Yin Yi: my learning and growth path

 Datawhale dried food  

author ： Yin Yi , Columbia University ,Datawhale member

​ ​ Last one ​​ The article sees the reader's message , Ask me what resources I use to learn , I hope I can share my learning path .

Actually , I also start from the most popular field , In the and Datawhale And open discussions with colleagues around you , Find a way of learning that can give full play to your curiosity .

20 After graduation at the beginning of the year , I began to feel at a loss

2020 After graduating at the beginning of the year , I began to feel at a loss . Most of the excellent students in the master's class went to the top Internet companies as engineers or data scientists . They began to study industry dynamics before entering the master's program , And in addition to the course homework, write what you have learned and felt into blogs and GitHub project . emulate those better than oneself , Although I didn't join the WTO enough during my master's degree , Only love metaphysical methodology and teaching , But self-examination after work , I also began to follow up new business and technology trends .

Self learning at the beginning , It's a public meeting of the best-selling business biography and technology community discussion , For example, the books on the non fiction best seller list of the New York Times ,Julia and Scala And other languages . After absorbing these contents , I am here Datawhale And the company's Random Coffee Share knowledge at the event .

last year Datawhale The book club organized reading 《 Cathedral and market 》 This book , Help me realize that open source development is different from the organizational order of traditional commercial software . Then I began to read Hayek's anthology and understand the spontaneous order from the perspective of sociology and economics （Spontaneous order）.

Later, I talked with my colleagues about Hayek 《 The order of feeling 》, They cited the phenomena of complex systems in physics to apply mathematics and chemistry “ Spontaneous order ” The concept of .（ Our company's CEO Stephen Wolfram In the last century 80 The s promoted the simulation of cellular automata , Together with physicists such as Feynman, he founded the research field of complex systems . There are many physicists in my colleagues .） Through these exchanges , I learned about Santa Fe College （Santa Fe Inistitute), And on its free course page （www.complexityexplorer.org） Study the research methods in the field of Humanities and social sciences from the perspective of complex systems .

then ,Datawhale The group began to discuss popular Neural Net Behind the advances in Neuroscience , And recommended Hou Shida's 《 Godel 、 Escher 、 Bach 》（ abbreviation GEB,1979 Published in ), The self referential problem proposed in this book challenges a complete system , It just echoes Hayek's “ The mistake of Constructivism ” And complex systems “ Emergent ”.GEB It has been published more than 40 year , So I went on to see Hou Shida in 21 Published in the th century 《 I'm a circle 》, He used mathematics and empirical research to show that the soul is a mirage （mirage）. It reminds me of Foucault in 《 Words and things 》 Stirring in the “ Death of man ”——“ People will be erased like a face painted on the beach ”.

From popular selling to more in-depth learning

So I began to wonder , Such a person “ The main body ” How to construct and inherit relatively stably ？ So I started watching Foucault's 《 The origin of self hermeneutics 》 And his lecture notes in North America in his later years . And because Foucault is often juxtaposed with several other French philosophers as “ The four heavenly kings of structuralism ”, So I also started reading books by other structuralist thinkers , They began to study existentialism, which was popular before structuralism 、 Interested in post structuralism and deconstruction . In order to understand the latest ideas, research on “ Self - ”、“ consumption ” I'm interested in explaining some new questions like this , Recently, I also began to watch 《Critical Inquiry》 Such academic journals .

That's it , I learned from popular bestsellers , Come to some edge 、 But on a deeper path . Of course, when you deviate from the mainstream , Self doubt is inevitable .

The history class that didn't work for the promotion and raise cured me

One evening , I feel deeply that I have fallen behind my peers in data science models and programming practices , So I tried to log in to LinkedIn （LinkedIn Learning) Make up for the slang of data scientists . But that day I just came home from physiotherapy because of my shoulder pain , Think of the doctor telling me that anxiety worsens muscle pain . The full screen code model may make my subconscious muscles tense , Waste my treatment . So I quit the vocational training course website , Go to the Yale open course page to listen to the late ancient history of the Roman Empire .

This history class that has no effect on my promotion and salary increase , Somehow cured me , Had a good sleep without shoulder pain . From the pagan tradition of Rome to the dominance of Christianity , I wonder how the Middle Ages made the transition to modern society ？ In the broken narrative of mainstream historical segments , How the historical heritage of Christianity in continuous time and space has been forgotten ？ I found and read 《 The theological origin of Modernity 》 This book .

Coincidentally, , I explore the history of ancient Greece, Rome and the middle ages , Even for the recent reading 19、20 Existentialism and structuralism in the th century laid the foundation （ Philosophers love to examine the etymology of ancient Greece and Christian tradition to distinguish concepts ）.

To explore a road with its own style

For learning , My biggest feeling now is ： There is nothing to learn . If you feel you have to learn , But it's too late to act , Probably don't want to learn , You don't have to learn . Instead of using strong will to learn something that has been on the to-do list for a long time , Why don't you get rid of that vague prescription , To explore a road with its own style . This is not only a practical choice in line with their own characteristics , It is also a poetic , Be true to your choice .

I'm probably tired of endless “ Must learn ” detailed list . We've been running through one set-up game after another for too long , I want to sleep in the theoretical dance before turning off the light every day ; When the sun rises , Put it into practice with the passion of creating poetry ; Not because of fear and anxiety to learn .