Types of Projects

At the first stage of a learning journey some kind of fixed structure can be immensely helpful. Thus, it often makes sense to start by joining a reading group. Afterwards, it's possible to dive deeper into a given subject by participating in a distillation project. The most advanced kind of project, however, are research projects and thus should only be pursued with a solid understanding of the topic.

graph TD A(reading group); B(distillation); C(research); A-->B-->C; C-->B;

Reading Group

The primary goal of a reading group project is to understand a given model, theory, or concept by working through a specific book.

Distillation

The primary goal of a distillation project is to make it easier for subsequent generations to undertand a specific concept. Formulated more abstractly, a distillation project aims to reduce research debt.

Participants should have some rough understanding of the general ideas surrounding the concept. For example, the participants of a project on Noether’s theorem should have some rudiemntary understanding of the Lagrangian formulation and Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics.

The deliverable is typically a pdf file that summarizes the learnings and results gathered during the project.

Research Projects

The primary goal of a research project is to discover previously-unknown truths.