Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn?

Re:Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what... by shubhamjain on Monday March 31, 2025 @03:20AM (#43532124)

AI, LLM basics. A hundred hours won't even scratch the surface of recent advanced, but I’d like to understand how LLMs work and the main approaches (diffusion, RLHF), their pros and cons.

Theory of relativity. I’ve never quite been able to wrap my head around it. Given some free time, I would really want to understand how two simple postulates can lead to such far-reaching conclusions.

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Re:Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what... by highhedgehog on Monday March 31, 2025 @04:27AM (#43532571)

There is a very good intro on how LLM work by Kharpaty. It's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xTGNNLPyMI and it's 3.30 hours, so way below the 100 hours mark :)

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Re:Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what... by namaria on Monday March 31, 2025 @05:46AM (#43533041)

Those two things are related. Linear algebra is a fantastic field in mathematics!

Mathematical reasoning is a superpower. Most of what is worth learning is some specific case of more general reasoning and at the root of general reasoning lies mathematics.

There's no substitute for domain expertise, of course. But being good at generalized reasoning really helps absorb and question domain knowledge (not only in the sense of challenging but also querying), which helps interact productively with specialized domain experts.

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Re:Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what... by undopamine on Monday March 31, 2025 @11:58AM (#43536479)

I found the last chapter of Griffiths Electrodynamics a good beginner resource for special relativity.

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