[the-smug-one]

Teaching the course content through lectures is overrated, in my opinion. I rarely went to lectures, but the ones I did go to I was there not because I felt a need to learn the course material but because I could in some way engage with the lecturer. One lecturer would talk about how things looked in "real papers", and how new algorithms would get published even though they lacked certain key invariants, and how stupid that was. Another one revealed key insights about the material which he had gained himself. This kind of knowledge exchange is far more important than the course material. You've got the chance to hear what and how some really smart people think about difficult subjects, that's amazing!

Learning is easy, you just sit down and you engage with the material in earnest. Whether that's course material or research papers doesn't matter too much. Figuring out other people's perspective without them explicitly telling you is way more difficult.

[sambe]

How did you know to go to those lectures? Reputation or trying the first few lectures? Just the start of the course feels like it might not give a good enough sample.

[the-smug-one]

Typically just trying the first few, then going to another in the middle of the course or so to see if things have changed.

[AlwaysRock]

>> Learning is easy for me, I just sit down and engage with the material in earnest.

Fixed it for you. What is true for you is not true for all.

[the-smug-one]

Thank you! Learning is easy in the way that weight loss is easy (for all). The actual work to be done is easily defined and simply needs to be done, but that process can be much harder to go through for some than for others. Or perhaps you disagree even more?

[AlwaysRock]

I still feel that it's an oversimplification. If easy is defined by a work that can be easily defined and then needs to be done many things can be overly simplified. But I understand what you are trying to say.

[the-smug-one]

Hey, life's complex. I'll never get it right, especially not here on HN :). Thanks for being understanding!

[tpxl]

I also found courses that had discussions at lectures and prerequisite reading material to be the best, for more or less the same reason.