lifelong learning

Bilingual

Life Long Learning: Dealing With New Things - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- NLNOG is a community of Dutch network operators that hosts events with talks on both technology and human topics like toxic environments, autism in IT, and digital legacies.
- The speaker presented the fourth part of a work trilogy, focusing on evaluating and dealing with new technologies and change.
- New technologies can be hype, nonsense, or genuinely useful; avoid blindly following trends or stagnating with outdated tech.
- Evaluate new technologies critically, possibly with community input, and examine your own emotional reactions to them.
- Occasionally doing something completely different, like customer support, can improve your technical skills and mental models.
Completing a Computer Science Degree on Coursera
2 months ago
- The author completed a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science remotely via Coursera over 3.5 years while working full-time, after a 21-year tech career without a degree.
- The degree, offered by University of London Worldwide and Goldsmiths, includes remote lectures, assignments, and proctored exams, with costs around £17,000 (A$33,000) spread over the period.
- Performance-Based Admission allowed entry by passing initial modules, and Recognition of Prior Learning (via Coursera certificates) replaced three modules, saving time and money.
- Workload was intense, especially near exams and assignments, with modules increasing in difficulty; some students completed it in 3 years by taking 4 modules per session.
- Highlights included collaborative student Slack communities, inspiring peers from diverse backgrounds, and hands-on projects like games, simulators, and a final breast-cancer detection classifier.
- Drawbacks included slow grading (3-month delays), problematic group projects, platform issues with submissions, and stressful proctored exams via Inspera with technical difficulties.
- Tips for success: start assignments early, triple-check submissions, establish consistent study times, prioritize blocker subjects, and carefully review regulations and Slack resources.
- The AI policy evolved during the degree, treating unacknowledged LLM use as contract cheating, with guidelines for allowed AI usage in assessments.
- Despite challenges and sacrifices, the author valued the learning, filled knowledge gaps, gained degree portability for overseas work, and appreciated the diverse student community.
Maybe you should learn something
3 months ago
- Learning new skills like pixel art, typing, music, etc., is practical and enriches life in unexpected ways.
- It requires consistent time, ideally 30-45 minutes daily, but is manageable if you reduce screen time.
- Numerous free resources exist online; start simply to avoid information overload and pace yourself.
- Initial practice can be frustrating and tiring, but improvements come after sleep and repeated sessions.
- Expect plateaus after basic proficiency; use skills practically to continue progress without grinding.
- Focus on fundamentals, avoid advanced topics prematurely, and stop practice when making many mistakes.
- Learning is a long-term project that fosters a sense of control and meaningful change over time.

lifelong learning

Life Long Learning: Dealing With New Things - Bert Hubert's writings

Completing a Computer Science Degree on Coursera

Maybe you should learn something