[gauthr]

I have a similar, but slightly different issue. I also have an undergraduate degree, and I did take courses in operating systems, compilers, and algorithm design. The trouble is that I don't remember anything. I remember taking the courses, but there was a huge amount of information that got shoved into my head and remained there just long enough to pass the exams and now it's gone.

This is an enormous pity, because it's only now, years later when I have a full-time job and not much time, do I realize what I missed.

If I won the lottery or somehow came into enough money ('fuck-you' money, I guess), I'd probably repeat my undergraduate schooling. However, there are a couple of options that you and I might have.

The first thing to remember is that no matter whether or not you take a formal course, you'll probably be reading some good books in the subjects that we're interested in. There are lots of lists of good, solid introductions to the subjects that we are interested in.

The second thing is that we'll have to make time for the subjects that we're interested in. As working people, we don't have the luxury of spending all our free time on a given subject, but unlike undergraduates, our attention is not necessarily divided over several subjects. In my last year of undergrad, I was taking plenty of courses and it's perhaps not surprising that I forgot so much. Now we can choose one subject (like compiler design), and focus our free time (however little) on it.

A third option is a sort of middle-ground. Is there a local university to you? Most universities allow you to take undergraduate courses as a continuing student. We have our degrees, we're more interested in the knowledge that the course can give us than the credential that the course grants us. The course would grant us the structure and discussion we'd benefit from as undergraduates, while not completely monopolizing our time.

[Arun2009]

> The trouble is that I don't remember anything.

I read somewhere that our long-term memory has unlimited capacity, and there are basically three ways of measuring your memory:

- Recall: see whether you can recall the pertinent facts.

- Relearn: measure the time it takes for you to relearn the topic.

- Recognize: see if you can recognize key points in a previously learned topic when it's presented again to you.

Most people when they claim that they "don't remember anything" only refer to the recall-metric. But I bet that if you try to learn these ideas again, it'd take you much lesser time that it'd for a complete newbie => you haven't really lost everything you learned. It's just dormant.

[dreur]

Thanks for that, do you remember where you read it?

Feels a bit strange to ask you to remember a book/article about memory but sounds like a great read.

[Arun2009]

Actually, I do - had to quickly glance through the book to confirm it though.

The book is this: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Memory-How-Works-Improve/dp/15692...

[jerf]

"I remember taking the courses, but there was a huge amount of information that got shoved into my head and remained there just long enough to pass the exams and now it's gone."

I'm sure there's a more technical term for this, and to some extent this is my personal experience, but: In general, to learn something you need a "hook", some information "nearby" that you have mastered and the new thing you are learning is just an incremental step from. It is very easy in a school environment to be pushed along at what is a bad pace for you, miss one of the "hooks", and be screwed for the entire rest of the course.

However, as long as you didn't entirely disengage, you will probably find if you go back and cover the topic again yourself, you will end up learning it faster the second time around that you would if there was no first time around. I have found in my experience that literally just re-reading the chapters I had "covered" before and combining that with the subsequent years of experience in the field would suddenly make it go "click".

In fact, when learning a new skill or field of knowledge from a book, this is deliberately how I learn now; read as much of the book as I can possibly stand, then go back to the beginning and start over. It sounds like you're wasting your time, it is actually quite time-effective, though there's a bit of art to the "as much as I can possibly stand".

If you still have your books, try just re-reading. If you don't, get some textbooks and try again. You might be surprised.

I would not recommend actually trying to go back and re-take a course; it is very likely that that will be a waste of time vs. this plan, unless you were so utterly lost that you truly learned nothing in which case somebody was negligent for letting you pass at all. At the very least try this first; it doesn't even have to take that long.

[mian2zi3]

> The trouble is that I don't remember anything. ... [If I came into enough money] I'd probably repeat my undergraduate schooling.

I agree with other posters that you'd relearn the material faster, and this is a kind of remembering. I'd also add that you've probably internalized concepts and skills from your undergrad that you don't consciously realize or connect to your education.

What makes you think it would be any different the second time around? (Except that you might retain more having seen it once already.) I don't mean this as a challenge. I've had similar feelings in the past (How can I hold onto this? Why am I forgetting so much?) and I've gone back to school recently and I've struggled with learning how to learn in a better way. It isn't an automatic slam dunk.

[mcantor]

We often get great lists of books posted on Hacker News. I wonder if there is a good resource for canonical books in those subjects floating around somewhere. I don't trust Google to tell me what to spend such a potentially huge amount of my time on.

[gauthr]

Do you have a university near you? If you can get into their library (or even their bookstore), you can take a look at the recommended books yourself and see if they suit you. You can also get the book lists from university courses that interest you.