I’m scatter-brained right now. In the past week, I’ve reviewed concepts from quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence, fluid dynamics, biomechanics, quantitative finance, computer programming, numerical analysis, novel writing, and chess; my poor brain can’t keep track of it all! It is why I’m writing now. Writing helps slow down my mind when it feels as if it’s moving at the speed of light. I try to give each word I write the attention it deserves, and in doing so, the swarm of thoughts must slow to a trickle. Deep breaths after each sentence also help.

It feels as if there is too much to learn, and not enough time. While this has always been true, it feels even more true today in 2024 than ever before in human history. We have so many distractions to choose from. From our phones, tablets, and computers, there are millions of apps, videos, articles ready to eat up some of the 86,400 seconds that make up our day. Not only are they there, but I am aware that they are there. That awareness itself consumes some of the finite amount of energy available for me to spend. Ignorance is bliss is now making more sense with each passing day.

What is the solution? Do I merge with AI? Get an implant in my brain to increase my functional capacity to memorize and learn? I sure hope not. At least not yet. Would merging with AI take away the joy of learning, or increase it exponentially? Is the joy of learning derived by cutting through the struggle of ignorance in your previous state? It certainly feels that way to me, but maybe because it is the only way I’ve known how to learn. The amount of available information to learn is growing every day, and my ability to learn it all remains stagnant, and will decline as I age. Maybe that’s the issue. The thought that it is even possible to learn it all. It’s not. At least until we merge with AI maybe. Until then, I think the best I or anyone like me can do is to accept the limitations of the human brain. Choose your battles wisely. Don’t overload yourself with too many topics. Pick a few at a time and focus intently. It sounds nice in theory but will be much more difficult to implement in practice. I know myself too well. Even still, I will try to reduce my cognitive load. Distraction is omnipresent nowadays, and I need to be able to focus if I’m going to learn even a small fraction of all the knowledge I want to learn by the time I’m no longer here.

On this last day of 2023, I want to reflect on my learning journey this year. As the adage goes, "The end of one journey is the beginning of the next". In June 2023, I not only finished my PhD in Physics from the University of California, Irvine with the culmination of my thesis on the dynamical mass measurements of supermassive black holes, but I also started a new and independent learning journey.

Admittedly, this journey was motivated by the desire (more so the need) to get a job. I decided academia was not for me, and one of the main reasons was the constraints it placed on my ability to learn (being unable to get a postdoc was also a big reason). Sure, I learned to a depth where I became a supposed expert on my dissertation topic, but during the past 6 years I felt there were many other topics of interest I had to forego learning to complete my PhD. Reading the same types of papers on the same concepts for 5+ years had made me too narrow. I personally feel that I thrive when I get to engage with many different ideas and topics, as opposed to sticking with just one or a few. Then, I found Coursera (I promise I am not sponsored by them; I swear!).

Coursera to me was a return to a mode of learning I was familiar with and that I enjoyed: Online video courses. You see, I attribute much of my success in academic environments to my vast consumption of YouTube educators during YouTube’s infancy. To me, watching creators like KhanAcademy, PatrickJMT, Doc Schuster, and many others in high school made learning FUN. I could go at my own pace, pause when I needed time to absorb things, and rewatch their videos as many times as I needed to finally make the topic stick in my brain. I am not and have never been someone who quickly absorbs new material. For example, it took me 3 separate course (2 in high school, 1 in college) that featured Newtonian Mechanics before I felt I truly “got it” and felt confident enough to switch my major to Physics. I remember watching PatrickJMT and KhanAcademy for hours the night before Math exams in college and having it pay academic dividends.

After 6 months of using it, I can say with confidence that Coursera has made learning fun for me again. I started with the magnificent Machine Learning (ML) Specialization course taught by Andrew Ng, one of Coursera’s Co-Founders, and a titan in the ML community, since I felt that deepening my knowledge in this area would be important for the current times that we live in. This course did not disappoint. I would even go as far to say that I would not have the job I have now if I did not take this course. The ML Specialization course was like a new source of food for my brain, which had been strictly on a supermassive black hole diet for several years. And, as an object in motion tends to stay in motion without an external force to slow it down, I felt that with my PhD behind me, there were no external forces (aka academic obligations) to slow my new learning journey’s momentum.

Learning has and will always be a solace for me. I especially needed it this year. Many of you reading may not know this, but my 2023 was additionally complicated with health issues that started in May and persisted through both the Summer and Fall seasons. Now, as we approach a New Year, I am happy to say these issues have largely been resolved, though I remain diligent to this day in making sure these issues do not return. To distract me from the daily pains I felt over the course of several months, I started other Coursera courses to help keep my mind occupied on novel and fascinating ideas, as well as develop new skills. This was preferable than allowing it to wander and focusing on the despair that often accompanied my pain.

As 2023 ends, I want to use this post as a way for me to look back and say, “Wow, I did all of that in half a year?!”. I also want to use this post to encourage people to actively seek out the joy that comes with learning. Whether it is a new skill like computer programming, learning a recipe for a certain dish you have always been curious to try, or nailing a skateboarding trick that has tripped you up in the past, please embrace the challenge it poses! Most importantly, have fun with the process, as even when it feels we are lost, it is through the joy of discovery that we truly find ourselves.

Coursera Courses I’ve Taken in 2023:

1. Machine Learning Specialization by DeepLearning.AI + Stanford University

2. IBM Data Science Specialization

3. Remote Sensing Image Acquisition, Analysis, and Applications by UNSW Sydney

4. Introduction to High-Performance and Parallel Computing by University of Colorado, Boulder

5. Natural Language Processing on Google Cloud by Google

6. Introduction to Git and GitHub by Google

7. Financial Markets by Yale University