codemaxxing protocol

GM bros new meta for learning programming dropped

Only course you need is ChatGPT

  1. Download a CS paper
    2. maybe you want to grind through a textbook, if so then grab the electronic copy of the chapter(s) you'll lock into for the next few days
  2. Upload to GPT Deep Research
    3. or whatever's the top AI model that has a research agent + high token I/O
  3. Prompt GPT to generate a course
    4. e.g. "my background is XXXXX, I know YYYYYY and ZZZZZ. My goal is to be able to replicate and write a toy implementation of this paper in [insert programming language], craft me a crash course and then a hands-on curriculum to learn the necessary skills and fill my knowledge gaps, complete with projects, exercises, and guidelines to accomplish such projects."

Thats it. Follow it and build.

Use GPT or some other LLM that can mentor you as you build

>but what if AI is teaching me the wrong thing?

Good! Errors are pivot points. Opportunities in disguise. Spotting AI's occasional BS sharpens your instincts faster than reading Stack Overflow. In fact, those are precisely the moments when real learning kicks in.

That's simply the PIVOT POINT: the golden moment you realize you steered slightly wrong, and pivot towards clarity.

Learning is about exploration and iterative refinement:

  1. You throw an attempt
  2. Find out if it’s off
  3. Then pivot

And AI models are now good in helping you pivot faster, because they throw out many possible directions while giving the highlight reels of each, potentially saving hundreds to thousands of hours. I'm writing an OS from scratch now for a grad school Advanced Operating Systems class. I was able to tackle this problem because of LLMs. With AI, you can literally just build things

The only problem with AI learning is the same as watching developer conferences and CS lectures. There is no practice for information retrieval, which is the key to encoding the new knowledge deep into your brain.

So remember to also include memory retrieval activities on your own: note taking, presenting, spaced repetition, implementing the concept to code, quizzes (I use remnote: anki style spaced repetition flash card software), whatever learning style fits best

Lock in

this post was written in 2025.03.08

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