#learning by doing

[armadillo1976]

[thatcakelovingwitch]

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

Real knowledge arises through confrontation with real things.

from Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford 

[thisisgraeme]

Getting Started with AI: Fostering Curiosity and Exploration

Discover the Power of AI with Chat GPT: Unleash your curiosity, expand your knowledge, and tap into the potential of Artificial Intelligence. From answering questions to generating content, learning languages to programming help, and brainstorming ideas t

Getting Started with AI and Chat GPT I’ve been thinking a lot about how to encourage others to get started using AI tools like Chat GPT. That’s why I came up with what I call the Tinkering & Collaboration model. A Journey of 1000 Miles There’s a quote attributed to the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu that goes something like this: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step Lao…

[rat-hand]

Just found out how to make custom ringtones. The world is mine!

[midmorning-bomb]

I dug a 1x6x1' trench to plant bulbs in today and like as a writer, thinking about the "Mob takes you out to the forest and makes you dig your own grave" trope:

No one is getting through that many tree roots with a spade and no lopper.

Screw you, Mob hitmen, I'm not doing your job for you.

[lizziedonegan]

Made a 'hotdog book,' a one page zine. Drew the images with my Wacom tablet on Illustrator and screen printed the zine. The phrase 'BAD NEWS' builds up - the letters pile on top of each other. The problem is: I spent so long trying to get the letters in the right position on Illustrator that I forgot the top row needs to be inverted, so all images are the right way round when it is folded into a zine - d'oh. The gradient/ shadow area on page 7 is meant to be the floor of the room in which the bad news has overwhelmed someone. But because I printed it upside down it's on the ceiling. Accident books is the name of the book publishing co I have come up with. Also reads upside down in this print. The image on the other side (the poster) worked out well, I think. I used standard cartridge paper to print on, it's quite heavy, I used a bone folder to try and get a good crease so the pages line up as much as possible and the zine folds pretty flat.

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[monsoon-of-art]

[ace-and-ranty]

I gotta say, one of the greatest achievements of my 20s was that I learned (mostly) to differentiate between:

"I truly do not want to go" and

"I'm just feeling the Demand Avoidance, and I will like it once I get there."

[koddlet]

personal rules for winter ❄

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.

[astearisms]

catalysts, protectors

[aquuaryo]

"Earthshaker, stormbringer, father of horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God." 🌊

[romcommunist]

"honeymoon phase" i am literally healthily insane and obsessed for the entire duration of the relationship. skill issue

[gideonisms]

I LOVE being alive so I can be mediocre at SO many different hobbies