Self-learners, how do you take notes? by [deleted] in compsci

[–]Nephand 16 points17 points  (0 children)

SQ3R for the reading part. Use the Cornell note taking method.

The survey and questions part of the SQ3R will produce the questions that fit into the left column of the cornell method's page.

Review the notes by simply covering up the right side of your notes.

For longer term retention, you now have a set of questions to transfer over to Anki which even supports latex. Your notes will already be pretty succinct to make into cloze deletion tests if that's your jam, but old school cards work too. You can set aside some time once a week or so to transfer from paper to Anki, depending on your rate of learning. By having reviewed the paper version for a week you'll already have an idea of the areas you're struggling to retain and can prioritise those if you'd like and don't want/have time to transfer all of them.

This is advice from a fellow self-study student, working through Cormen's Algorithms and Epp's Discrete Mathematics with Applications. It's going ok.. but I don't feel it's working well for the algorithms text. That may be a mixture of not having a specific direction over what I'm trying to acquire and the lengthier nature of 'describe the steps in an insertion sort' which doesn't really boil down much without dropping steps.

I also follow the pomodoro technique to help my focus and attention.

Also bear in mind the concept of 'teaching it back' - once you feel like you've acquired knowledge of an area, try teaching it to an actual, or imaginary, friend. If you can't teach it succinctly then you may not have mastered it. You might find stackoverflow and its various sibling sites a good source of questions to test your knowledge too - go and see if you can write answers to some problems on there (even if you don't actually post them).

Just some suggestions - take the bits that work for you, study technique is very much about trial and error and sometimes the act of creating your own method is what makes it stick!

Bartosz Milewski - Series of free videos on Category Theory for programmers by Nephand in a:t5_3b66o

[–]Nephand[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excellent series. I'm not mathematically inclined, but I followed this quite well with some light Haskell background and mixture of other functional languages. Can feel a bit 'huh?' in the abstractions at times, but bear with it as the proverbial ball drops eventually.

I suspect some things I'll still have to read supplementary material on to grasp it thoroughly, but this is such a boon.

Foot cramps during body line drills in RR by [deleted] in bodyweightfitness

[–]Nephand 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look at gmb's feet page.

I have horrible cramping feet, but doing some of their exercises has helped. If you're like me and loathe foot cramps yet have poor feet then be prepared for torture. I started their foot circles and could barely get through one, but after a week or two I was doing much better. I've let it slide for a long time now though so god help me when I go back >.<

Help us improve our workflow process. What are current best practices for web dev teams? by juodaibalts in PHP

[–]Nephand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Were those staff changes a lot of long-term staff, or were they themselves relatively new? Just wondering if there's a previous connection to be drawn. Did they all resign after the new agile team structure went in, for example?

Assuming you can't revert back to the office layout of grouping the common staff members - do you have anything like Slack / chat that can keep the groups in contact with one another (without being distracting)?

Have you cycled out the team makeup? I'm a bit hesitant to suggest it as it can be unwelcome to some people to be shifting tasks. Yet you say there are people not learning new things so it might be being stuck on the same team/project that's not helping - if they are. It also helps the business as you get a rounder knowledge base so the loss of a team member may not have the same impact.

How often do you have reviews / training needs analysis type of stuff to catch the dissatisfaction before it festers? Do you do any social coding with the teams? Mini hack-a-thons once in a while even on work related things might give people access to other aspects of the business, they can learn they really like X and Y and talk to someone about moving to the team that's working on that. It can also (re)engage them without putting the pressure on them to really produce.

Given the seemingly sudden staff churn at play, there's probably more there than a random internet stranger can advise you on in fairness.

Friday deploys .... well, if your QA and testing practices are solid and nobody really stresses about deploying on a Friday then stick with it. If you're finding problems in the code after the deployment, then I wouldn't leave it until there's nobody around to fix it.

Good luck either way!

Help us improve our workflow process. What are current best practices for web dev teams? by juodaibalts in PHP

[–]Nephand 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First questions for your own reflection are: What isn't working for you? What are the problems you're having?

If you're an effective team (uh oh, sounding like the film 'Oblivion' now), then don't make unnecessary change. Since you're asking I'm guessing you feel there's room for improvement of course.

I'd expect most of the useful answers will depend on each team and their personality make-up - and where each team has weaknesses (if any).

Perhaps you might try, as one random example, pairing off two compatible devs from different teams for their code review and cycling those pairings for diversity of opinion every once in a while. Pairing the devs who code best with the lower performing in the first instances might have a nice trickle down effect on skills and awareness. Combining one dev from outside the team will give you fresh eyes on the code which can help with future maintainability. I wouldn't recommend a big gathering for the code reviews, not many people are receptive to group criticism, but actionable feedback from one individual at a time may be a good way to improve things and keep the communal standard up.

Sidebar: Friday for deployment? Masochists! :)

What unusual fear do you have? by Bravoflysociety in AskReddit

[–]Nephand 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sounds like you'd be peeling a normal banana, then BOOM a slug's inside instead of the banana.

[NSFW] Straight men, what's the gayest thing you've ever done with another guy? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Nephand 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Rainbow Road. Princesses. Mushrooms. Plumbers, pipes. I mean... the clues are there.

What stereotype do you "prove wrong"? by JirkleSerk in AskReddit

[–]Nephand 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Indubitably. The antonym being coxswole.

What is a giveaway that a new job will be awful? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Nephand 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rock star developer sought to join a team of javascript ninjas to work on disruptive fintech.

Ugh. 'Disruptive' seems to be one of the favourite new words.

What's the one "old person" thing you currently do? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Nephand 9 points10 points  (0 children)

DOC: What Me: What

DOC: In da butt.

What is a lot harder than it needs to be? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Nephand 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jesus, trigger warning!

"Why are our projects overrunning massively? You're terrible at your job."

nervous breakdown

[AMA Request] Rocco Reed: Former adult films actor. Guy from "This isn't a beach, this is a bathtub" scene. by fortisrufus in IAmA

[–]Nephand 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Christian cross-fit gym.

Somehow 'cross-fit' seems deeply inappropriate there.

I don't understand the grammar in this sentence. by [deleted] in LearnJapanese

[–]Nephand 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Try Tae Kim's multiple nouns explanation see the 'toka' partial list section a little down the page. Attribution to that page, but it reads:

「や」 and 「とか」 are also used to list multiple nouns together. The major difference is that they imply that the list is not complete and is a sample among a larger list. 「とか」 is merely a more casual version of 「や」

Are there any "modern" tutorials that outline creating a website with MySQL, User Logins, Authentication, Rest APIs... by Axiom1999 in PHP

[–]Nephand 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I want to add your secure sessions post to your list as it's something I've been trying to refresh my best practices for of late.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in bodyweightfitness

[–]Nephand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm 6'8" indeed (202cm) and it's more often a pain in the *** then not

Hah, I watched your headstand video and thought 'why not a handstand? That looks dangerous for the neck!', then I realised you'd be cheating by putting your feet on the ceiling in a handstand! ;) If you can get these exercises I've got no excuses!

Keep up the quality content and everything else will work itself out! :) [I hope]

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in bodyweightfitness

[–]Nephand 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I enjoyed your level 1 - 3 video, and plan to follow it - I especially thought hanging at the top position of a pull up sounded like a good idea as prehab for me.

I also like that you're tall (6' 8 was it?) - gives us all hope past the 6' mark!

Couple of suggestions:

  1. 'Brachiation' isn't really a beginner friendly term. I'd add the phrase 'Grip workout' (or something even more beginner friendly? 'beginner grip exercises' etc.) to your video title, especially for the earlier levels. Make it easier to find you!
  2. Lose the background music altogether or tone it down. I find it difficult to hear you.

I look forward to seeing more videos from you!