Tag: #learning
Writing on GPUs, LLMs, MLOps, Kubernetes — and mindset · 53 posts
Experts Do Not Know More, They See Differently
The 1973 chessboard experiment is the starting point of expertise research. Masters remember real game positions far better, but on randomly scattered arrangements most of that advantage disappears. That means pattern pe
2026-08-16 · 13 min read #mindset#learning#expertise#chunking#perceptionThe Road to Becoming an Expert: Feedback First, Volume Second
This post moves the evidence set out in the previous four posts into an executable form. Narrow the domain to where feedback arrives, build the feedback loop before you build the volume, practise under the conditions you
2026-08-16 · 14 min read #mindset#learning#expertise#deliberate-practice#careerThe Structure of Practice: Why Practice That Goes Well and Practice That Lasts Are Different
Spacing, retrieval practice, mixing things up. Three things with relatively solid evidence in learning research, set out together with their effect sizes. And then the central paradox of the field: the conditions that ma
2026-08-16 · 14 min read #mindset#learning#practice#retrieval#spacingMetacognition — The Gap Between Feeling You Know and Knowing
Metacognition lost its definition as it became a buzzword. This post returns to the original definition of monitoring and control, and sets out the way the feeling of knowing is manufactured from fluency as a proxy signa
2026-08-16 · 12 min read #mindset#metacognition#learning#psychology#2026-08How to Improve Your English Without the Situation: Manufacturing Real Conditions Through Simulation
If your English improved while playing a VR game, VR is not the reason. Three conditions happened to line up at once: repetition of the same situations, real-time pressure, and a low social cost for getting it wrong. Thi
2026-08-16 · 10 min read #english#learning#practice#conversation#2026-08What Studying Well and Playing Sport Well Share Is Narrower Than It Looks
Is there really an ability that carries over between studying and sport, between coding and playing an instrument? The conclusion of the cognitive-training transfer literature runs against popular expectation. Near trans
2026-08-16 · 13 min read #mindset#learning#expertise#transfer#evidenceWhy Juniors Are Especially Anxious — The Entry Ladder Has Changed
A junior engineer's anxiety comes from position, not personality. It is the layer most often named as replaceable, the layer with the least evidence behind it, and the layer with the most people to compare against. This
2026-08-15 · 6 min read #career#junior-developer#ai#learning#entry-levelLearning How to Learn — Telling Fundamentals From Fashion, and Choosing One Thing to Go Deep On
A learning strategy usually arrives as a list of things to learn, when what is actually needed is a criterion for what not to learn. This piece covers the single question that separates fundamentals from fashion, the rul
2026-08-15 · 7 min read #career#skills#learning#fundamentals#deliberate-practiceHow to Read a Difficult Book — Five Judgment Calls That Matter More Than Finishing
Most of the time, what makes a difficult book difficult isn't unfamiliar words — it's the shape of the argument. Grounded in Adler's method for reading and in what reading research actually supports, this piece lays out
2026-08-02 · 14 min read #storytelling#reading#books#learning#cultureWhy 10,000 Hours Alone Will Not Make You Better — The 4 Real Conditions of Deliberate Practice
Why do some people have ten years of experience but the skills of a third-year? The 10,000-hour rule is a popular distortion that Anders Ericsson, the original researcher, himself called a misreading. This post restores,
2026-07-20 · 7 min read #mindset#self-improvement#deliberate-practice#learning#growthDo Not Reread — Close the Book and Recall: The Original Testing-Effect Paper and the Spaced-Repetition Algorithm
Rereading your notes feels like knowing, but the exam exposes the gap. Roediger and Karpicke's 2006 experiment shows exactly why: rereading wins a test five minutes later, then loses badly to repeated retrieval (testing
2026-07-20 · 7 min read #psychology#paper-review#mindset#learning#memoryWhat to Learn Deeply, What to Skim — A Learning Strategy for the AI Era
When an AI answers almost anything in three seconds, what is still worth learning deeply? Cognitive psychology has an uncomfortable answer: memory is built by pulling information out of your own head, not by having it ha
2026-07-12 · 12 min read #career#learning#ai#software-engineeringHow to Study with AI — 8 Techniques That Turn an LLM into Your Best Tutor
If you just read the answers AI gives you, you get the feeling of studying without the skill. This piece shows how to recreate the power of 1:1 tutoring that Bloom's 2 sigma problem revealed — a Socratic tutor, Feynman r
2026-07-06 · 8 min read #ai#learning#study#productivityA Knowledge Map for the Rising Tech Roles of 2026 — What to Actually Study
AI/LLM engineer, platform/DevOps/SRE, security engineer, data engineer, frontend — a checklist-style map of what the five most in-demand roles actually require. Includes the cross-cutting skills every role shares, plus t
2026-07-06 · 7 min read #career#roadmap#skills#learningThe Law of Compounding — The Strongest Force in Learning and Life
Compounding is what happens when returns start earning returns of their own. The principle does not stay confined to money. It works the same way in learning, skill, reputation, and relationships. This essay looks calmly
2026-07-05 · 13 min read #learning#compounding#habits#self-improvementLearning from Mistakes — Resilience and Antifragility
Mistakes feel like verdicts, but they are closer to data. This essay looks at the difference between fragile, resilient, and antifragile responses to disorder, at the blameless post-mortem that engineering culture invent
2026-07-05 · 16 min read #learning#resilience#antifragility#failureGood Questions Make Good Answers — The Art of Asking
In an age when answers are everywhere, the truly scarce skill is asking a good question. This essay walks calmly through the Socratic method, first-principles thinking, Toyota's Five Whys, a taxonomy of questions, the co
2026-07-05 · 15 min read #learning#curiosity#critical-thinking#questionsLifelong Learners — The Attitudes of Great Students
A balanced look at the attitudes and habits shared by people who never stop learning — deep curiosity, the willingness to be a beginner, teaching as a way to learn, intellectual honesty, and patient humility. It opens wi
2026-07-05 · 14 min read #learning#curiosity#self-improvement#lifelong-learningAre Geniuses Born? — The Myth of Talent and Effort
We call remarkable people geniuses, and in that moment we stop asking how they got there. This essay looks calmly at the Mozart myth, Anders Ericsson's research on expert performance, the popular ten-thousand-hour rule,
2026-07-05 · 16 min read #learning#talent#expertise#excellenceLearning How to Learn — The Science of Study
The skill of learning something can itself be learned. This essay walks through active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving, the fluency illusion, elaboration, metacognition, and the role of sleep in memory consolidat
2026-07-05 · 15 min read #learning#metacognition#study-skills#education