#023: Finding Any Course Syllabus, Solving the Trolley Problem, Making Next Google as a Teen

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

This edition is helped in part by the support of Boot.dev. Be sure to check them out in the P.S. for a special signup offer and more information. Let's jump into this week's finds:

How to Find Course Materials From a College Dropout

We are always on the lookout for the latest ways to continue our learning beyond the traditional classroom. @elizamclamb was able to share one of her most useful pieces of advice, which can be found below:

eliza @elizamclamb My favorite hack as a college dropout who still loves to learn is simply Googling “(subject of interest) syllabus.” Hundreds of college syllabi will show up. Figure out the overlap to find what essential texts / materials seem to be. The internet is good if you want it to be !!!! 9:12 PM • Mar 17, 2024 2709 Retweets 24900 Likes Read 36 replies

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Paul Graham Teaches Kids How to Make Next Google

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham has helped incubate companies such as Airbnb, Coinbase, Doordash, Dropbox, Instacart, Reddit, Stripe, and Twitch. He recently shared an essay that he wrote directed towards 14 and 15 year olds on 'How to Start (the next) Google'.

It's filled with actionable insights not only in how to build a successful startup, but the why as well. The advice may be originally written for teens, but it can be applied by any entrepreneurial, driven individual.

Documentaries on the History of Computers

It's hard to come by popular media that covers the history of computing. Because of this, we are glad that @endingwithali asked the following question below and received some amazing replies.

If you're looking for a place to start, we recommend checking out Computerphile on YouTube, the documentary General Magic, and All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.

ali @endingwithali i want to watch more documentaries about coding, history of computers, hacking, history of hacking, hacker stories etc. what should i watch - and what streaming platform is it on? 3:46 PM • Mar 16, 2024 445 Retweets 4698 Likes Read 378 replies

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95% of Top Undergraduates Failed This Question

We recently talked about how impressed we were with the new GPT, Claude, from Anthropic. Anthony Lee Zhang recently posted how he asked one of his favorite interview questions to Claude, and the answer it provided astounded him.

It involved a complicated probability puzzle that Claude managed to correctly compute. The rest of the Twitter thread goes into more complicated questions and answers, but the fact remains that GPT's are becoming increasingly talented in solving complex math problems.

The Trolley Problem is Easy, Actually

Why not end with one of our favorite new YouTube channels, easy, actually! In this video, the infamous Trolley Problem is explained and answered through the lens of different scenarios.

What makes this interesting, is that depending on certain variables it may change whether or not the switch should be pulled to change the direction of the train. It's a fascinating example game theory we can use to rethink and analyze the ethical and moral decisions we make.

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Always wishing you the best,

J.B.