Comments for How I Learn Stuff

Comment on New Chapter in the Paperback by Tana

Tana — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:23:20 +0000

Great, now I have to read it again! In fact, in the time since I read your book a couple of months ago, I started reading books about homeschooling (and unschooling, specifically) and realized that your book was an excellent argument for it. (I also admit that before I began researching homeschooling, I left your book in the bathroom so that my husband would chance upon it. After doing so, without any persuasion on my part, he suggested that I try homeschooling our daughter!)

[James' Reply: Cool!]

As a person who was valedictorian at every graduation I attended (including School of Engineering in college) but who never developed much confidence in myself or my ability to truly learn or execute on my learning, I found your book both inspiring and energizing. Thank you!

[James' Reply: Thank you very much!]

Comment on New Chapter in the Paperback by Parag Shah

Parag Shah — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:05:51 +0000

Hi James, I am sure your book would be very useful for self learners around the world. I noticed that it is not available in the Kindle edition. Are there any plans to make it available in the Kindle or even a pdf download ? I maintain and develop a website for Computer Science self-learners, and I think the book might be very useful to the community. Thanks [James' Reply: The book IS available on Kindle. Here's the link.]

Comment on New Chapter in the Paperback by katie

katie — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:16:39 +0000

Thank you for writing this book. I already decided to homeschool the kids several years ago… but I think you may have just helped tip me all the way over to unschooling. I also appreciate hearing about your own struggles with Imposter Syndrome (or feeling like any day everyone will realize it’s all a fraud, and you’re really just worthless), which I can never seem to shake off.

Comment on New Chapter in the Paperback by monika hardy

monika hardy — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 03:21:15 +0000

oh yay.
thank you so much James. what an incredible book, what a great addition.

Comment on Indispensable Skills by AlexR

AlexR — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:06:27 +0000

Very nice article.
I’d like to meet your son one day… maybe before he’s gonna be an adult

Alex

Comment on Indispensable Skills by Michael Bolton

Michael Bolton — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:43:04 +0000

I’m interested in how your list of precepts on parenting maps to management. Pretty strongly, it seems to me.

—Michael B.

Comment on Indispensable Skills by Allen Johnson

Allen Johnson — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:08:34 +0000

Reminds me of the Rudyard Kipling poem ‘If’.

I would add one more, which I think is harder for kids (and some adults):
Ability to see potential long term risks and rewards of a decision.

This covers things like your reading example and typing, which may be not fun at all to learn (at least in the beginning) but have large rewards later.

Comment on Indispensable Skills by bart knaackk

bart knaackk — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:31:01 +0000

Impressive list. My biggest concern is: how many would be able to actually acquire all of these… Interesting experiment: take out any one from the list and see where it goes ‘wrong’…. Seems to be an axiomatic approach as if I would try to proove completeness, but is more of a self check to see what such rule would do to you

I am wondering if I would add: the ability to understand the consequences of ones actions and deal with them to it.

[James' Reply: Any healthy ordinary person can acquire these, and they do in the normal course of growing up. Most people have them strongly in the circles that I travel in. But I hang out with technical people and philosophers. I think my son is pretty good in most of them.

I like your idea about consequences/.]

Comment on Indispensable Skills by Tom Delmonte

Tom Delmonte — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 01:37:29 +0000

great list, resonates in many, but not all with mine, but how has it worked for your kid? [James' Reply: I don't think he's aware of it. I didn't create it to help him, directly. I created it to clarify for myself that I need to create the conditions where he feels encouraged to develop those skills, in relative safety.] Is he aware of it, and if so has he given feedback as to how it has helped him? That, to me, would be the best indicator was/is the best indicator that it was a great set of values for your context. [James' Reply: I recently traveled with him for 6 weeks. During that period I found that he's doing okay in all the skills I saw him try to use.]

Comment on Another Puzzle by Alex Rotaru

Alex Rotaru — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:51:42 +0000

First I checked to see if there’s any connection between the even and odd numbers, but I didn’t notice anything.

Then I checked to see if I can find a connection to the ascending / descending order of the numbers, but I didn’t notice anything

Then I summed the digits of each number and noticed that sum(3rd)=sum(9th), sum(4th)=sum(10th), sum(5th)=sum(11), but all the other pairs didn’t match, so I dropped this path too

I noticed that 77=7×11, then I looked at 341. I know that only 1×1 and 3×7 give a 1 and I found out that 341 = 31×11.
Then I though to divide 923 to 13 (which in my mind was 31 inverted) => 923 = 71×13
Then I divided 1547 to 17 (71 inverted)=> 1547 = 91×17. I was surprise to see that my theory was valid so far, so I continued
608 = 32×19
2116 = 92×23
377 = 13×29
2263 = 73×31
518 = 14×37
1394 = 34×41
3182 = 74×43
1645 = 35×47
Following the above reasoning I though that the 13th number has to be a multiple of 53 => 13th = Zx53. Then I thought that 944 should be a multiple of Z inverted.
While trying to think of a solution for this number, I noticed that 7, 11, 19, 23, …, 43, 47, 53 are the prime numbers in ascending order, so 944 should be a multiple of 59 (944 = 16×59).

Knowing that the 13th number is a multiple of 53 and that 944 is a multiple of 59 => 13th number is 5035 = 95×53.

Thank you for the puzzle. It was a nice way to start my day .