I often wonder why I jump around from one reference to another when I’m trying to learn something. Of course I know why I do it – I get stuck. But why do I get stuck? Well, it seems to me that any single resource leaves out important information when developing an idea. Learning how reinforcement learning works is fairly complex, involving concepts, terminology, mathematics, programming, and a big picture framework that needs to be completely understood. An overall idea might be fine for some purposes, but I want to be able to implement it to solve real problems. A solid understanding is required for that. When I get stuck with one resource it’s because the author has left something out (maybe assumed some underlying knowledge that I don’t actually have) or has explained it in a way that I don’t understand (the math is a bit beyond me). The solution is to go to another resource where that particular problem is resolved with different language, fewer assumptions, better analogies, or whatever.
I was a teacher of STEM and IT subjects for nearly 30 years. From the surveys of student satisfaction conducted by my employer over the years I know that I didn’t rate very highly as a teacher by my students. I wonder which of the above sins I was committing on a regular basis. Anyway, no one has to put up with my ineptitude anymore. One thing I like about trading crypto is that it doesn’t involve anyone else, at least not on a personal level. Just ‘the market’.