) K&R and Dive Into Python to name a couple, yet I haven't written a project over 500 LOC.

I've loved technology as long as I can remember, but when it comes to my local circles I've always been alone with it. Sponge learning is great and (as the writer mentioned) it deduces the amount of unknown unknowns, but without peer encouragement or -at least- approval it's very difficult to actually do something with it.

My sincere respect for everyone who has done something with their passions (that includes you alexmr!)

capnbuzzword2• 15 years ago

I just had to register to comment on this one.

Wow, that struck a chord. Pretty much every sentence rings true, especially the peer encouragement one. For me it's the availability of easier entertainment - why write that python bookmark creation date histogram plotter, when I'm tired and can just waste the evening reading Reddit? Oh, and there's the procrastination habit I've been nursing for over a decade.

On the other hand, having someone as a sounding board to bounce ideas off, and additionally to guard me from going off tangents and getting distracted - that helps make some progress.

Have you scouted around for a local hackerspace (http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces)? I did, but I'm using the language barrier (expat) and some leftover social anxiety as excuses to not pursue that road.

All else aside, would you be interested in starting a sort of a study group - just a place one can post their ideas and have others provide brainstorming, feedback and motivation?

I think that may work - I remember my most productive streaks were when a friend had an issue to solve and I would swoop in on the opportunity to help. When faced with a similar issue of my own, I would endlessly procrastinate and often fail. If others have also experienced similar situations, creating such a space to facilitate pair programming could increase everyone's productivity.

gtani2• 15 years ago

There's also hack nights in meetup.com and other sites where you basically announce your project/problem/ or just a snippet you need to write and find a pair.

Check out resources like scala-user, which is designated newbie-friendly, railsbridge.org and codereview.stackexchange.com.

http://www.scala-lang.org/node/199

Also relevant: remote pairing tools

http://blog.tridgell.net/?p=111

http://blog.coryfoy.com/2010/08/technically-distributed-tool...

http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/01/10/7-coolest-real-time-c...

schme2• 15 years ago

I had searched for hackerspaces but found none. Now there is one, searching for members. I will sign up shortly!

Would you mind dropping me an email about the study group? We could start working on one, make that its first project.

pknerd• 15 years ago

Best thing about HN that it filters out crap and produces quality stuff. Just because of HN I came across two entrepreneurs who are more than helpful to guide me offline whenever I need.

Thanks PG and Team to give such a quality site. Now I don't visit TechCrunch etc to find out Information. HN does it for me and saves my time

P.S: I am already a techie but a Biz noob and HN is helping me to become an entrepreneur.

hackermom2• 15 years ago

That's a very subjective view. A year ago, Hacker News really was HACKER News. Today it's not. It's Startup News, and Popular Blogstar Gives His Lofty Opinion On Something News. I'm glad that it benefits and entertains someone, but I'm also a bit sad that it stopped doing the same for me and everyone else who used to visit this site for HACKER News.

zandor• 15 years ago

It actually started out as Startup News.

http://ycombinator.com/announcingnews.html

http://ycombinator.com/hackernews.html

boscomutunga• 15 years ago

Sponge learning is very good, especially when one wants to learn new vocabulary and tech jargon.

jechen• 15 years ago

This is exactly the kind of mentality that one should develop on HN (or if they want to get anywhere in the industry). It reminds me of a recent post I read that people aren't intrinsically separated into "technical" and "non-technical" people. If you have the patience and the will, you can become competent at either. :) Read/learn on!

Sandman• 15 years ago

What I noticed in these 847 days I've been here is that HN's comments spoiled me. I now seek the same level of discussion on other sites and most of the time find myself disappointed.

JoeAltmaier• 15 years ago

I have abandoned other sites entirely. I even get impatient at my family/friend's postings on Facebook - too much 'me too' and 'cool!' noise.

tilt• 15 years ago

I think you might be happy to hear this, I'm a noob as you are and TIL that I'm "sponge learning" aswell! Thanks!

kurrent• 15 years ago

whew, i thought it was just me

known• 15 years ago

it, definitely reduces my unknown unknowns

hackermom2• 15 years ago

Alternative title: Why I read Startup/Popular Blogstar news even though I care for very little of it.

Anyone else who has noticed how radically the news content on HN has changed since just last year? HN is dead, long live the new HN.

randallsquared• 15 years ago

Not really, but I do remember people making this complaint in 2008, 2009, and 2010. :)

Hari_Seldon• 15 years ago

I would class myself as an advanced user, not a developer but someone with interest and enthusiasm for technology. The main reason that I visit HN is that for me, the level of debate is higher. Far less fanboyism and trolling than most tech sites and IMHO - up there with slashdot. That's high praise for me \. is my favourite site

127• 15 years ago

You can certainly get part of the big picture from reading Hacker News, but if you're going to learn anything in depth, I seriously suggest taking a class. That way someone else has already done all the hard work in collecting all the material in easily digestable chunks and even gives his or her valuable time in trying to make you understand it all.

eneveu• 15 years ago

I like Alex's concept of "sponge learning" and reducing "unknown unknowns". I've actually been doing this unconsciously for quite a while.

Let's say there is a debate about the best VPS provider on the HN front page. I have no need for a VPS right now, and I sadly don't have the time to read the whole debate. Instead, I skim the discussion, bookmark it (on pinboard) with appropriate tags, and know it will be there when I do need to choose a web host.

This also applies to "unknown unknowns": a month ago, I saw the discussion on CloudFare ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2631019 ). I made a mental note that some services might actually help mitigate DDOS attacks, and made a bookmark for later use.

I could make an analogy with a database: I don't have enough time / memory to learn and remember everything I read on HN. Instead, I use my brain like an "index", the database being my Pinboard bookmarks. I think it's time to expand to other databases, too: I should try out EverNote or Workflowy to store free-form thoughts and other "non-bookmarkable" stuff.

gtani2• 15 years ago

This was a good thread about building "notes compressions": cheat sheets, outlines, other mnemonics on paper

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2658818

Yesterday, there was this woman in a coffee shop (probably a PhD student) who had the smallest densest handwriting i've ever seen, doing this for a Physical Chemistry text. There must have been 3,000 words on each 8x11 page.

kahawe• 15 years ago

It is interesting how synonymous "hacking" and "programming" has become with "web programming" all of a sudden over the last few years...

agscala• 15 years ago

It wouldn't be unreasonable to say that programming IS taking a trend towards mostly web development. Of course there will always be non-webdev programming, but it certainly is becoming more ubiquitous.

troels• 15 years ago

If by "last few years" you mean the past decade and a half, you're right. Otherwise I suspect that you may in fact have been living under a rock?

topbanana• 15 years ago

The most upvoted comment on the post (Martin Doms):

Everyone on hacker news is motivated by money. It gets old. There's a huge vibe of "I don't care about this technical mumbo jumbo any more than I have to to make a quick buck". It's VERY trendy/hipster culture there. They jump on all of the silly buzzword bandwagons and distrust tried and true technologies.

I'm not saying I don't read the site - some of the articles are very good. But I don't like to be around people primarily motivated by money. Those kinds of people make me very uncomfortable.

wallawe• 15 years ago

I saw that and disagree with him. A lot of people involved in [tech] startups are interested in money. However most, including myself, simply have a passion for building or contributing to something new. It's about learning, exploring and discovering. It is apparent that this guy needed to spend a little more time browsing HN before making this comment.

SmartFone• 15 years ago

I've been reading HN for over a year even though I'm not the best developer. It simply teaches useful info about how to get things done that I would not get otherwise.

For instance, the case studies on starting a T-shirt company Snowpocalypse 2011 - bam! Knowledge of how to do that. Or the posts on business models in the music industry, links to Mixergy, et cetra, et cetra.

HN basically is extremely entertaining - and the most valuable business site I read.

lambersley• 15 years ago

I was referred to HN by a former colleague only 4 months ago. I'm the farthest from being a programmer of any sort, but I work in and around technology and he knew I was somewhat of a 'knowledge whore' aka philosopher. I like being in the know. "Sponge learning" is a great practice. I walk away from the monitor each day knowing what I don't know.

Thanks HN

Why I read Hacker News even though I understand very little of it

Related Stories