Developing Intellectual Range

[Veltigar]

This thread finds it origin in a first-world problem I am currently experiencing. I have recently started a new job which involves a lot of international travel. Now, I have worked and studied abroad before, but that was always for longer periods of time. I now find myself going from hotel to hotel, which is not ideal for the development of a local social life or doing a lot of touristy stuff. 

I must admit that I'm getting quite bored already. As a way of fighting the boredom, I hope to pick up my reading a bit. As part of that endeavor, I recently read Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein and the conclusions contained within said book confirmed some of my suspicions about what the best way to succeed in the modern working world is.

I have therefore decided that I would like to broaden my knowledge base. For me, that clearly means learning more about the exact sciences, as I do not have a significant background in those disciplines. The difficulty however, lies in finding the appropriate sources, which is not always easy for an outsider. I guess there must be other board members facing the same problem, perhaps not always with the exact sciences but also with other disciplines, so it seemed like a good idea to use the hive mind of the boards to help develop new skills.

Specifically for my own objectives, I would like to ask posters with a background or passion for the exact sciences to recommend some books, news outlets, MOOCS, Podcasts or whatever else they can think of that would help someone with a clear interest in learning to increase their knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology and so on. 

If others are looking for sources on other subjects, feel free to post in this thread as well.  Together I am sure we can compile some nice lists!

 

[maarsen]

54 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

This thread finds it origin in a first-world problem I am currently experiencing. I have recently started a new job which involves a lot of international travel. Now, I have worked and studied abroad before, but that was always for longer periods of time. I now find myself going from hotel to hotel, which is not ideal for the development of a local social life or doing a lot of touristy stuff. 

I must admit that I'm getting quite bored already. As a way of fighting the boredom, I hope to pick up my reading a bit. As part of that endeavor, I recently read Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein and the conclusions contained within said book confirmed some of my suspicions about what the best way to succeed in the modern working world is.

I have therefore decided that I would like to broaden my knowledge base. For me, that clearly means learning more about the exact sciences, as I do not have a significant background in those disciplines. The difficulty however, lies in finding the appropriate sources, which is not always easy for an outsider. I guess there must be other board members facing the same problem, perhaps not always with the exact sciences but also with other disciplines, so it seemed like a good idea to use the hive mind of the boards to help develop new skills.

Specifically for my own objectives, I would like to ask posters with a background or passion for the exact sciences to recommend some books, news outlets, MOOCS, Podcasts or whatever else they can think of that would help someone with a clear interest in learning to increase their knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology and so on. 

If others are looking for sources on other subjects, feel free to post in this thread as well.  Together I am sure we can compile some nice lists!

 

Before you can understand the sciences I think you would need a good grounding in mathematics.  3Blue1Brown on YouTube is a great start depending on the level you last reached.  The videos are fabulous and easy to understand even for complex ideas. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Great thread idea.  I love learning outside my areas of formal education. 

In theory, MOOCs should be great for this but I haven't yet tried any -- I cannot get excited about more hours in front of a computer, especially since it would require high bandwidth streaming, which is a nuisance during work travel.  But if there are any great suggestions here then I will give one a try.  EdX is free, I believe.  I think Coursera charges for theirs.

I did try some DVD series from The Great Courses, now also available now via streaming.  Each series replicates a university class, with approx 30 hours of lectures.  Some people love these and swear by them (including Bill Gates).  I found them too slow and shallow, to the point that it was frustrating and ruined my enjoyment.  I would prefer something with deeper content and higher expectations of the student's comprehension.  It's expensive to buy these as individual series; they should offer an open-ended subscription instead.

I often use non-fiction books, especially in areas like economics, psychology, philosophy and history.  But it's difficult to tackle any of the harder sciences this way.  There are some well known books that try to explain physics in laymen's terms, but they rely heavily on qualitative analogy.  I've found that there are plenty of good TV documentary series that will give you a good quality overview of physics topics with added dynamic visual illustration.  PBS Nova had lots of good ones, and there were some on Amazon Prime explaining Einstein's theories of relativity, and another series that explained Hawking's theories on black holes, and another on quantum theory.  Generally speaking, Amazon Prime is pretty good about offering documentary series that you can stream or download to watch during travel.  But if you want to get serious with equations then you'll probably need text books.

I would (and have) read textbooks for enjoyment, but only if people can point me to a high quality one for each subject.  Just browsing on Amazon is very difficult to select which ones are good quality, accessible to outsiders, and don't rely on accompanying pedagogy from a professor.  Textbooks are generally very expensive but you can buy out-dated editions without losing much information value.

I have found that browsing articles on Medium has led me to introductions to new topics.  E.g. last week I spent a couple of hours reading about machine learning techniques.  (I have a decent background in algorithms and quant from way back).  And most of those authors are also trying to promote their own books or specific online content beyond Medium.

There are vast resources available online in niche communities but often these are hard to locate and, even if you do, can feel inaccessible to outsiders.  This is where recommendations really help.

I think people here have posted before about their favorite youtube content, but it might be tricky to find an old thread like that.

As ever, so much information is available that curation is actually the biggest challenge.

[Veltigar]

On 8/5/2019 at 1:10 AM, maarsen said:

Before you can understand the sciences I think you would need a good grounding in mathematics.  3Blue1Brown on YouTube is a great start depending on the level you last reached.  The videos are fabulous and easy to understand even for complex ideas. 

I have already checked a few videos from that channel out. It's really interesting, thanks for sharing Maarsen  I do hope to find a channel of similar quality that also tackles a few problems that are a little less advanced, as I feel that I'm pretty far behind on that front.

Math was never my favourite subject in school, I have to admit, but I'm guessing you're right about laying some mathematical groundwork first if I want to finish this little project of mine.

On 8/5/2019 at 11:34 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

Great thread idea.  I love learning outside my areas of formal education. 

 I wish more people were interested.

On 8/5/2019 at 11:34 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

In theory, MOOCs should be great for this but I haven't yet tried any -- I cannot get excited about more hours in front of a computer, especially since it would require high bandwidth streaming, which is a nuisance during work travel.  But if there are any great suggestions here then I will give one a try.  EdX is free, I believe.  I think Coursera charges for theirs.

I used EDx once before and I was quite pleased. The difficulty is maintaining your attention to courses that are outside of your own expertise. It's fun to follow if it's a topic that aligns with your natural interests, but not if its something you have to exert yourself for. I enrolled into two courses and the one that was a more logical extension of my previous studies was great and I finished it, the other more faraway attempt wasn't as successful. 

On top of that, you indeed also have the disadvantages of high bandwidth requirements and the fact that you're again stuck in front of a laptop. 

I might return back to MOOCs though, as they at least also offer some beginning courses and a sound teaching methodology. I have heard some good things about skillshare and I like EdX, I'm just not that excited about the prospect of having to pay for any of it.

On 8/5/2019 at 11:34 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

I did try some DVD series from The Great Courses, now also available now via streaming.  Each series replicates a university class, with approx 30 hours of lectures.  Some people love these and swear by them (including Bill Gates).  I found them too slow and shallow, to the point that it was frustrating and ruined my enjoyment.  I would prefer something with deeper content and higher expectations of the student's comprehension.  It's expensive to buy these as individual series; they should offer an open-ended subscription instead.

 

Some of my favourite historical youtube channels rely quite a lot on these, but when I checked out older versions that are now free to stream I was struck by how horrendously static they were. All the lectures look deeply unhappy to be there 

On 8/5/2019 at 11:34 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

I often use non-fiction books, especially in areas like economics, psychology, philosophy and history.  But it's difficult to tackle any of the harder sciences this way.  There are some well known books that try to explain physics in laymen's terms, but they rely heavily on qualitative analogy. 

Qualitative analogy is right up my alley to be honest. I'm not trying to change careers, just build up a general understanding to leverage in my current career and find some intellectual enjoyment   If you could give me some pointers I'd appreciate it.

A few months ago I read Carlo Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and that's the kind of book that I would like to see more off. If someone wrote like a Seven Brief Lessons on [insert name of hard science here] for every field I'd be terribly happy.

 

On 8/5/2019 at 11:34 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

I've found that there are plenty of good TV documentary series that will give you a good quality overview of physics topics with added dynamic visual illustration.  PBS Nova had lots of good ones, and there were some on Amazon Prime explaining Einstein's theories of relativity, and another series that explained Hawking's theories on black holes, and another on quantum theory.  Generally speaking, Amazon Prime is pretty good about offering documentary series that you can stream or download to watch during travel.  But if you want to get serious with equations then you'll probably need text books.

I'll check those out!

On 8/5/2019 at 11:34 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

 

I would (and have) read textbooks for enjoyment, but only if people can point me to a high quality one for each subject.  Just browsing on Amazon is very difficult to select which ones are good quality, accessible to outsiders, and don't rely on accompanying pedagogy from a professor.  Textbooks are generally very expensive but you can buy out-dated editions without losing much information value.

I have found that browsing articles on Medium has led me to introductions to new topics.  E.g. last week I spent a couple of hours reading about machine learning techniques.  (I have a decent background in algorithms and quant from way back).  And most of those authors are also trying to promote their own books or specific online content beyond Medium.

There are vast resources available online in niche communities but often these are hard to locate and, even if you do, can feel inaccessible to outsiders.  This is where recommendations really help.

I think people here have posted before about their favorite youtube content, but it might be tricky to find an old thread like that.

As ever, so much information is available that curation is actually the biggest challenge.

Yeah agreed, but attempts like this thread are already a start