The Black Box Method: How to Learn Hard Concepts Quickly

A method for preliminarily learning difficulty concepts/data structures/algorithms and being able to put them to use very quickly... within minutes!

In short: blindly copy-pasting code is okay, most of the time.

Stuff I said would be in the description:

Some timestamps:
Intro/overview 00:00
Black box description/examples 01:00
How to use it 04:17
Advantages 07:06
My personal examples 09:00
Practicality/useful libraries 11:27
Final remarks 13:07

[feynmannotesguy]

I guess another reason why this is so effective is it forces you to understand the overall goal instead of getting lost in the small intricate steps. I often find myself thinking to much on complex scenario and forgetting what my initial goal was haha.

[sujaykadam]

My man explained abstraction in detail.

[MajorTrollerHAK]

This will jumpstart my career with stack overflow.

[IDIDNTORDERANYSOUP]

If you're not as STEM-inclined, another great way to understand this is music. It's far easier to learn an instrument through setting out to learn a song rather than learning the chords and building songs out of them.

[noahfletcher]

Topdown learning is the best way. I started learning things quicker when I stopped worrying about every detail. I eventually came to understand the details without even trying.

[rafita_san]

That's like the levels of a abstractions of a field. A technician does no need to know physics to know how an engine works, but knowing the physics is always useful.

[Satyam-N]

add these things to this :
1. focus on basic concepts and dont rush.
2. find objective of learning
3. then find intermediate concepts used generally ( maybe you miss some which are not used regular but if required you can just google it )
4. revision revision, so what ever you learn just revise within 30-40 hours again then lite revision again after a week, this will create new nuro paths, later when you recall even if you forget if you get hint you recall all and then do practice to hard concepts, hope it helps and do have goood sleep and while y learn avoid social media and extra stuff and stupid relationships ( you can talk with your person or give specific time or make them busy too, my my objective is not relationship advice but to protect your brain spaces more and yes we are social being you should hand out but under limit, priorities matters.

[PradeepPant]

I used Black Box Method to learn Black Box Method.

[marusdod]

I've found learning about compilers to be way easier using this method, just focus on each step and blackbox the rest, eventually you'll learn the entire thing

[NeoKailthas]

Legend has it people who are not using this method are currently working on assembly code that adds two numbers. Next step is adding binaries then creating hardware circuits. Then of course how electricity works and atoms and thw universe. But that is just the beginning

[mojtabavahdati]

I passed a whole uni course using this technique and I actually learned it better than other courses, but don't know why I never kept doing it, this video reminds me I should try it more :) Cool video, Thanks.

[williamtolliver]

Ive started doing this in the last 2 years. I just called it a new version of learning with the 5Ws.
We as engineers and tinkerers tend to go STRAIGHT for the "how" too soon. Mastering the Why, then the What, of the total system will make the HOW 321783907218389 times easier to understand.

[bishnietech]

It's like studying the summary first and important formulas that you will be using to solve problems or answer questions in the exam.
by doing this you will get ready way more faster and you can acctually take your time learning details and more complexity in the topic afterwards.
I did that a lot when I didn't have time to study the whole thing. and it's good to know that this is a good tactic and to see other top tier learners use it as well.
This video taught me that it's really a better way to approach concepts and it saves up much time and relieves stress too.

[stanfordchang]

tbh i dont know why this video appeared on my feed but i watched the whole thing because learning hard concepts has always been a struggle for me. I'm a firm believer that I can't move to step 2 if I dont start and finish step 1... sometimes i'll read a whole chapter in a book on something I already know just because of the integrity of starting the text book/this particular author's lesson plan from page 1. But I've never actually finished any thing I started studying. I always fall asleep and feel too overwhelmed to pick it up again the next week. This concept really helped and i hope to apply it effectively in the future.

Also, I laughed because we're from the same area (10:57)

[ohdude]

It's another word for Abstraction -- the frontend, the interface is simplified for use, and the internal mechanisms are hidden away from the user.

[GuRuGeorge]

This is basically just the top down approach rephrased into different language. in a top down approach u split up a problem into an application layer and a foundation layer and then you play around with the application layer first and dive into the foundation later (or not at all). I have been learning like this since I am a kid and even theuniversity I go to teaches like this. I agree that for most people this is much more effective and efficient. The old school approach especially from elitist universities that teach u the very basic foundations of everything first and then work their way up, is extremely outdated and in most cases a complete waste of time.

[cluckoothechicken]

I think this applies to any form of learning. Thank you for the video, it really made me reflect on how I learn. I definitely need to use more black boxing before getting obsessed with the details.

[ja-qob]

Instructions unclear: Black Boxed Computer Science and Graduated with a Ph. D.

[swiftjsulli]

It’s basically like drawing a rough sketch first before painting in detail: it keeps you focused on the entire picture and stops you from gettting bogged down in minute details

[lamriniyounes]

That's exactly what a Bachelor's in Mathematics is.