Learning AI on Your Own: Monthly Recap
One of the drawbacks of being a self-learner is that you don’t get any external feedback. That lack of feedback is one of the main challenges of self-education, and the reason why self-learners so often give up; they don’t know where they are going, and uncertainty is a scary thing.
For the last two months I have been teaching myself AI, and experiencing all the challenges that go with that. Being a professional learning designer, I tried to find an effective way to evaluate my progress and keep myself on track. I found a method that works well for me, and may be equally useful for other self-learners.
At the end of each month, I write a summary about how my learning is progressing. It includes the following:
- What I’ve learned
- Key points that I found most useful
- Whether or not I achieved all my goals for the month
- If some goals haven’t been met, the reasons why
- Main problems and difficulties
- Plan for the next month
Further in this article, I will describe each line in detail.
What I’ve learned
I put together a list of all the things I have learned over the course of the month.
Why do it
- The list allows a global vision of what I’ve learned during this month. The list allows me to become aware of where I am in my learning process, assess my current level, and position myself in the flow of concepts and practices.
- When making my list, I can revise the concepts and notions that I have encountered during the month.
- Last but not least: seeing everything I have accomplished makes me feel like a superhero, and it boosts my motivation. When you’re in the middle of a long process, it’s very easy to focus on what’s still ahead, and not how much you have already accomplished.
How I do it
- I go through my Trello board, the courses I’ve taken, and the things I’ve read, which helps me identify all the work I did throughout the month.
- I write out all the concepts that I have encountered, and all the learning exercises I have done or tried.
Example
Here are a few lines from my list for the second month of learning:
You can download the full list for further details.
I wrote out:
- The main concepts I studied, for example, the binomial theorem in Algebra, or list comprehensions in Python.
- The practical applications and exercises I completed. For example, I practiced using prompt commands to run Python code, and I found multiple applications of AI in education.
- Sometimes, I also include a few more details I want to remember. For example, I wrote out the definition of a complex number.
Key points that I found most useful
Once my list is complete, I highlight the key points with my favorite color.
Why do it
- Highlighting the key points enhances the impression that I have made progress. It focuses my attention only on the most important and relevant items, showing that I am not stuck in one place, but have made significant progress.
- It’s much easier to keep a short list of highlights in mind, rather than a long and wordy list of everything I’ve covered throughout the month.
- If I want to refer back to something important that I’ve already covered, highlighting makes it faster to find the relevant information.
How I do it
- I highlight those concepts that seemed the newest or the most surprising to me. I also indicate those actions that I found the most challenging and exciting.
Example
In the Python section of the above list, I highlighted list comprehensions, but not break and continue statements. In fact, I had already seen break and continue when I was learning JavaScript, and even if I barely remembered the difference, it was not a new notion for me. I did have to learn how to use these statements, but doing so didn’t give me the same feeling of making progress. In contrast, telling myself that I have learned list comprehension — a completely new-to-me way of creating lists — left an impression that I made a giant step forward in what I wanted to achieve.
Whether or not I achieved all my goals for the month
I review the goals I set for myself at the beginning of each month (how to set learning goals), and mark them as completed, partially completed, or if I didn’t get to them at all.
Why do it
- It aligns my learning, keeping me aware of what I planned to do, and whether I managed to fulfill the plan.
- The process helps to define achievable yet challenging learning goals.
- It helps keep me accountable. If I deviated from the month’s learning goals, resulting in non-achieved objectives, the next month, I am more careful to follow the set path.
- It gives me a basis for analysis, forcing me to look at why some of the goals were not achieved (see the next section for more details).
How I do it
- I refer to the list of goals I set for myself at the beginning of the month (check this article to learn how to set learning objectives).
- For each goal, I mark whether I achieved it, didn’t achieve it at all, or achieved some part of it. I don’t write anything else here. I find it most useful when I am concise and crystal clear when completing this task. Achieved. Not Achieved. Done 40%.
Example
This is my ‘report’ for the first month I started learning.
I did less than half of what I planned. That left me needing to take a hard look at why and how I drifted off the rails.
Why some things were not done
I don’t beat myself up if I fail to reach some of my goals, or they were achieved only in part. Instead, I try to figure out the reasons why I could not complete it this month.
Why do it
- It’s a way to find an objective explanation for why things were not done. Analyzing the issues contextualizes my learning and efforts.
How I do it
- I write out the goal(s) that I didn’t complete and I add a detailed explanation of why I didn’t achieve what I hoped to. Were my goals too large? Did I get distracted by something else? Did I change my priorities during the month? Was I not efficient?
Example
You can see in my previous example that I read only 10% of Russel and Norvig’s “AI: A Modern Approach,” while I had planned to read half of it.
Here is what I wrote in Why Some Things Were Not Done:
- I didn’t devote enough of my ‘official’ learning time (two hours each day) to reading the book, doing other things instead.
- I only chose to read during my set learning time and missed other opportunities to make progress, such as reading on the metro or during my lunch breaks.
- I went through a breakup this month, and I also made a one-week trip back home. Both of those things made it difficult to focus and read outside of my learning time.
- I read very slowly.
- Unlike Algebra, Python, etc., the book only contains information that’s new to me. As a result, it takes time to fully grasp what I’m reading.
Once I identified the reasons for my lack of progress, I didn’t feel as if I was lazy or stupid. I stayed objective and was ready to improve my reading the next month.
Main problems and difficulties
Once the reasons for the shortfalls have been clearly identified, I plunge into a thorough analysis of all the difficulties and problems I faced this month.
Why do it
- You have to know what a problem is before you can solve it. You can only find solutions once you have clearly identified where the difficulties lie.
- Some difficulties are the reasons why I didn’t achieve my goals; these will show up in the previous section. Others, however, did not prevent me from reaching my goals, yet they are, well, difficult. Finding a more efficient way of doing things may accelerate learning.
How I do it
- I write out the problem and describe it in as much in detail as I can. The details are important here, as they show the root reasons for the problem.
- I try to come up with a solution. I’m never 100% sure that the solutions I attempt will work, but I try them in any case. If my solution proves ineffective, I’ll re-evaluate it at the end of the next month.
Example
At the end of the first month, I wrote the following:
Time management
It’s challenging to combine work and learning. I work 7–8 hours a day (+in my third language), and I have to add two more hours of intense mental effort.
Solution: Being less productive in the evening, I will try to wake up in the morning at 5–6 to study before I get to work.
It was a good strategy to try, but it didn’t work. Here is what I wrote the next month:
Working in the morning
My plan to wake up at five is not working for now. I struggle to wake up that early when it’s still dark outside. It’s winter; I want to sleep. Bears sleep, why can’t I?
Solution: split the two hours of learning time into one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Wait for summertime before moving everything to the morning.
I’ll see if this works!
Plan for the next month
Based on the recap I created and the lessons it taught me, I make a plan for the coming month and set my learning objectives.
Why do it
- Check out this article to find why learning objectives are important.
How I do it
- For each field (in my case: math, Python, AI), I make a list with the specific name of the course I want to finish, the number of tutorials I want to watch, etc.
- I pick up the items that were not completed in the previous month, if any.
- I adjust my plan to my current month’s experience: if there were too many unachieved goals, I reduce the amount of work for the next month.
Example
After having realized that I can’t read “AI: A modern approach” quickly, I reduced the goal from reading half of the book to just reading 10%. A more realistic goal will probably result in more efficient learning results at the end of the next month.
