Old Year's Resolutions AKA I challenge you! Or something

I am doing well too. I have ratcheted a little once to keep me motivated. I am trying to build a little buffer for Wednesday when I travel and I am not yet sure if I will be able to do all my goals.

The courses on KhanAcademy are actually really great. I have never formally learned probabilities and combinatorics in a systematic way so I have always just relied on my own conjectures for this type of stuff in college. Learning some corner cases and basics in a structured way helps a lot.

I am not creating a lot of Anki cards because KhanAcademy has this “mastery” concept where it tells you to what percentage you have understood a topic. I think it includes some time-decay, so you can come back after a couple of weeks and re-do the mastery-tests. I don’t know if they remind you automatically to do that, though.

Nice, I have “mastered” probability and combinatorics. As a corollary, I finally understand Bayes Theorem to the point that I can derive the equation myself. Really not complicated at all when you reason about it from first principles.

Makes me sad to think about how many students suffer because they are not given the time to understand things from the ground up and then have to reason from higher and higher abstractions without a solid foundation. I remember that I was able to derive all equations in physics from first principles till 11th grade, but then there came the point where I lost contact with reality and I feel like I have never caught up. Yes, I made it through college, but not with that deeply satisfactory feeling of having a firm grasp on reality. Maybe it’s just me getting older, but revisiting these concepts and understanding them on a deeper level is so rewarding.

I move on two random variables (which is the main reason why I did this challenge) so I am excited about that. Maybe I will rename the goal /random to /ka (KhanAcademy) and just continue to learn stuff there forever. For example, I would really like to revisit chemistry and biology. I just didn’t care about these topics in middle school and now I find it so fascinating.

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Second derailment :frowning:

I’m keeping this goal for now but I might dial it down. On reflecting on my lack of activity on this goal and also stalling on Advent of Code after just one week, I think I do need to take advantage of my full three months off from university after a very difficult year. Maybe if I’d stuck to one of my existing goals or a modified version of one of them for this challenge, I might have done better. But I do need to cut myself a lot of slack.

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Ugh, I feel this in my bones. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with this because I need to tackle a lot of statistical work to do epidemiology… but actually my foundations are really shaky. Even some of the equations I need for biology take me extra work to understand, because they should be intuitive, but I don’t have the background.

Although I talked about not changing these roads, I think modifying it sounds like a good idea. I’m not really about being hardcore ‘do this goal or bust’ when actually you need a break! Totally advocate changing this to something you feel better able to do.

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Meanwhile, I am modifying my rule somewhat in light of unavoidable circumstances: if I am not able to use my treadmill for some reason, but I go for a walk of an equivalent length instead, I can log that onto my graph.

It must be not able, though, not “don’t feel like it”.

I wasn’t able to use my treadmill for two days because we had to have an electrician in to deal with unsafe wiring. :frowning: But I went for a walk at the time I would normally get on the treadmill, and I feel that that is better than nothing for maintaining the habit.

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Okay, I call this challenge done. Thanks for asking us to join @shanaqui.

I screwed up the last question of the mastery test for random variables by calculating 1.7 * 2 = 3.5. Haha.

Anyway, I think KhanAcademy is great and in my opinion schooling as we know it is dead. It sounds very reasonable that kids work through lectures on their own and then come to school to discuss problems in groups and ask questions.

Compare that to millions of teachers repeating the same content (mostly in a way that is inferior to what world-class educators on YouTube can do) every single day. That probably sounds harsh to teachers and I don’t want to cancel them, but their role is going to change.

Honestly, if you have the choice to learn machine learning from your local community college professor versus Andrew Ng on Coursera it’s not a hard decision. Why would it be different for school children?

This is my graph. I think this is going to auto-archive once it reaches the target? I might resurrect it to learn about biology and chemistry on KhanAcademy, or just create a new goal in the future. I am positively surprised by the platform.

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That progress is awesome!

I definitely think there are benefits to a flipped classroom. My wife, who worked in a traditional public school district in the US, flipped her math classroom something like 7 or 8 years ago and had a lot of good outcomes from it.

On the other hand, I want to put a small word of caution in for quick fixes. It’s pretty easy to miss things that traditional schooling, especially in the United States, provides. This isn’t a blanket “the way they do things now must be great for a bunch of nebulous undefinable reasons rah rah”, but more like “be careful that you account for add-ons when wanting big changes in a complicated system”–for instance, In the United States, getting a lunch at school is what provides much of the food security for many children :confused:

It’s tricky to think about making large changes to things when they’re interdependent in a network of messy, society-wide problems. Using that difficulty to be cool with the status quo when we still have these messy, society-wide problems is also a problem! AHHH!

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I totally agree with you and thanks for the warning.

I have to admit that I am judging the situation from my own position of privilege. My idea relies on a lot of assumption that do not hold in reality. For example, how many children don’t have a calm and supportive environment with good internet connection available? Or the example with getting lunch at school is also a good one that I wasn’t even aware of.

Anyway, I still think that these technologies like MOOCs and educational content on YouTube have the potential to improve many lives.

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Love the #ShowYourWork idea! :star_struck:

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If you’re looking for additional motivation - I highly recommend the apps StepBet, WayBetter (especially the CardioBurn 30min and 10K steps games), and RunBet (if your treadmill has a display that shows pace - my mini/elliptical doesn’t). You ‘bet’ on yourself to reach your goals (min steps, pace, time, &/or distance, depending on the app and game you select). I’ve played in them for years and find them highly motivating due to loss-aversion AND the fact that you win a portion of the ’pot’ from anyone who doesn’t meet their goal hehehe :smiling_imp:

Since it’s approaching the new year, here’s two I’d recommend: the 3-week free trial of membership (image attached) – like Beeminder, membership is optional, but makes everything better) – which would allow you to play in this mega-game a ‘Year of You’ that they’ve added $1000 to the pot. (Can join that specific game until Sun Jan 3) and pick a third to fill out your roster, if you so choose. I’m partial to the ’Flex’ style of game, where doing an extra day of steps one week earns you buffer for future weeks, something any :honeybee: can appreciate!

You always get 100% of your ‘bet’ back if you make your goals. Anyway, I’m starting to sound like a shill for WayBetter Inc (I’m not affiliated, just a fan), but I do think it’s the perfect fit to layer on additional accountability and motivation for anyone who wants to beemind exercise (smart phone or fitness tracker required).

We could even host our own Beemind game there and cheer each other on. I’ve never hosted a StepBet before, but I’d be willing to or would join if one of the founders e.g @dreev wanted to use it as an opportunity for cross-platform promotion. I usually play in 3 games at once, so would need like 6-weeks lead time tho :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I’ve never actually tried any of the WayBetter apps as a user and would be really grateful if you led something @lunagoddess! Consider this a huge green light from me.

Tangentially related, we used to have another competitor, Pact, nee GymPact, that sadly died, partly due to their messy monetization scheme where users win money from each other: Beeminder: Like Pact Except All We Do Is Take Your Money | Beeminder Blog . We like the simplicity of users only ever losing money :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I wasn’t familiar with Pact, but from reading that link, the concept seems fairly similar to WayBetter. I’m not sure how long Pact was around, but hopefully they don’t go the same route :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Waybetter has been around since 2010 and if anything still seems to be getting… way better :laughing:

One could flip the headline and say WayBetter is like Beeminder, except they take your money upfront and make you earn it back (plus a share of what others left on the table :smiling_imp:)

Sure, I’d be happy to set up a game. I just looked into the next ‘steps,’ since I’m a long-time participant but would be a first-time host and it’s pretty straightforward :relaxed: There’s a questionnaire that I’ll need to fill out - name the game, start date, description, image, etc.

I’m totally willing to be the official host, put in the leg-work to set up and manage throughout the game, but @dreev would you be willing to:

  • collaborate on the set-up (I’m thinking I’ll set up a shared Google doc and you can review before I make it official and submit)

  • be listed as a ‘co-host’

  • run a survey here to ask members if they foresee participating (ideally ASAP, as anticipated # of participants is one of the game set-up questionnaire Q’s)

  • offer a prize to a random participant (or winner?), e.g. a year of premium subscription. This is entirely optional, but it helps encourage participation (bearing in mind, I’ve already paid and would be ineligible as host, so I’ve got no horse in the game, other than wanting it to be a successful use of my time to set up hahaha)

  • promote the game to Beeminder users

I’m not trying to weasel out of the leg-work or my offer. I figure the only point in doing this is for it to promote Beeminder. Otherwise, folks might as well play in any of the many other available games.

I’m happy to continue this offline (and update this thread if/when a game is scheduled) - feel free to email me if you prefer.

In terms of start date, I’m looking at Mon Feb 8th as the earliest possible date for the game to start, but would want to get it listed sooner rather than later to encourage folks to sign up AND put some work into this while I’m still on holidays :stuck_out_tongue:

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I agree to all those things! With the caveat that I’ll need to resist getting pulled in deciding things about the rules and stuff. So I think just like you say: I can give my thumbs-up or add some comments to a google doc and otherwise help answer questions that arise, but not be running or even co-running the game. A year of Infinibee for the prize sounds great.

Thanks so much! Excited to see how this goes!

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Really curious what corner cases you’re thinking of!

Ah, maybe corner cases wasn’t the right word. Special cases might be the better word. Some of my aha-moments were:

  • Understanding the relationship between Combinations and Permutations C(n,k) = P(n,k) / k!. It’s painfully obvious now, but I always had to reason through it to understand the relationship.
  • How to handle permutations with constraints. For example, how many ways are there to arrange four Huskies A, B, C, and D, under the constraint that B wants to always run behind C. (Simply group B and C together).
  • Understand the difference between a binomial and a geometric distribution (and how to see which one applies for a certain scenario).
  • Realizing that a Poisson process is just a special case of a binomial distribution. (I didn’t understand the math behind a Poisson process at all and now I can derive the former from the later.)

Yeah, so really no big insights for someone who knows this stuff, but it made me really happy.

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What would the game be? Is it just “add data to a beeminder goal of your choice”? Or maybe “create a new beeminder goal for the game and add data every day”?

Or is it a more specific game where we all meditate or exercise or something predetermined and create goals for the game?

@zedmango - are you asking about StepBet game discussion or about the earlier idea of Beeminder group goals/challenges? If you’re asking about StepBet, @dreev sent a survey question with some more details on the daily beeminder email (I’m only signed up for weekly, so I haven’t seen it myself yet). If you’re interested in that idea, I’d encourage you to ‘stay tuned for more info’ and check out the apps in the meantime (available on Android too, but iOS links shown): StepBet WayBetter

If you’re referring to the idea of Beeminder group challenges, it could take a number of directions depending on community desire/interest and/or the vision of who might lead it. It would likely be most intuitive and feel fairest if there’s some comparability between the goals, so like you said, meditation as one game, others could be sleep, reading, writing, eating and minimum no. of fruits & veggies, exercise, etc. Common goals. Worker Bees and longer Beeminder users would have a better idea of what the most common goals are. A minimums should be set for the $ and the goal, ideally a tracker should be used (Calm, Fitbit, Headspace, Apple Health come to mind for example, keeping with the meditation example). I personally wouldn’t think it’s necessary to make a new goal if a user has a compatible one that meets the conditions.

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For anyone following this thread - the StepBet is live!

It’s a fun 6-week game where we’ll motivate each other to stay active and win some cash in the process. To join, download the StepBet app and type in game code BEEMIND or follow this link:
https://step.bet/iFM35ggrWcb

Hope to see you in the game!

My mind won’t leave me alone until I have the last word about this issue. The caveat about unexpected second-order consequences is appreciated, but I want to stress that kids not being appropriately fed when they don’t get lunch at school is outrageous. I had to express this point, even though surely nobody will disagree.

Maybe, we could run an experiment where students partially learn via Khan Academy while at school, avoiding unexpected consequences. That way, there could even be split tests where some students get to use a video-based learning system, and others don’t. I am sure this strategy has tons of potential issues too, but at the same time, the system seems broken enough to justify taking some risks.

At least, we have learned that isolated homeschooling isn’t helpful to the social development of children. On the other hand, the forcefully implemented homeschooling due to the pandemic was arguably not the optimal way to run experiments here.

Sorry for bringing up this thread, but I hope these thoughts stop coming up during my meditation sessions now.

Edit: I realize that homeschooling has a different meaning to what I intended. I tried to express something like virtual-schooling-from-home, not parents-schooling-their-children-at-home.

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Are you familiar with flipped classroom? Flipped classroom is a pedagogical methodology where the instructor prepares or collects readings and videos for students to go through outside of the classroom, often with a very short quiz, and then the classroom time is reserved for problem solving, group work, and focus time with the instructor.

The lecture/learning part becomes the homework, and the skill building and practice becomes the in-class work.

I haven’t reviewed the literature in a while, but I suspect there are studies (and natural experiments, of course) comparing flipped classroom and traditional instruction. There might even be good studies! :slight_smile:

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