The Autodidact's Register: Issue #1
The World Wide Web houses the greatest library ever known to man. This metaphorical libary is chock full of all kinds of resources one needs to acquire skills and knowledge. Naval Ravikant puts it succintly — "The internet is the best school ever created. The best peers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best teachers are on the Internet. The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce."
However, the sheer volume of information available on the web makes cataloguing resources a challenging task. After bookmarking hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, tweets, videos etc., I've realized that I rarely visit these resources for a second time — which is something I know I should be doing. Hell, even bookmarking amazing tweets doesn't seem to be of any fruitful purpose, as they eventually get buried in the list of favorites. Same goes for great blog posts, articles and other kinds of media. Hence, I've decided to create digests of resources from which I learn from, both for my own reference, and for others who might find this information useful. I'm calling this series of digests "The Autodidact's Register". This is the first issue.
Table of Contents
Podcasts
This issue's podcasts feature guests that work in technology, venture capital, gaming, and stand-up comedy.
Articles
Articles in this issue are based on the topics: machine learning, data science, blogging, and intermittent fasting.
Tweets
Below are some of the tweets I've bookmarked over the years that I consider worthy of cataloging. Tweets are in no particular order.
"The internet is the best school ever created. The best peers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best teachers are on the Internet. The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce." - @naval
— Naval Ravikant Bot (@NavalBot) August 15, 2019
My Personal PhD:
— ᴅᴀᴠɪᴅ ᴘᴇʀᴇʟʟ ✌ (@david_perell) August 14, 2019
• Teaching: No boring lectures. Hiring personal tutors instead.
• Interviewing: Speaking to experts on my podcast
• Writing: I’ll publish more than 1 million words on my website in the next 5 years.
Self-paced. Self-directed.
Way cheaper than grad school.
"I'm a big fan of alternate routes of education. Combine MOOC(s) with @kaggle competitions you get a very powerful, up-to-date thorough set of skills [..] I'd hire people that did MOOC(s) + well on Kaggle readily rather than a fresh grad" -@Tim_Dettmers https://t.co/VGo7tkozPR
— Sanyam Bhutani (@bhutanisanyam1) August 7, 2019
This thread is a combination of 10 free online courses on machine learning that I find the most helpful. They should be taken in order.
— Chip Huyen (@chipro) August 3, 2019
We're looking for stories about first-time contribution to Python (or other open source projects for that matter), successful or not. Read the whole thread below. https://t.co/9m1bVOFFgz
— Guido van Rossum (@gvanrossum) August 1, 2019
The fastest way to learn is to act like you know nothing.
— Hiten Shah (@hnshah) August 1, 2019
"Technology is not only the thing that moves the human race forward, but it’s the only thing that ever has. Without technology, we’re just monkeys playing in the dirt." - @naval
— Naval Ravikant Bot (@NavalBot) July 30, 2019
Your high school GPA only matters until you have a college degree.
— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) July 30, 2019
Your college degree matters until you get your first job.
Your next thing should render everything else on your resume insignificant.
A good choice may go unrewarded for a long time.
— James Clear (@JamesClear) July 29, 2019
The best choices tend to provide exponential returns and a hallmark of any compounding process is that the greatest rewards are delayed. Things don't really take off until years later.
Keep working. Be patient.
The best jobs aren't publicly listed.
— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) July 29, 2019
You have to dig for them, invent them, or convince someone it's worth creating just for you.
Things that are not required to be a scientist:
— Alex Naka (@gottapatchemall) July 24, 2019
-Having a PhD
-Publishing peer-reviewed papers
-Getting paid to do research
Things that do make you a scientist:
-Using the scientific method to study stuff
That's it, that's the whole list.
How to Be Unhappy:
— James Clear (@JamesClear) July 19, 2019
-stay inside all day
-move as little as possible
-spend more than you earn
-take yourself (and life) too seriously
-look for reasons why things won’t work
-always consume, never contribute
-resent the lucky and successful
-never say hello first
-be unreliable
Look at your last 5 phone calls.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) March 24, 2018
Look at your last 5 text conversations.
Look at the last 5 books you read.
Look at the last 5 events on your calendar.
Look at the last 5 podcasts you listened to.
Are you putting in the work to become the person you want to be?
being confident and humble at the same time pic.twitter.com/PZMg2mVV1j
— 🔎Julia Evans🔍 (@b0rk) March 21, 2018
Record your terminal sessions with @asciinema and replay them in a terminal or web browser: https://t.co/1t34kngLzH pic.twitter.com/gQ5UhpjgVK
— GitHub (@github) March 2, 2018
Facebook started in 2004, in the winter of the dot com bust. Airbnb did YC in 2009, in the winter of the Lehman collapse. Ethereum started in 2014, in the shadow of the Mt Gox collapse and the crypto winter of 2014.
— Garry() (@garrytan) February 27, 2018
Winter is coming but great engineers create things all seasons
sometimes you gotta see what you’re capable of. last week i ran 105 miles (169km), that’s the equivalent of 4 marathons in 7 days. it’s the most distance i’ve ever done. in 2006 i was told i’d never run again.. glad i didn’t listen to that doctor 😜 pic.twitter.com/bC7xN2g0Ff
— Casey Neistat (@Casey) August 12, 2018
0 • A thread on the best reading lists I've come across so far.
— Dan Schulz (@danschlz) February 10, 2018
I find work in AI to be electrifying.
— Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) February 8, 2018
Some good inspiration in this reddit thread: "What are some of the coolest things you've automated using python?" https://t.co/C3s2ZSkcWc
— Dan Bader (@dbader_org) February 6, 2018
Questions to ask before starting a company:
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) January 30, 2018
1. Am I solving a problem?
2. If I do, will anyone care?
3. Why has no one done this?
4. Is now right time to do this?
5. How will ecosystem respond?
6. What are the risks in doing this?
7. How can I mitigate those risks?
8. Can I win?
On this day in 1994, Python version 1.0 was released! And today, you can try it yourself using conda:
— Jake VanderPlas (@jakevdp) January 26, 2018
$ conda create -n py1env python=1.0
$ conda activate py1env
$ python pic.twitter.com/36K1fp4RQp
Great tutorial on Matplotlib—the basic terminology, a breakdown of all the components in a plot + some nice examples https://t.co/YxmuMIzm6X
— Dan Bader (@dbader_org) January 17, 2018
Making a list of Python developer twitter accounts to follow. Who do you recommend?
— Kenneth ☤ Reitz (@kennethreitz) January 14, 2018
130 days ago I got rid of all my stuff and reduced my life to 2 suitcases
— Felix Krause (@KrauseFx) March 26, 2018
🎒I always carry 100% of my belongings with me
🏠 I don’t have a permanent address anymore
🗺️ I never stay at the same place for longer than 2 weeks
I wrote about it here 👉 https://t.co/q5N57GhdpO pic.twitter.com/0ZYrsOL5i1
🚀 2014 I built this little tool called @FastlaneTools in my college dorm room, in a small town in the UK.
— Felix Krause (@KrauseFx) June 21, 2018
This picture was taken a day before the first public release of fastlane pic.twitter.com/K8JRCwQt6m
New programmers are often uncertain if they will ever be good enough. As we grow more experienced, we learn to relax in the total certainty that we'll never be good enough.
— mpj 💛 (@mpjme) June 12, 2018
Habits that have a high rate of return in life:
— James Clear (@JamesClear) June 10, 2018
- sleep 8+ hours each day
- lift weights 3x week
- go for a walk each day
- save at least 10 percent of your income
- read every day
- drink more water and less of everything else
- leave your phone in another room while you work
Twenty years of maintaining open source, and all I ever got... pic.twitter.com/TBKRPSymx5
— Daniel Stenberg (@bagder) May 18, 2018
Victor Oladipo already texted his trainer to get better for next season. pic.twitter.com/nHETmPYOl1
— Good Takes NBA Podcast 🏀 (@GoodTakesNBAPod) April 29, 2018
Videos
Videos in this week's issue are based on the topics: deep learning, education, productivity, health, and movie discussion.
Going forwards, I'll be creating digests like this one and releasing them on a periodic basis. Let me know below if you found this useful. I'd also appreciate any feedback/criticism.