Personalised Training Plan

Focussed vs. Diffuse Thinking

07/02/2017 By debkr

Some reading materials (highlighted = likely useful for TU812 TMA03):

Chapters 1-3 of A Mind for Numbers are especially helpful in providing helpful information and additional exercises related to the materials of Module 1.

Worthwhile Additional Popular Works

Scott Young, “I was wrong about speed reading: Here are the facts,” January 2015. This excellent blog post nicely summarizes what is known in relation to speed reading.
John Dunlosky, “Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning,” American Educator, Fall, 2013. This excellent, comprehensive article is written by one of the top researchers in learning.
Michael Friedman, “Note-taking tools and tips,” (October 15, 2014), Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching. This article, and an article embedded within it, (“Notes on Note-Taking: Review of Research and Insights for Students and Instructors“), have very useful insights into how to improve your note taking.

A key theme of part three of the systems module TU812 is ‘learning about learning’, and this course on Coursera by Dr Barbara Oakley – which covers that from one angle – came highly recommended: http://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn. It’s subtitled ‘powerful tools to help you master tough subjects’, which is definitely the kind of help I need right now with this systems course. The MOOC course is, I believe, in the top 3 on Coursera, although it’s worth pointing out the focus is on helping you with mathematical or scientific subjects. Yet the ideas and study tips should be extendable across to more abstract and wordy subjects (the ones I struggle most with).

Two Types of Thinking: Focussed and Diffuse

If we understand something about how the brain works, we can develop and deploy strategies to help us learn more optimally. As humans we have two thinking modes – with Dr Oakley refers to as ‘focussed’ and ‘diffuse’. These are mental states where we’re, respectively, concentrating really hard on something (like reading & note-taking from a course text) or allowing our minds to wander and day-dream (which is, of course, my preferred mental state!). Another way to think of the two different states is that focussed is looking at the details (a church within the landscape), while diffuse is looking at the much bigger picture (drinking in the whole scene as far as the eye can see). [Read more…] about Learning About Learning

Thoughts on Learning Systems

29/01/2017 By debkr

It seems clear to me (after thinking about & studying both learning and learning systems recently – as well as participating in several, both online & through distance learning) that a proper learning system – as I envisage it & will create it – follows this basic process [stated as description of ALGORITHM(S) – note that this is in very rough note form only!]:

1. READ unstructured textual information & conduct CONCEPT or KEYWORD ANALYSIS > ie HIGHLIGHT key ideas/concepts as you go > this is dependent upon what is deemed RELEVANT at that TIME > this can come from a database of CONCEPTS’ aka keywords & key phrases, RANKED for RELEVANCY (needs to be seeded ie pre-populated by HUMAN but later can be BUILT UPON by AI thru RECURSIVE LEARNING); text is parsed, OCCURENCE of keywords & phrases counted & recorded, CONTEXT of key word/phrase occurrence is noted > basically the web search algo but applied to a specific knowledge domain

Vector Spaces

24/01/2017 By debkr

Thought on waking this morning:

Vector Spaces*

Had gone to bed asking: ‘OK so what should I do for our AI system? What’s next?’

Assume this answer means I should be studying Vector Spaces – and hence Linear Algebra – more fully for my delve into AI.

Makes sense given LA is such a strong math basis for all ML courses out there, also for AI generally.

But I can’t help wondering if this also relates somehow to my recent Systems Struggles. E.g. the vector space is an abstract mathematical way of representing a realworld physical geometric reality. Can this offer a parallel to Systems Modelling which might [Read more…] about Vector Spaces

Asperger’s Careers

22/01/2017 By debkr

Below is some info on Asperger’s, what it is or how to recognise it, together with some career suggestions. Sources are as noted.

Career Suggestions for Mathematicians or Musicians:
Accounting Computer programming Engineering Journalist, copy editor Taxi driver Piano (or other musical instrument) tuner Filing positions Statistician Physician Mathematician Bank teller Telemarketing

The social and emotional cues – the intonation of speech and facial expressions – that most people decode instinctively in their daily interactions remain a mystery to people with Asperger’s Syndrome. So while many may have high IQs and be technically and logically extremely proficient, they lack the ability to relate to other people. To the outside world they appear to be geeks, nerds, self-centered or obsessive. [Read more…] about Asperger’s Careers

Twitter Lists & APIs

18/01/2017 By debkr

I’m trying to find time to set up automated tasks on twitter (not too successfully as I’m trying to do too many things at once). Here’s my original post on twitter mining: http://deborahroberts.info/2016/05/coding-101-part-12-extracting-data-with-json/

And here’s some useful links worth bookmarking:

Using Twitter lists: https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460#

Getting Tweets (REST API): https://dev.twitter.com/rest/reference/get/search/tweets

API Console: https://dev.twitter.com/rest/tools/console