6 ms·

The headline belies the scope of this task. If you click in to see what these are: - one is a full course in convolutional neural networks https://cs231n.github

The headline belies the scope of this task. If you click in to see what these are: - one is a full course in convolutional neural networks https://cs231n.github.io/ https://cs231n.github.io/ - one is a 500 page text book https://www.lirmm.fr/~ashen/kolmbook-eng-scan.pdf https://www.lirmm.fr/~ashen/kolmbook-eng-scan.pdf - another one is an 80 page text book (?) https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0406077 https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0406077 and so on. I would guess it is possible to go through this list if you make it your full time job for a year or so. That might be worth it depending on your priorities. Regardless, it bears mentioning.

admissionsguy 2y ago
> If you make it your full time job for a year or so Sounds like a good MSc program
sheepdestroyer 2y ago
Reportedly, Carmack did it an a week by locking himself in an hotel room
- jb1991 2y ago
  Ah, the freedoms of not having any other responsibilities.
  - soulofmischief 2y ago
    If you can't take a single week off of work during an entire year in order to advance your career, then you're satisfied with your current one. There is no need to direct negativity toward others for making time to learn. Carmack is in this position today because of such work ethic, not in spite of it.
    - brayhite 2y ago
      What a strangely narrow way of looking at this. Work isn’t the only responsibility. What is the correlation between taking a week away from responsibilities - work, family, etc. - and job satisfaction?
      - ptero 2y ago
        If one cannot disappear for a week to think or study he is putting himself at some serious life disadvantage. My 2c. I do not mean telling family that I am disappearing for a week starting tomorrow, but that I want to disappear for a week in a couple of months and the family would cover responsibilities for me (I should be willing to reciprocate).
        deprecative 2y ago
        Realistically most people just don't have the resources for this sort of thing. It's not necessarily a matter of want but a limitation of needs. Assuming one has a family that could cover, they would still have a job with responsibilities. Not everyone can afford to risk termination or go without a paycheck for a week even if it's the most intelligent option.
        therealdrag0 2y ago
        Most people in the field have PTO. Some people take PTO and travel, others play video games, Carmac has locked himself in a hotel room to work on projects pretty regularly since he was younger. Many people have a lot more flexibility than they let on. They just make excuses instead of acknowledging their own priorities and commitments or lack of actual interest in change and work.
        orochimaaru 2y ago
        I agree. We travel for work and disappear for a week. I've disappeared for 4-5 days to party with friends and my wife and kids have been fine with it. Obviously the work travel I don't control much. The party part - I'd be getting some serious conversations if it was happening every month. However, if it was to improve my career prospects I don't think anyone will hit much resistance. I mean provided you use the time well and don't get into a space of watching youtube clips of Dune 2.
      - soulofmischief 2y ago
        I assumed someone would retort with this angle, but I hoped people would interpret my comment charitably without me littering it with a dozen caveats. Of course work isn't the only responsibility. Of course some people have kids, pets, parents, medical conditions, etc. It's one week away from work. It can still be done. You weren't going to be taking care of any other responsibilities during your normal 9-5 hours, so that should have no bearing on the week you take off; treat it as any other work week, except you're working for yourself.
    - suroot 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - soulofmischief 2y ago
        Got a source on that? I know that they were married for 25 years. That's a lot of time for people to change and for differences between their needs and wants to grow. I can say that he is exactly where he wants to be professionally, and I don't think you're suggesting that taking a week out of a year to learn new things is too risky because your wife might leave you.
        suroot 2y ago
        [flagged]
        cwillu 2y ago
        I've found that the many of the relationships I'm most proud to have in my life are with those who had a reputation for being difficult and/or insufferable.
        ethbr1 2y ago
        I think about it as a zero sum game: it seems impossible for someone to be stronger in some ways without being weaker in others. Sometimes, with people who care to do so, they can work on those weaknesses and find ways to limit their impacts on themselves and others. But everything comes at a cost. Takeaway: if at least some of your friends aren't difficult in some ways, you're missing out on a lot.
        deprecative 2y ago
        Weird flex but ok. I think though that there is some merit in being able to communicate with a difficult or insufferable person but I find no merit can exist in choosing to take pride in regularly willingly doing so.
        2y ago
    - secondcoming 2y ago
      Sometimes it's nice to take a week off to do things like going outside.
    - jb1991 2y ago
      Disappearing into a hotel for a week and locking yourself in is quite a bit different than "taking a week off." I'm going to guess you don't have kids.
  - 1123581321 2y ago
    If you're feeling unable to learn, have an honest conversation with your family about your career and your interests. They may be more willing to support you than you think. Just as you'd do the same for them so they could achieve something important to them.
  - read_if_gay_ 2y ago
    you think john carmack has fewer responsibilites than you? while you’ve wasted enough time on here to rack up 15k karma?
    - jb1991 2y ago
      Yes. His kid is an adult now and he is reportedly single now too so that makes it a lot easier to do this. The daily life of a family is a large time-consuming responsibility and many can’t lock themselves into a hotel for a week for that simple reason.
- seanhunter 2y ago
  Tony Stark was able to do it in a cave with a box of scraps.
  - jareklupinski 2y ago
    Maria Hill: When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics? Tony Stark: Last night. The Avengers (2012)
    - belter 2y ago
      That is nothing..Sam Altman did it, on his way to this podcast... https://youtu.be/4gASfaRWe7s https://youtu.be/4gASfaRWe7s
      - deadbabe 2y ago
        On Hackernews some people don’t even do it at all, they just know.
        ethbr1 2y ago
        We do it by reading a thread of such insightful comments that our third eyes are instantly opened.
- zyklu5 2y ago
  If he could've done it in a week then he didn't really need to do it at all.
  - admissionsguy 2y ago
    Yup, prerequisites is all you need. I can go through any course of study in a week as long as I'd mastered it before.
  - falcor84 2y ago
    Sometimes you have pretty much all the prerequisite knowledge but are still missing a crucial piece that would help you "piece it together" and make a significant advance.
  - OJFord 2y ago
    I don't think that's true, thinking back to university, if I 'locked myself in a hotel room' and did nothing but study a given topic, I reckon you could get a decent grasp of more than one lecture course. Of course not being able to ask someone any questions would be disadvantage (but is that even a 'rule' of this scenario? Surely at least the internet is allowed, i.e. a person to ask who's available to anyone), and it would have been a lot easier while at university than with X years' rust on the background maths etc. - but still, seven full days is a lot of time if you choose to completely dedicate it to some particular thing, we just generally don't do that, so it doesn't sound it.
- Keyframe 2y ago
  Carmack says the darndest things.
- belter 2y ago
  Almost forgot about how Carmack is the one that will give the world AGI...Easy to take the eyes of the ball with all these OpenAI and Google distractions...
- indigoabstract 2y ago
  How hard can it be? It's only 30 papers. Maybe someone should ask Chuck Norris how long it took him. Who wants to go first?
  - tarboreus 2y ago
    Chuck Norris ghostwrote those papers while on a motorcycle tour of Brazil.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 2y ago
  If he really did it in a week, why hasn't anything come out of his AGI startup yet, two years later? Maybe it wasn't as easy as he seemed to imply, despite his towering intellect. Anyone can read an absurd amount of text in a week. To absorb and understand it all is a different matter entirely. Seems more likely to me that Carmack simply convinced himself he'd understood it all. He does seem to think very highly of himself.
  - giantg2 2y ago
    I would generally agree. Another point could be that even if you understand something, executing on something can still be hard, especially when trying to push beyond existing limits or implementing something complex.
  - AlchemistCamp 2y ago
    The guy did pioneer 3D gaming, improve linux networking in the process (to support his games), build vertically landing, reusable rockets years before SpaceX's and play a pivotal role in modern VR. I would not bet against his understanding on technical topics where he's done a serious deep dive. Also it was more than a year, not just a week.
- lemurien 2y ago
  Did he say that? It’s not in the original interview: https://dallasinnovates.com/exclusive-qa-john-carmacks-different-path-to-artificial-general-intelligence/ https://dallasinnovates.com/exclusive-qa-john-carmacks-diffe...
- sage76 2y ago
  Must be a hell of a hotel room, I should visit.
ykonstant 2y ago
I wasn't aware of the Kolmogorov complexity book; it seems great, I'll be devouring this soon!
- mark_l_watson 2y ago
  I will also. I heard a lecture on Kolmogorov complexity at an AI conference (perhaps AAAI IN Austin in 1984?) and it forever changed my view on complexity and patterns in data.
Xelaz 2y ago
FWIW, Ilya's recommendation for Kolmogorov book in the Arc viewer is "PAGE 434 onward", which lands on the last chapter "Algorithmic Statistics" (p.425 in the book). Appendix 1 starts on p.455 ...

admissionsguy 2y ago

> If you make it your full time job for a year or so Sounds like a good MSc program

sheepdestroyer 2y ago

Reportedly, Carmack did it an a week by locking himself in an hotel room

jb1991 2y ago
Ah, the freedoms of not having any other responsibilities.
- soulofmischief 2y ago
  If you can't take a single week off of work during an entire year in order to advance your career, then you're satisfied with your current one. There is no need to direct negativity toward others for making time to learn. Carmack is in this position today because of such work ethic, not in spite of it.
  - brayhite 2y ago
    What a strangely narrow way of looking at this. Work isn’t the only responsibility. What is the correlation between taking a week away from responsibilities - work, family, etc. - and job satisfaction?
    - ptero 2y ago
      If one cannot disappear for a week to think or study he is putting himself at some serious life disadvantage. My 2c. I do not mean telling family that I am disappearing for a week starting tomorrow, but that I want to disappear for a week in a couple of months and the family would cover responsibilities for me (I should be willing to reciprocate).
      - deprecative 2y ago
        Realistically most people just don't have the resources for this sort of thing. It's not necessarily a matter of want but a limitation of needs. Assuming one has a family that could cover, they would still have a job with responsibilities. Not everyone can afford to risk termination or go without a paycheck for a week even if it's the most intelligent option.
        therealdrag0 2y ago
        Most people in the field have PTO. Some people take PTO and travel, others play video games, Carmac has locked himself in a hotel room to work on projects pretty regularly since he was younger. Many people have a lot more flexibility than they let on. They just make excuses instead of acknowledging their own priorities and commitments or lack of actual interest in change and work.
      - orochimaaru 2y ago
        I agree. We travel for work and disappear for a week. I've disappeared for 4-5 days to party with friends and my wife and kids have been fine with it. Obviously the work travel I don't control much. The party part - I'd be getting some serious conversations if it was happening every month. However, if it was to improve my career prospects I don't think anyone will hit much resistance. I mean provided you use the time well and don't get into a space of watching youtube clips of Dune 2.
    - soulofmischief 2y ago
      I assumed someone would retort with this angle, but I hoped people would interpret my comment charitably without me littering it with a dozen caveats. Of course work isn't the only responsibility. Of course some people have kids, pets, parents, medical conditions, etc. It's one week away from work. It can still be done. You weren't going to be taking care of any other responsibilities during your normal 9-5 hours, so that should have no bearing on the week you take off; treat it as any other work week, except you're working for yourself.
  - suroot 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - soulofmischief 2y ago
      Got a source on that? I know that they were married for 25 years. That's a lot of time for people to change and for differences between their needs and wants to grow. I can say that he is exactly where he wants to be professionally, and I don't think you're suggesting that taking a week out of a year to learn new things is too risky because your wife might leave you.
      - suroot 2y ago
        [flagged]
        cwillu 2y ago
        I've found that the many of the relationships I'm most proud to have in my life are with those who had a reputation for being difficult and/or insufferable.
        ethbr1 2y ago
        I think about it as a zero sum game: it seems impossible for someone to be stronger in some ways without being weaker in others. Sometimes, with people who care to do so, they can work on those weaknesses and find ways to limit their impacts on themselves and others. But everything comes at a cost. Takeaway: if at least some of your friends aren't difficult in some ways, you're missing out on a lot.
        deprecative 2y ago
        Weird flex but ok. I think though that there is some merit in being able to communicate with a difficult or insufferable person but I find no merit can exist in choosing to take pride in regularly willingly doing so.
        2y ago
  - secondcoming 2y ago
    Sometimes it's nice to take a week off to do things like going outside.
  - jb1991 2y ago
    Disappearing into a hotel for a week and locking yourself in is quite a bit different than "taking a week off." I'm going to guess you don't have kids.
- 1123581321 2y ago
  If you're feeling unable to learn, have an honest conversation with your family about your career and your interests. They may be more willing to support you than you think. Just as you'd do the same for them so they could achieve something important to them.
- read_if_gay_ 2y ago
  you think john carmack has fewer responsibilites than you? while you’ve wasted enough time on here to rack up 15k karma?
  - jb1991 2y ago
    Yes. His kid is an adult now and he is reportedly single now too so that makes it a lot easier to do this. The daily life of a family is a large time-consuming responsibility and many can’t lock themselves into a hotel for a week for that simple reason.
seanhunter 2y ago
Tony Stark was able to do it in a cave with a box of scraps.
- jareklupinski 2y ago
  Maria Hill: When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics? Tony Stark: Last night. The Avengers (2012)
  - belter 2y ago
    That is nothing..Sam Altman did it, on his way to this podcast... https://youtu.be/4gASfaRWe7s https://youtu.be/4gASfaRWe7s
    - deadbabe 2y ago
      On Hackernews some people don’t even do it at all, they just know.
      - ethbr1 2y ago
        We do it by reading a thread of such insightful comments that our third eyes are instantly opened.
zyklu5 2y ago
If he could've done it in a week then he didn't really need to do it at all.
- admissionsguy 2y ago
  Yup, prerequisites is all you need. I can go through any course of study in a week as long as I'd mastered it before.
- falcor84 2y ago
  Sometimes you have pretty much all the prerequisite knowledge but are still missing a crucial piece that would help you "piece it together" and make a significant advance.
- OJFord 2y ago
  I don't think that's true, thinking back to university, if I 'locked myself in a hotel room' and did nothing but study a given topic, I reckon you could get a decent grasp of more than one lecture course. Of course not being able to ask someone any questions would be disadvantage (but is that even a 'rule' of this scenario? Surely at least the internet is allowed, i.e. a person to ask who's available to anyone), and it would have been a lot easier while at university than with X years' rust on the background maths etc. - but still, seven full days is a lot of time if you choose to completely dedicate it to some particular thing, we just generally don't do that, so it doesn't sound it.
Keyframe 2y ago
Carmack says the darndest things.
belter 2y ago
Almost forgot about how Carmack is the one that will give the world AGI...Easy to take the eyes of the ball with all these OpenAI and Google distractions...
indigoabstract 2y ago
How hard can it be? It's only 30 papers. Maybe someone should ask Chuck Norris how long it took him. Who wants to go first?
- tarboreus 2y ago
  Chuck Norris ghostwrote those papers while on a motorcycle tour of Brazil.
mtlmtlmtlmtl 2y ago
If he really did it in a week, why hasn't anything come out of his AGI startup yet, two years later? Maybe it wasn't as easy as he seemed to imply, despite his towering intellect. Anyone can read an absurd amount of text in a week. To absorb and understand it all is a different matter entirely. Seems more likely to me that Carmack simply convinced himself he'd understood it all. He does seem to think very highly of himself.
- giantg2 2y ago
  I would generally agree. Another point could be that even if you understand something, executing on something can still be hard, especially when trying to push beyond existing limits or implementing something complex.
- AlchemistCamp 2y ago
  The guy did pioneer 3D gaming, improve linux networking in the process (to support his games), build vertically landing, reusable rockets years before SpaceX's and play a pivotal role in modern VR. I would not bet against his understanding on technical topics where he's done a serious deep dive. Also it was more than a year, not just a week.
lemurien 2y ago
Did he say that? It’s not in the original interview: https://dallasinnovates.com/exclusive-qa-john-carmacks-different-path-to-artificial-general-intelligence/ https://dallasinnovates.com/exclusive-qa-john-carmacks-diffe...
sage76 2y ago
Must be a hell of a hotel room, I should visit.

ykonstant 2y ago

I wasn't aware of the Kolmogorov complexity book; it seems great, I'll be devouring this soon!

mark_l_watson 2y ago
I will also. I heard a lecture on Kolmogorov complexity at an AI conference (perhaps AAAI IN Austin in 1984?) and it forever changed my view on complexity and patterns in data.

Xelaz 2y ago

FWIW, Ilya's recommendation for Kolmogorov book in the Arc viewer is "PAGE 434 onward", which lands on the last chapter "Algorithmic Statistics" (p.425 in the book). Appendix 1 starts on p.455 ...