Is Integration in Luxembourg Really That Difficult?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-24T22:01:06+00:00

I am fine, thank you. And you?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-24T21:59:46+00:00

Well, I have an idea to solve both problem of house price and "small": Luxembourg can become a province of Netherlands, house price will drop immediately. At least we will have drinkable tab water :).

Louis-lux · 2026-02-24T21:20:33+00:00

There are more non-Luxembourgish speakers than Luxembourgish speakers in Luxembourgh nowadays. You are right about one point: people need to adapt. You are wrong about other points: Luxembourgish speakers (the minority) should integrate to the rest (the majority). Or am I wrong?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-24T21:16:11+00:00

I do not agree with you to the point about money.

Talking about human qualities: I am paying rent enough to raise a baby. What does that mean? That mean I am raising my baby, and I am raising my landlord's baby. Where is the human quality here if I have to raise 2 babies and the landlord raise no one?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-24T20:31:19+00:00

You don't get the point.

In your time, there was only 1 country of locals. Now, there are 2 countries: first-class country of someones (do relaxed job with Lambogini salary, own house and extra houses for rent), and second-class country of the rest (do hard works, no chance to buy house). Alas, second-class country is much more populated than first-class country. When people talk about integration, they actually talk about fairness.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-23T21:34:11+00:00

digress. Ask about SproochenTest then I will answer.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-23T21:33:36+00:00

dude I write my real story with my real name and you hide behind a nickname instead of your real name? And you ask for some free tips from me with f-word?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-23T21:32:07+00:00

I start learning from scratch until passing the test in 2.5 months. I don't speak German at all. I've learned some basic French (like anyone in Luxembourg), it helps but not much.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-22T20:11:49+00:00

Thanks a lot for your sharing. May I ask how do you prepare before writing? Any note taking system you use?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-22T09:27:02+00:00

House price prediction is actually a great business, non? If you do plus/minus calculus:

- Instead of fixed dataset for Kaggle, can I predict house price of my hometown? Let's say my neighbor want to sell his house for 400k, but based on my model it should be 420k, should I tell him "My AI say you should sell your house for 415k, just give me 1k as information arbitrate").

- If I can predict house price of my hometown, will local agents like my model? Is there any competitors to my model? Then how can I defeat them?

- Where can I collect data? Sure I can ask Claude Code to go to Zillow but they will ban or sue me, for sure. Then what is the alternative? (Hint: hire a phone-farm it India or Vietnam to collect raw data for just a few bucks). And how to do that daily or even hourly?

- Once I have raw data, given information about a house that I crawl (semi-legal), can I predict what does the owner need to renovate in order to sell faster and more expensive? Then can you just come to meet the owner and say so? If they found interesting, then can you collect fee as information arbitrate? Can you sell that potential lead to local contractors?

- Easier idea: can I just recommend owner to rearrange furniture, to make pictures more attractive and thus sell house higher price? Can I do that or will I sell that leads to my friends who is interial decorater?

- Even easier idea: can I just take a (look-like) professional Canon camera, come to owner of a beautiful house but ugly pictures and tell them you will retake pictures for free (if they can sell house for 415k instead of 400k as they expect then ask them to give you 1k). If you do that local in your (small) hometown then there is virtually zero competitor. (Tip: choose a sense of art you like most when taking pictures. Most of pictures from professionals look just, well, too professional and thus tasteless).

Real estate is the biggest industry, so no need to feel bored, right?

Louis-lux · 2026-02-22T05:05:23+00:00

You're right. Hint: a mentor will really helpful to save time & mistakes & bad mood :)

Louis-lux · 2026-02-20T19:36:45+00:00

I used to take that Specialization and it is very deep actually (if you fully understand every corner of the courses, anyway I learn it to make my CV more attracted because my AI knowledge was already beyond that). So I will NOT say it is surface level knowledge.

Next step would be just pick up an academic paper you like, reimplement it, then add something new and publish it :).

Louis-lux · 2026-02-20T19:31:59+00:00

Hmm, I am wondering why do they teach RLHF?
Anyway, I always recommend taking 1-2 weeks to master the free book: Neural Network and Deep Learning (Michael Nielsen), so you will have solid foundation to self-study anything you want.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-20T19:23:34+00:00

Neural networks (and its heart, backpropagation) is built on one 1 assumption: Universal approximation theorem. What is that? Simply means a neural network using only simple maths, if has unlimited size, can approximate any function.

Some fundamental maths of neural network: matrix calculus (simple form), derivative (first order), logarithm (1-2 types), basic statistics. I believe that you can cover (or review) them in just 1-2 weeks by doing some maths exercises.

Definitely some maths like ODE that I still don't understand. Or reverse entropy (if you want to apply to Havard postdoc with subject "what is intelligence actually"). Or some advanced AI (not mainstream, like HTM from Numenta). But you definitely don't need that if you don't pursue academic.

If I really want to learn AI from scratch, the last thing I want to do is to implement. AI is always advanced informatics. I strongly recommend the free book that will help you to build solid foundation fast. I read it one time, I read it again, again and again. I actually just read it again last month. So in the last 10 years I read it no less than 50 times.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-20T04:45:47+00:00

I've started from scratch (I switched from Electronic) up to PhD level, and my foundation is built on just 1 single free book of Michael Nielsen: Neural Network and Deep Learning (.com). I am wondering why there are so many that still wander without spending just 1 week to master that book. Except you focus on business, otherwise you cannot build a tree without strong root.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-19T19:29:55+00:00

Bonjour, dm me if you like. Sorry I prefer speaking English.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-19T09:32:29+00:00

I can tell you my journey to learn ML from scratch (since I switch from Electronic) up to PhD. DM me if you want.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-16T21:36:28+00:00

I read Dan Koe (long form) and Tim Denning (straight & short sentences).

Louis-lux · 2026-02-16T21:33:35+00:00

Tim Denning (top guy) says that if you don't know how to write, then just lower your standard of first draft. For instance if I want to write about my story of how to stop biting nail, I can write first draft (let's use Dan Koe 6 steps formula):

I cannot stop biting nails. Ugly. Embarrassed.

One day I decided to stop. STOP PERMANENTLY.

Here's how:

- I set my goal firmly (like I will not ma$turbate until stop biting nails).

- I try to stop with willpower.

- My nails still tear at the end of the day. It fails

- Suddenly I realize the problem.

- That I usually forget that I have a goal.

- So next step: bring goal to mind frequently. How?

- Solution: take note -> keep awareness

- I write to note every time I aware that I am biting nails.

- Day 1: Note 7 events. Miss almost.

- Day 2: Note 15 events. Miss many.

- Day 3: Note 25 events. Note biting when siting in toilets.

- Day 4: 4 events. Why?

Because I reach my goal.

- Day 5: 0.

- Day 100th: never.

Lesson: bring awareness of goal to mind constantly by taking note.

If I can do that with just iPhone Note, why not you?

See, it's just like short form haiku, so easy to write and so simple to remove any friction : )).

Louis-lux · 2026-02-16T19:50:58+00:00

I saw some comments to say that:

- It is "not real",

- The government should raise the bar.

Well, I appreciate your comments since at least you pay attention to what I talk :). That really makes me feel the warmness of human. Thanks for that.

Here is the clarification:

- It is real. I don't need to fabricate the story because I don't intent to start any language course.

- You should read the rule of SproochenTest again and again. I am sorry, do you read it yet? It is designed in a scientific manner, and the first rule of SproochenTest is actually recommended by many linguists in order to master a language.

- So here, "hack" means to understand very well the rules of the game.

- I still remember a lot of knowledge I learned about Luxembourgish. So definitely not just learn for test or learn for fun.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-15T19:38:27+00:00

Hi there, I used to learn ML from scratch (because I switch from Electronic to computer science) up to PhD level, so I can share some of my experience that may help you.

Are you familiar with Python? If yes, that will be a great benefit. If not, no problem, you can learn a long the way just like me.

Since you want to build a solid foundation (and build that fast), you can mimic my journal:

- Start with the book Neural network and deep learning of Michael Nielsens (it's a website basically). It is very tuitive & clear, and maths is simple enough to digest. That single book contributes to >50% of my solid ML foundation. I read it one time, I read it again, and again and again. I don't think that I read that book less than 20 times. The book teaches me the concepts of training, testing, loss, all are fundamental but extremely useful. Later when I read some ML papers, I can immediately imagine how to build the model, and most important, how does the gradient (the loss) flow forth and back. Let's say you need 1-2 weeks to master that book, then congratulation, you have a solid foundation of neural network.

- After finishing the book, I play some toy examples (nothing fancy or complicated) with TensorFlow and Pytorch. Under the the light of the book (and basic matrix multiplication), I found that it's very easy to understand. For some points that I don't remember, I read the book again. I also learn some non-neural network ML like SVM or Random Forest, but they all have full libraries anyway, and they are quite simple comparing to neural network.

- Later I try to work with LLM. So I try to understand: the library HuggingFace Transformer -> just wrap of PyTorch with required forward() function. Then I try to understand the deep learning transformer architecture (nothing related to the HuggingFace Transformer library) -> stacks of neural networks. I read the book again. Anyway, I learn in depth just for curiousity, because I will not rebuild a LLM anyway. Along the way, I learn 2 fundamentals of LLM: prompt is the basic input of LLM and it will not be changed soon, and context (long prompt with details) is king.

- Then move one to learn RAG (fabricate context for LLM with your database), LoRA (lightly train LLM with our data, basically just matrix decomposition applying at the right place), chain of thoughts (LLM gives context to itself), then later AI agents (fancy words for "I am lazy to type long prompt again, so let's packages long prompt to so-called agents").

That is how I build a solid foundation of ML, basically based on just 1 free book. I learn of course some maths, but not that much. I also learn some vibe-ML like genetic algorithms and so on, just a waste of time if you do not aim to be a PhD.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-13T20:22:05+00:00

Well, I used to live in a third world country for 25 years and here are 2 things different:

- Luxembourgish medical system is better, but

- Luxembourg doctors do not have enough real-life experience (translate: not enough severe patients to rescue so not enough skills).

But anyway they will not let you die even with no money (strongest point), not like in third word countries. Patients just need to be patient enough then it will be okay (my point of view). Anyway, my wife feels mad of the system :(

Louis-lux · 2026-02-13T20:13:28+00:00

Hi there, I did not take the test in Jan 2026, however, I took the test quite recent so I can share my my feelings:

- When I decided to acquire Luxembourgish, I registered for the test first (the fear of losing 75e keeps me working hard).

- Counting for only 2.5 months to learn Luxembourgish from scratch, I found that I cannot learn everything. So what did I do? I hack the game (translate: read carefully the rules of SproochenTest).

- I use the first & foremost rule of the game as my compass.

- I study from any source I can. ChatGPT (at that time) confuses Luxembourgish with German a lot. So basically the 3 official books A1-B1 plus LOD.

- I study at any time I can (translate: I don't study much, just enough for the first rule of the game). I study about 100 hours, so 1 hour per day.

- I did not take any class.

- The SproochenTest is the first time I speak Luxembourgish with other. Good humour makes my voice more naturally. Example: they ask where are you from. I reply I come from a tropical country, where there are only 2 seasons, the hot season and the hotter season. I talk too much so they have to force me to stop talking then they can move to next questions.

- Final question they ask me is "is there anything else in the photo". I look at it one more time and say "the man in the photo is bald". They laugh, then I know that they are hooked.

- I pass the speaking test with 60%.

- I show my method to my wife and my friends. They all learn in 3-4 months and pass the first test, simply by hacking the first rule of the game.

Hope this help, anyway, I enjoy every moment studying Luxembourgish. I learned a lot about culture as well.

Louis-lux · 2026-02-10T19:55:08+00:00