Top all-time · #279
Scott H. Young
Personal blog · scotthyoung.com/blogproductivitywriting
Scott H. Young writes Scott H Young, a personal blog at scotthyoung.com about productivity and writing. Since 2007, 177 different Hacker News readers have linked it 265 times, most often “MIT Challenge: 4 year MIT CS curriculum in 1 year (2012)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 13 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog mainly for Ultralearning and the MIT Challenge, where Scott Young worked through a four-year MIT CS curriculum in a year. It is valued as practical, well-researched learning advice.
- Recommended for · 13 comments
- Ultralearning called practical and well-researched; Fourier notes succinct; a motivation article great.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- MIT Challenge: 4 year MIT CS curriculum in 1 year (2012)24 people · 24 mentions · first linked 2016-05-03
- /blog/ultralearning/10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2019-12-16
- Do the Real Thing9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2020-06-17
- MIT Challenge7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2011-09-27
- I Was Wrong About Speed Reading (2015)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-07-02
- The Art of the Finish: How to Go From Busy to Accomplished3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2007-11-08
- Never Forget an Idea Again with the Feynman Technique [pdf]3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-05-27
- Expert Opinions I Agree with (That Most People Don’t)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-08-13
- The 7 Most Common Learner Mistakes2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-18
- How to Be Prolific2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-10-23
What Hacker News says?
Kind of disappointed with this article. I thought it would have more practical advice vs. just defining categories of learning (i.e. incremental, transformational) and talking about the need for learning. On this topic, a great read is Scott Young's "Ultralearning" https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/ . Well-researched, practical and the author has been successful following his own advice. Highly recommen…
Comment linking /blog/ultralearning/
on “Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it”Submitted I Was Wrong About Speed Reading (2015) as a story · 274 points
HN discussionIt may not always be wise to start working despite not feeling it. One could burn out that way. Scott H. Young write an article about this recently. https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/01/13/too-tired/ I have also experienced this. When I got my first job I actually tried to work all the time, besides the occasional breaks, ignoring feelings of tiredness. This got to the point where I was feeling tired pretty much…
Comment linking /blog/2020/01/13/too-tired/
on “Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it”Submitted Do the Real Thing as a story · 272 points
HN discussionI just found this blog post a couple days ago that seems relevant to your post: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/12/14/think-better/
Comment linking /blog/2018/12/14/think-better/
on “Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?”Submitted Apprenticeships Beat Classrooms as a story · 229 points
HN discussionNo matter what you choose to learn, it's good to learn how to learn. You have the free "Learning how to learn" course on coursera : https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn And I'm currently reading a book called "Ultralearning" by a guy called Scott H Young who I imagine is the type of person to be on hacker news and be like "Hey, thanks for recommending my book!" https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultral…
Comment linking /blog/ultralearning/
on “Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?”Submitted Variability, not repetition, is the key to mastery as a story · 222 points
HN discussion> My experience is: formally proving something in Coq is not a prerequisite for understanding it, but understanding it is a prerequisite for formally proving it in Coq. So if you get Coq to accept your proof, it's a good sign that you understand every detail. Such tasks are called "orienting tasks" in the cognitive science/human learning literature, and are useful because what it means to "understand" something is q…
Comment linking /blog/2017/06/13/how-much-do-you-understand/
on “My unusual hobby”Submitted What medieval people got right about learning (2019) as a story · 165 points
HN discussionThis guy did something similar: completing a 4-year MIT undergrad CS degree in just one year! https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
Comment linking /blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
on “Self Studying the MIT Applied Math Curriculum”Submitted Cognitive load theory and its applications for learning as a story · 150 points
HN discussionthe book "Ultraltralearning" by Scott Young was/is a useful resource for people who want to "open their minds" to different perspectives on finding work, imo: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/ https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/r81s4t/ https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/ultralearnin... https://www.amazon.com/Ultralearning-Master-Outsmart-Competi... https://www.amazon.com/Ultral…
Comment linking /blog/ultralearning/
on “Work after work: Notes from an unemployed new grad watching the job market break”Submitted I Was Wrong About Speed Reading: Here Are the Facts as a story · 137 points
HN discussionRelated: "Do the Real Thing" by Scott Young (2020): https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/05/04/do-the-real-thin...
Comment linking /blog/2020/05/04/do-the-real-thing/
on “Things that aren't doing the thing”Submitted Why don't we use the math we learn in school? as a story · 94 points
HN discussionexcerpt from the book Ultralearning by Scott Youn — https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/ . "Eric Barone had just graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma with a degree in computer science when he thought, Now’s my chance. He had decided that he wanted to make his own video games and that now, before he got comfortable in a salaried programming job, was his opportunity to do something about it. H…
Comment linking /blog/ultralearning/
on “ConcernedApe's Haunted Chocolatier”Submitted Books on Making and Maintaining Friendships as a story · 77 points
HN discussionScott H. Young completed entire 4-year MIT curriculum for computer science in one year [1]. That was in 2012 when MOOCs was still a new thing. Good luck, I hope your WHY is strong enough to push through difficult days. [1] https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
Comment linking /blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
on “I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months”Submitted How to Teach Yourself Math (2018) as a story · 45 points
HN discussionBasically, what he said: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralearning/ It's the only thing that sticks and has worked for me, and I've been (successfully and not) learning dense technical info for 30 years.
Comment linking /blog/ultralearning/
on “Ask HN: How do you learn complex, dense technical information?”Submitted Aggressive Learning as a story · 37 points
HN discussionScott Young has a lot on this, including going deep on the literature and explaining it to populist student audience: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/the-best-articles-on-learni... For instance, on memory: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2019/02/15/memory/
Comment linking /blog/2019/02/15/memory/
on “Increasing Retention Without Increasing Study Time [pdf]”Submitted Is Getting Rich Worth It? as a story · 35 points
HN discussionYour second paragraph hits the nail on the head. It's the Feynman Technique for learning. See: http://www.scotthyoung.com/learnonsteroids/grab/TranscriptFe...
Comment linking /learnonsteroids/grab/TranscriptFeynman.pdf
on “A Hacker’s Guide to Git”Submitted MIT Challenge: 4 year MIT CS curriculum in 1 year (2012) as a story · 27 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure many people would be able to learn it much faster if they didn't have to sit through countless boring lectures: https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
Comment linking /blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
on “Decision for 2020-21 Academic Year”Submitted Too Tired to Do Everything? How to Live Better Without Burning Out as a story · 23 points
HN discussionExcellent resource with many study tips. As a high school student, it's hard to balance school, leisure, and code, and any sort of advice is appreciated. In addition, I've found Cal Newport's blog both inspiring and also interesting, as he focuses on "hacks" to get higher quality studying for your time ("more bang for your buck") Edit: Cal Newport's blog: http://calnewport.com/blog/ Edit 2: Another one of my sources…
Comment linking /blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
on “How to Study: A Brief Guide”Submitted Tips for rapid learning as a story · 22 points
HN discussion
