{"id":80,"date":"2016-08-07T13:14:34","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T21:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/?page_id=80"},"modified":"2017-10-22T05:10:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T13:10:23","slug":"ideas-oversimplified-general-introduction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/ideas-oversimplified-general-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Oversimplified: General Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Standard*&#8217;\u00a0university classes (like linear algebra, electromagnetism, computer architecture)\u00a0start\u00a0by motivating you with applications and grind it down to the\u00a0mechanics on solving\u00a0textbook problems. Even if you aced the class, chances are you&#8217;ve forgotten what the course was about 5 years down the line if you don&#8217;t have a chance to use it.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers have trouble helping ideas stick with students for years to come because they don&#8217;t<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>make sure each\u00a0student&#8217;s\u00a0prerequisites are tightly knit (e.g. properties of complex numbers)<\/li>\n<li>narrow\u00a0the class down to a few simple major intuitions (e.g. express\u00a0any reasonable signal in terms of sinusoids),\u00a0&#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple\/dp\/0544668251\">things explainer<\/a>&#8216; style.<\/li>\n<li>list\u00a0frequently used\u00a0example objects (e.g. sinusoidal inputs) and tricks (e.g. coordinate transformation)<\/li>\n<li>use\u00a0jargon (e.g. sifting) effectively to\u00a0compress a complex\u00a0idea into one word to remember.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hard work ALONE\u00a0will get you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Definitions<\/li>\n<li>Routine\u00a0solution approaches<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Smarts ALONE\u00a0will get you<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tricks such as exploiting symmetry, nice round numbers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Which is good enough for acing the class and NOT remembering anything afterwards.\u00a0Some\u00a0professors choose to teach you the basics,\u00a0solve a few straightforward (potentially long-winded) problems, and leave you to struggle with\u00a0the\u00a0essence and intuition presented\u00a0in the exams and learn it the painful way.<\/p>\n<p>What goes on in those &#8216;smart but tough&#8217; exams, characterized by &#8220;either you see it or you don&#8217;t&#8221;\u00a0kind of questions (i.e. it&#8217;s a easy, one-liner kind of solutions but many hard-working students won&#8217;t get it), tests if you<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>downplayed\u00a0the seemingly trivial basics they taught at the beginning (e.g. superposition)<\/li>\n<li>are comfortable with the commonly used &#8216;objects&#8217; (e.g. impulse inputs, sinusoids)<\/li>\n<li>know what the course or the major themes presented are\u00a0truly\u00a0about (e.g. represent\u00a0arbitrary signals by\u00a0sinusoids)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In &#8216;<em>Ideas Oversimplified<\/em>&#8216; Series, I\u00a0aim to capture only the essence and\u00a0carefully order the prerequisite knowledge so you don&#8217;t learn something the hard way.\u00a0Nonetheless, it&#8217;s not supposed to be self-contained (unless I think it&#8217;s a topic most\u00a0students would have glossed over when they should have paid attention to). If I used a term that you don&#8217;t know what it means right away, go back to your textbook.<\/p>\n<p>This series covers only the &#8216;secrets of the trade&#8217; which your professor conveniently (or intentionally) didn&#8217;t teach in class (so he can quiz you on it).\u00a0It&#8217;s meant to gloss over knowledge that you can quickly synthesize in your head\u00a0after you firmly grasped the ideas.\u00a0If I am successful in organizing the materials the &#8216;<em>Ideas Oversimplified<\/em>&#8216; approach, you&#8217;d be able to attack many problems you&#8217;ve never seen before instead of pattern matching solution approaches.<\/p>\n<p>As for jargon, I will selectively underline\u00a0important keywords that\u00a0serves as <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">anchors<\/span> to help you retain the ideas.\u00a0Don&#8217;t glance\u00a0over anything. If it&#8217;s not super-important, I won&#8217;t put it in, unless it&#8217;s a footnote.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>I wrote this series\u00a0so I can\u00a0swap what I&#8217;ve learned out of my L1 and L2 cache to make space for new topics, and quickly become the &#8216;expert&#8217; I used to be\u00a0in a short time by\u00a0reviewing it.\u00a0A good organization of the materials is just as important for me to quickly relearn the stuff as well as beginners and professionals alike, so I wrote it\u00a0as if it was\u00a0meant for a broad audience.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s\u00a0done in a blog page format for now and constantly updated as I find better ways to organize the information. I&#8217;ll turn it into a short PDF book once I&#8217;ve written enough materials for it.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>* Non-standard classes usually don&#8217;t have a standard textbook (like Boyce for differential equations) associated with it and the materials vary a lot depending on the professors. Survey courses and advanced topics courses doesn&#8217;t have a predictable theme, commonly used tools\u00a0and focus, so you are on your own for those.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_80\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"80\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Standard*&#8217;\u00a0university classes (like linear algebra, electromagnetism, computer architecture)\u00a0start\u00a0by motivating you with applications and grind it down to the\u00a0mechanics on solving\u00a0textbook problems. Even if you aced the class, chances are you&#8217;ve forgotten what the course was about 5 years down the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/ideas-oversimplified-general-introduction\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_80\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"80\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-80","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":633,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/80\/revisions\/633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}