Plan to Learn the Fundamental Theories
Plan to Learn the Fundamental Theories
Summary
Summary
"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.” — The Little Prince
With acceleration of technological progress, many will become outdated, a few that stay relevant will harness outsized returns. What knowledge stays relevant regardless of technological progress?
The more fundamental, the more trendless it is. Regardless of the wind blow, roots keep you relevant. Be it Crypto or AI, with Math you can apply yourself.
Therefore, I first want to create a firm foundation. My reasoning goes beyond trend analysis. Knowledge is like a tree, if you don’t have strong roots, why bother putting leaf’s? Why study calculus when you are struggling with multiplication?
Complex topics also come easier with strong fundamentals, you can build the chain of thought yourself, and understand, not merely memorize. Knowledge is not just a question of understanding theories, it is a question of building a better judgement. Fundamentals are more applicable than complex concepts, and with the collection of mental models you can navigate complicated scenarios. [1]
Once the roots and trunk of the knowledge are firm, I could confidently proceed cultivating the coding skill.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. — Aristotle
What are the fundamentals to study? Keep in mind, my interest is universal and not limited to the coding. It won’t be a stretch to say that I am trying to understand everything that is understood.
David Deutsch ❣️
It just so happens that there is a philosopher following similar pursuit — David Deutsch. I won’t recite his Wikipedia page, but David is probably the leading philosopher and physicist of the 21 century. He has written 2 books exploring the nature of reality based on scientific theories: The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity. They will be my starting point. My goal is to understand everything that David has written. Besides, I will identify mentioned mental models. How will I know and prove to others that I understand his ideas? Threefold, first, I will create clear and simple summary of each chapter, so even a child could understand. [2] Second, I will create and practice set of flashcards, which also will be my unique contribution to his community. Lastly, I will go on a podcast and in real-time, without supplementary materials, explain main ideas of the books. David’s work is also filled with top-notch references that I will use for my second step.
Subjects
To have a good grasp of reality you must study all subjects. If you understand opportunity cost but don’t understand laws of thermodynamics, you are blind on one eye. Specialization in extreme makes you intellectually handicapped. Thorough understanding of multiple subjects takes decades; luckily, each one has 20% of theories that explain 80% of the reality that it is studying.
Firstly, I chose and rank a list of subjects according to their “fundamentalness” (highly subjective): Mathematics, Physics, Epistemology, History, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Psychology. [3]
What are the fundamental theories (mental models) of each subject? The answer will vary depending on the expert. My approach is twofold, first, I will create a list from leading thinkers in the mental model community: Charlie Munger, Naval Ravikant, Shane Parrish and James Clear. Quick overview resulted in a list with around 100 models that you can find here [4]. Second, I will search for the best books and sources that provide simple, but not simplistic, condensed overview of the subject. For instance, to have a great grasp of history one can just read The Story of Civilization series by Durant’s, but the problem is that it will take the entire 12 weeks. So the balance should be just right. For example, you can read A Brief History of Civilization and The Lessons of History in one-tenth of a time, and have more knowledge than 97% of humanity. Another example could be reading Six Easy Pieces and Six Not So Easy Pieces by Feynman. Is it a physics bachelor? No. Does it give a better overview than most people would have in a matter of 10 days — yes.
Therefore, for each subject (besides mental models), I will study several resources that strike just the right balance between time and reward.
What are the sources for each subject? To answer, I must have a good grasp of all those subjects at once. For some, I can confidently say right now, like: History, Physics and Economics. For others, I will search external help from people I trust, like epistemology or math professors in my university. Currently, I am still assembling the resources, I will announce them before studying the subject.
How will I know and prove to others that I understand these subjects? Once again, a complex question! Absence of hard-coded syllabus means there are no hard-coded exams that are wide-accepted. Yet, I must have some means of refutation with the real chance of failure, otherwise it’s not a proof! My approach is threefold; first, I will make and study flashcards of all mental models and core concepts/ theories. Second, I will write and publish an overview of the subject fundamentals based on my resources. Lastly I will go on a podcast, and in real-time, without supplementary materials, explain main ideas after studying each subject.
What are the means of refutation? At the end of studying each subject I will conduct “an exam”, I will go through all created flashcards and if I can’t recall more than 66% of them — I fail. In that case, I will study a few days more and repeat again until I pass (I can’t retake exam on the same day, this is just cramming).
Who will judge the recall? In an open question form I will submit my answers to a close friend of mine. I choose him because he is the highest integrity person I know, who will not tremble to fail me. He also works as a teaching assistant, so he has experience with grading.
Finally, I am doing this for myself. If I don’t know the subject, it is not in my interest to pretend I do. Treating yourself and others like adults saves a lot of time.
Plan
This is a complex project and things will go wrong. I added a day to each subject as a margin of safety. If I fail any flashcard exam the dates will be shifted.
Postscript
I publish to connect with great people. Consider reaching out: mark@markkagach.com
Without support of my friends and family I wouldn’t have freedom of thought, let alone, courage to share it. My deepest gratitude goes to them.
Thanks to Andrei, Amirali, Udesh, Elias, Barak, Kevin and Alex for reading drafts of this.
Notes
[1] To start: https://fs.blog/mental-models/ If you want to dive deep: https://www.stripe.press/poor-charlies-almanack (especially talk 2 and 3). Or: https://www.navalmanack.com
[2] David’s ideas are complex, and I am aware child-level comprehension might be impossible, yet I’ll strive to do my best job.
[3] Don’t take this list too seriously. I am coming from my heavily biased perspective. It is certainly debatable whether history is more “fundamental” than biology or chemistry. Keep in mind, we also have a different boundaries of the subjects, what you would put in chemistry, I would put in physics.
"Men?" she echoed. "I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.” — The Little Prince
With acceleration of technological progress, many will become outdated, a few that stay relevant will harness outsized returns. What knowledge stays relevant regardless of technological progress?
The more fundamental, the more trendless it is. Regardless of the wind blow, roots keep you relevant. Be it Crypto or AI, with Math you can apply yourself.
Therefore, I first want to create a firm foundation. My reasoning goes beyond trend analysis. Knowledge is like a tree, if you don’t have strong roots, why bother putting leaf’s? Why study calculus when you are struggling with multiplication?
Complex topics also come easier with strong fundamentals, you can build the chain of thought yourself, and understand, not merely memorize. Knowledge is not just a question of understanding theories, it is a question of building a better judgement. Fundamentals are more applicable than complex concepts, and with the collection of mental models you can navigate complicated scenarios. [1]
Once the roots and trunk of the knowledge are firm, I could confidently proceed cultivating the coding skill.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. — Aristotle
What are the fundamentals to study? Keep in mind, my interest is universal and not limited to the coding. It won’t be a stretch to say that I am trying to understand everything that is understood.
David Deutsch ❣️
It just so happens that there is a philosopher following similar pursuit — David Deutsch. I won’t recite his Wikipedia page, but David is probably the leading philosopher and physicist of the 21 century. He has written 2 books exploring the nature of reality based on scientific theories: The Fabric of Reality and The Beginning of Infinity. They will be my starting point. My goal is to understand everything that David has written. Besides, I will identify mentioned mental models. How will I know and prove to others that I understand his ideas? Threefold, first, I will create clear and simple summary of each chapter, so even a child could understand. [2] Second, I will create and practice set of flashcards, which also will be my unique contribution to his community. Lastly, I will go on a podcast and in real-time, without supplementary materials, explain main ideas of the books. David’s work is also filled with top-notch references that I will use for my second step.
Subjects
To have a good grasp of reality you must study all subjects. If you understand opportunity cost but don’t understand laws of thermodynamics, you are blind on one eye. Specialization in extreme makes you intellectually handicapped. Thorough understanding of multiple subjects takes decades; luckily, each one has 20% of theories that explain 80% of the reality that it is studying.
Firstly, I chose and rank a list of subjects according to their “fundamentalness” (highly subjective): Mathematics, Physics, Epistemology, History, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Psychology. [3]
What are the fundamental theories (mental models) of each subject? The answer will vary depending on the expert. My approach is twofold, first, I will create a list from leading thinkers in the mental model community: Charlie Munger, Naval Ravikant, Shane Parrish and James Clear. Quick overview resulted in a list with around 100 models that you can find here [4]. Second, I will search for the best books and sources that provide simple, but not simplistic, condensed overview of the subject. For instance, to have a great grasp of history one can just read The Story of Civilization series by Durant’s, but the problem is that it will take the entire 12 weeks. So the balance should be just right. For example, you can read A Brief History of Civilization and The Lessons of History in one-tenth of a time, and have more knowledge than 97% of humanity. Another example could be reading Six Easy Pieces and Six Not So Easy Pieces by Feynman. Is it a physics bachelor? No. Does it give a better overview than most people would have in a matter of 10 days — yes.
Therefore, for each subject (besides mental models), I will study several resources that strike just the right balance between time and reward.
What are the sources for each subject? To answer, I must have a good grasp of all those subjects at once. For some, I can confidently say right now, like: History, Physics and Economics. For others, I will search external help from people I trust, like epistemology or math professors in my university. Currently, I am still assembling the resources, I will announce them before studying the subject.
How will I know and prove to others that I understand these subjects? Once again, a complex question! Absence of hard-coded syllabus means there are no hard-coded exams that are wide-accepted. Yet, I must have some means of refutation with the real chance of failure, otherwise it’s not a proof! My approach is threefold; first, I will make and study flashcards of all mental models and core concepts/ theories. Second, I will write and publish an overview of the subject fundamentals based on my resources. Lastly I will go on a podcast, and in real-time, without supplementary materials, explain main ideas after studying each subject.
What are the means of refutation? At the end of studying each subject I will conduct “an exam”, I will go through all created flashcards and if I can’t recall more than 66% of them — I fail. In that case, I will study a few days more and repeat again until I pass (I can’t retake exam on the same day, this is just cramming).
Who will judge the recall? In an open question form I will submit my answers to a close friend of mine. I choose him because he is the highest integrity person I know, who will not tremble to fail me. He also works as a teaching assistant, so he has experience with grading.
Finally, I am doing this for myself. If I don’t know the subject, it is not in my interest to pretend I do. Treating yourself and others like adults saves a lot of time.
Plan
This is a complex project and things will go wrong. I added a day to each subject as a margin of safety. If I fail any flashcard exam the dates will be shifted.
Postscript
I publish to connect with great people. Consider reaching out: mark@markkagach.com
Without support of my friends and family I wouldn’t have freedom of thought, let alone, courage to share it. My deepest gratitude goes to them.
Thanks to Andrei, Amirali, Udesh, Elias, Barak, Kevin and Alex for reading drafts of this.
Notes
[1] To start: https://fs.blog/mental-models/ If you want to dive deep: https://www.stripe.press/poor-charlies-almanack (especially talk 2 and 3). Or: https://www.navalmanack.com
[2] David’s ideas are complex, and I am aware child-level comprehension might be impossible, yet I’ll strive to do my best job.
[3] Don’t take this list too seriously. I am coming from my heavily biased perspective. It is certainly debatable whether history is more “fundamental” than biology or chemistry. Keep in mind, we also have a different boundaries of the subjects, what you would put in chemistry, I would put in physics.
I publish to connect with stellar people.
Consider reaching out.
Every second counts.
07:15:50
I publish to connect with stellar people.
Consider reaching out.
Every second counts.
07:15:50
I publish to connect with stellar people. Consider reaching out.
Every second counts.
07:15:50