Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn how electricity works? - <AUTHOR> I've tried several times to understand the vocabulary and concepts of electricity - basic things like volts, amps, resistance - but I'm not having much success with self-led study.  Can anyone recommend any good videos, books, courses, etc.? Thank you. <comment><USER2> I highly recommend the All About Circuits textbook: [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/](https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/)

It starts from the very basics and builds up to quite complex circuits and their workings. It's an all-round great website, too.

<comment><USER3> The Art of Electronics is also fantastic

<comment><USER4> I respectfully disagree with this comment. I banged my head against The Art of Electronics for years before discovering that the problem wasn't with me... but rather, it was just a very poor book for a learner.

It may be a great book for those who already have some grounding in the topic.

<comment><USER5> Please, don't disparage a book because you personally did not find it useful. I, personally, found it very useful and it was my most important learning resources at the beginning.

Exactly as you said, because I have already had some exposure to physics and to kind of modular systems (I am mathematician working as a developer) this was perfect resource for me.

Different people with different backgrounds learn in different ways and from different types of resources. It is wise to understand there is no single resource that is going to be best for everybody.

<comment><USER6> > Exactly as you said, because I have already had some exposure to physics and > to kind of modular systems (I am mathematician working as a developer) this > was perfect resource for me.

So you're saying they're correct that it's not a good book for a learner without some exposure to the fundamentals. But what's the disparagement you're referring to?

<comment><USER5> It is important to differentiate between exposure to fundamentals of _electronics_ and _physics_.

I believe if you have never been exposed to engineering or another discipline that deals with complex systems (like designing software or mechanical systems) you have to learn to build systems from smaller components. This is where many beginners fail. Even though they can sort of understand what parts do they can't put them together because they don't think in systems. In that case you need something else than AoE.

On the other hand, if you have built complex things in another discipline you may find yourself very at home with AoE with no previous exposure to _electronics_. That's because you already know how to build systems from lego bricks, now you just need to learn new kinds of bricks and rules to put them together.

<comment><USER7> That's a good summary. The book was originally written for physics grad students who needed to build instrumentation for their experiments. So intended readers probably understand electromagnetic theory, but need to know how you do things with available parts. That's where it's really useful. I own copies of all three editions. Third Edition is on a shelf nearby.

A good place to start is to get one of the small Elenco electronics kits. The ones with a solderless breadboard. That will get you the basics. With a solderless breadboard, you can always buy and add more components. Much hobbyist electronics is done on solderless breadboards, especially Arduino stuff.

Once you understand E=IR and W=EI, you can size most components. Beyond that, use LTSpice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The Minecraft mod Electrical Age is surprisingly useful to (literally play around and) get a feel for things. It was originally designed to teach electrical engineers once upon a time. Currently it's been a bit gamified -sure-, but the core MNA solver is still there.

Still somewhat surprising to me, this kind of simulation actually does help. It turns out that you actually do pick up a lot of intuitive feel that can serve well in an industrial context. I guess no matter how much theory you study on, it's still really insightful to just blow up some circuits. ;-)

Note that Electrical age currently works with older versions of minecraft (1.7) , though a rewrite is in the works.

[https://electrical-age.net/](https://electrical-age.net/)

<comment><USER9> Problem: there is a difference of velocity of understanding between guided experimentation vs study vs mentorship...

(Many fail and are put off to learning the subject whenthere is no person they personally know to guide them through speed bumps)

<comment><USER10> That's where Electrical Age comes in, at least when it comes to power systems, generation etc.

All the stuff you're learning is in a way directly useful, whereas try to get a steam turbine IRL for learning at home...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm on the opposite side of this question. I've offered to explain motorcycle charging systems in terms anyone can understand. My thought is to use the water flow analogy. Voltage => pressure. Current => flow volume. Resistance => constrictions in the system (or things where the water does work.) Flow at one point in the system must match flow in other parts except for places where water can accumulate (battery => pressure tank.)

My biggest issue is how to depict this in a format that I can share over Skype without putting in 80 hours of work. I might go with a series of pencil drawings and scan them in.

Are any of the suggested materials particularly suitable for this kind of presentation? This is intended to be a 20 minute or so presentation so I'm really just providing highlights. Points I want to get across include:

\- Resistance anywhere in the circuit will cause problems. (e.g. bad ground connection.)

\- Bad starting can be the result of a insufficient battery charge.

\- Bad starting can be the result of high battery internal resistance.

\- Bad starting can be the result of high resistance in the circuit.

\- Operating with loads (e.g auxiliary lights and heated vest) that draw slightly more power than the charging system delivers can work for hours until the battery is discharged and the charging system no longer supports the loads. (DAMHIK!)

Thanks!

edit:formatting

<comment><USER12> Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine, especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range. When engines get cold enough they put enormous load on the starter motor which has to draw more amperage to compensate.

I think it's very important to teach people that moving electric charges, represented by current, result in magnetic forces, and that these magnetic forces are what cause motors to turn. And an alternator or generator reverses the relation by spinning a magnetic field to generate current, which is why it charges a battery.

<comment><USER13> >Bad starting can also be a result of physical resistance in the engine, especially as temperatures fall below the normal operating range.

Is that true? Low temperatures directly affect the maximum output current of the battery, but I don't think engine tolerances are such that the engine starts to effectively seize up below freezing.

<comment><USER11> Lubricants get thicker at lower temperatures.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I recommend having a look at "Practical Electronics for Inventors" by Paul Scherz and Simon Monk. The book offers a very good introduction about the basics of electricity with many helpful illustrations, written in a down-to- earth style. In case you are interested in electronics, you will find that the book covers many intermediate/advanced topics such as operational amplifiers with lots of practical examples.

<comment><USER15> I came here to recommend the same book. It's not an easy book though to read from cover to cover though. I found it useful to try to understand a completed circuit design (say for a solar controller or something else I was interested in) and when I ran into something I didn't understand I'd then open up that book and read areas that were relevant.

<comment><USER14> Yes, I had the same experience and I use it in the same way. It's a great book to have on your bookshelf as it covers a lot of topics and the chapters are, iirc, fairly self-contained; but I never read it from cover to cover.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> If you want to begin with the basics then I highly recommend Khan Academy, starting with "Electric charge, field, and potential" [0], then "Circuits" [1], followed by "Electrical engineering" [2].

[0]: [https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/electric- charge-...](https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/electric-charge- electric-force-and-voltage)

[1]: [https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/circuits- topic](https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/circuits-topic)

[2]: [https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical- engineering](https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-engineering)

</comment><comment><USER17> I personally learned a lot from sparkfun's tutorials. The format is pretty digestible, there are some good videos, and it links out to a few other good resources as well.

[https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/where-do-i- start/all](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/where-do-i-start/all)

<comment><USER18> I second this. Hobby focused content might seem amateur but it has some advantages in my mind.

Context: My biggest gripe with traditional education is lack of context for why a principle is important or useful. Not a problem when you are focused on a project.

Practicality: The practical aspects of theory are usually limited to core principles and help you see through the fog of all the details.

Narrative: Bringing many topics together in a project narrative give a linear path through the related principles which is less overwhelming.

[https://hackaday.com](https://hackaday.com) articles, in my experience, have been a good jumping off point and often have solid links for better understanding.

A weakness of this approach is that it ignores the mathematical techniques to solving some of the problems. I doubt you will learn how to analyze circuits with differential equations or phasor analysis on a hobby site. That said, I rarely use these tools outside of an academic setting.

I'm sure someone will recommend The Art of Electronics. Its a great resource once you have the basics under your belt, but hard to use as a learning tool without prior knowledge. It touches on a lot of details by presenting a circuit and summarizing key points about its operation.

Once you have a handle on the basics I highly recommend playing with some circuits in a simulator. LTSpice is free and very high quality. There are other online options too.

You can experiment on hardware relatively safely if you stay away from high voltages and currents (avoid mains power and car batteries, always use circuit protection such as fuses). You will be frustrated if you have no test equipment though, a multimeter is a must-have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> First, it is important to distinguish between electricity and electronics.

The difference is like being physicist and mechanic. Do you want to be physicist and understand electricity as a phenomena or do you want to be an engineer and use it for something useful. Believe me, there is less overlap than you think.

One good resource I have found is series of articles on [http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html) which mixes a little bit of both worlds.

Have fun!

<comment><USER19> I'm not sure I completely agree with this: electronics refers specifically to (essentially) anything concerning the control/emission of electrons (so transistors, thermionic valves, etc.); it's not just "advanced electrical engineering".

The divide you're talking about exists in both electrical and electronic engineering, if they are to be considered separate disciplines: in electronic engineering you have both the solid state physics required to understand semiconductor devices, and the layers of abstraction used to design analogue circuitry; in electrical engineering you have all the theory of electromagnetism, and the layers of abstraction used to design electrical machines.

The divide you're referring to is real, but it definitely isn't the electrical/electronic divide.

<comment><USER5> Electronics is about building useful circuits. Do you really need to understand what precisely happens within any of the parts? No, not really. I can't imagine what happens to electrons in MOSFET nor do I care. For my purpose it represents some transfer function which is what I use to build the circuit. When I think about OpAmp, the physics is not one of things I am thinking. My mental model of OpAmp has no physics in it and it is about relation between input and output signals.

Think this way: do you need to understand how a complex IC part works? No, you don't. You read the manual and learn that if you put something on particular inputs you will get something on outputs. You leave designing the internals to others. You take parts other people built and solder them to long pieces to copper glued to PCBs.

That's really most of electronics.

You need to know a little bit of physics. You need to appreciate some phenomena like losses, noises, you need to know what happens at high frequencies, maybe you want to understand how heat is conducted away from your parts, etc. You need to know couple extremely simple formulae and laws (laughably simple to any physicist interested in the matter). Other than that your parts function as tiny little lego bricks that are transfer functions to affect how your circuit works.

<comment><USER20> EE degree here to back you up. I believe you're correct, electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS. It's the practical application with as little depth as you can get away with. For example there's some bits of RF you'll learn when you look at 45 vs 90° PCB traces, but you don't need finite-difference time domain equations to understand what's going on.

<comment><USER19> > electronics is to electricity what software engineering is to CS

I would respectfully disagree with this assertion.

I'm pretty sure my colleagues who are designing novel FinFET transistors for low noise applications are "doing electronics", and I'm also pretty certain that they're considering the underlying semi-conductor physics in some pretty serious depth; they're definitely not trying to work with "as little depth as [they] can get away with".

Electronics as a discipline encompasses people working at many levels of abstraction, including those working at a very low level. I think transistor designers would be very amused (or perhaps offended?) if you were to claim that they weren't doing "proper electronics" because they're actually thinking about things in depth in a very analytic way.

<comment><USER20> Oh I wouldn't ever claim component design is anything but complex. I was just trying to make a distinction between high-level fields and something like embedded hardware integration where you can treat each component as a "black box" of sorts and just care about I/O and operating characteristics. I don't mean to diminish your colleagues' work, it sounds fascinating.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hmm. What level do you want to start from, and do you want to start from a practical/experimentalist viewpoint or go straight to the mathematical models?

How comfortable are you with "lies for children" oversimplifications of things that are extremely complicated but mostly irrelevant except in edge cases? (This phrase sounds perjorative but isn't, most of the time you don't _need_ the complicated version and it actively impairs understanding what's going on. But it can be the only way to properly answer some questions like "what is electricity?")

I've occasionally considered writing my own, based on answering questions at electronics stackexchange, e.g. [https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/245610/is- vo...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/245610/is-voltage-the- speed-of-electrons/245621#245621) / [https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/272694/how-d...](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/272694/how- did-scientists-deal-with-electronics-problems-before-kirchhoff-and-ohms- la/272697#272697) ; probably I would target explaining how the electron is a big source of "lies to children", and mostly an irrelevant distraction for beginner/intermediate work.

If you want a large book, _The Art Of Electronics_ is the undisputed classic.

<comment><USER22> I just want to weigh in and say that fantastic as _The Art of Electronics_ is, it is _not_ geared for learning about electricity and electric circuits. The first 13-ish pages (3rd edition) deals with electricity and then quickly moves on to signals, electronics and everything else needed to _develop_ electronic systems.

<comment><USER23> I think you're wrong, mainly because learning how to develop electronic systems is, in my opinion (and also in the opinion of the authors of that book), the best way to learn how electricity actually works.

<comment><USER22> There is no reason to be so absolute about it. I'm not saying it is a bad book or that you should read "Field and Wave Electromagnetics" before you ever dare touch a multimeter.

As an example of my reasoning. AoE and the Arduino starter kit cost roughly the same in my country. They are of course not comparable, but I'd would definitely recommend the latter to someone completely new to electronics, exactly because the latter gives the tools for experimenting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I got a lot from the articles on amasci.com by Bill Beaty. He's done a lot of experimenting, reading, and thinking about this stuff and how to explain it. And is a gifted communicator.

Articles on Electricity [http://amasci.com/ele- edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html)

Great essays on understanding electricity, current, voltage, capacitors, transistors, batteries, static electricity etc etc, and popular misconceptions.

<comment><USER25> Bill's "What Is Electricity?" essay [1] was discussed on HN two weeks ago [2].

[1]: [http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html](http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html)

[2]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442181](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442181)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Walter Lewin's electromagnetism course from MIT [0]. These lectures completely transformed my understanding of physics. He mixes practical demonstration with a rigorous mathematical underpinning in a way that doesn't over simplify things.

[0] [https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyQSN7X0ro2314mKyUiOILa...](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyQSN7X0ro2314mKyUiOILaOC2hk6Pc3j)

<comment><USER27> +1 for Walter Lewin's explanations. I also can't say enough about the clarity of explanations and examples in Feynman's Lectures [1] and the HyperPhysics [2] tutorials.

[1] [https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_toc.html](https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_toc.html)

[2] [http://hyperphysics.phy- astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html](http://hyperphysics.phy- astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html)

<comment><USER28> I would add also the whole Feynman's Vol I

[https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html](https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html)

I believe one can't appreciate the whole subject enough without knowing that the electromagnetic forces are how the atoms "work", also producing "chemistry" and everything we see.

To paraphrase Feynman, the electromagnetic forces also keep you from falling down through the floor.

For the start:

"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generations of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I'm showing my age here, but I got my start with the series of books by Forrest Mims that were available in Radio Shack stores since the 70s. They are written to be understood by complete novices, and they have hand-drawn circuits with everything explained.

[http://www.forrestmims.org/publications.html](http://www.forrestmims.org/publications.html)

<comment><USER30> Did anyone else have a "rest of the fucking owl" experience in the first few pages of those books? It was like: Step 1. Here is a resistor. Now, Step 2 here is an AM radio circuit.

<comment><USER20> That's how I feel every time I try to learn how to use APIs. All the tutorials are like "Here's what REST means" and then "Ok so here's JSON, but we're not telling you what we typed in to get this or what to do with it".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Hyperphysics presents a organized tree-like view of concepts, terminology and examples. It's easy to click around and start building up a mental model of how things relate: [http://hyperphysics.phy- astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html](http://hyperphysics.phy- astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html)

<comment><USER32> This page was a staple of mine during my physics degree, and also during my PhD when I was teaching these concepts

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> There is a basic circuits course upcoming in HackadayU, which is targeted at newbies and is pay-as-you-wish. [https://hackaday.com/2020/06/17/schools-in- session-with-hack...](https://hackaday.com/2020/06/17/schools-in-session-with- hackadayu/)

Just another resource that may help! You'll have no shortage of perspectives and approaches from the links here.

</comment><comment><USER34> I remember in high school I had trouble getting it because I thought ohms law had too many variables. Then I realized that a 5V supply will always be 5V in normal operation and ohms law means the current varies.

All of the water analogies were unhelpful for me. I did better just doing the math and seeing the result.

Someone else mentioned MITx. I did that and it was revolutionary. I also have a pretty good book called Practical Electronics for Inventors.

<comment><USER35> > Then I realized that a 5V supply will always be 5V in normal operation and > ohms law means the current varies.

This is a great observation. I've often thought that teaching Ohms law as I=V/R would lead to less confusion. Similarly, in intro physics why is mass acceleration introduced as f=ma? Wouldn't a=f/m have a clearer meaning?

<comment><USER36> Division is hard!

<comment><USER26> It becomes infinitely more clear and simple to understand when you stop thinking in terms of "A equals F divided by M" and think of it as "A equals the ratio of F to M".

<comment><USER37> It also is infinitely more clear and simple to understand when you correctly realize that "F equals M times A" instead. I assume this was just an accidental transposition and you're not actually a crackpot. :)

<comment><USER26> Doh!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Try ElectroBOOM channel on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd](https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd)

<comment><USER39> I'm genuinely amazed he's not been found burned to a crisp in his workspace. The same goes for Photonic Induction, how he's not burned down his street, let alone his house is a miracle:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/Photonvids/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/Photonvids/videos)

<comment><USER40> That's how you know he actually knows what he's doing: he knows precisely how to shock himself for comedic effect without causing any damage.

<comment><USER41> This, most of the dangerous mistakes are just gags.

IIRC Mehdi admitted on reddit that the one time he really screwed up and was genuinely scared was when the Jacob's Ladder fell on him[0].

[0] - [https://youtu.be/lT3vGaOLWqE?t=467](https://youtu.be/lT3vGaOLWqE?t=467)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> = Geared a little more towards mechanical engineering, but Jeremy Fielding on YouTube has helped me understand some of the concepts with examples rather than textbooks. [https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_SLthyNX_ivd- dmsFgmJVg](https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_SLthyNX_ivd-dmsFgmJVg)

= For straight up electric concepts, I'd look at the Georgia Institute of Technology stuff on Coursera. "Introduction to Engineering Mechanics" and "Linear Circuits 1" were helpful.

</comment><comment><USER43> The training program offered by the US Navy is quite good. Because they can only have so many people on a ship, the Navy tries not to be as specialized as the other services. So, electronic techs are expected to have especially good foundational knowledge so they can work on a broad variety of equipment.

[https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm](https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm)

</comment><comment><USER44> I enjoyed MITx circuits and electronics.

They've moved everything around since I did it, but I think this is the one: [https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx+6.002x_6x+1T2...](https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx+6.002x_6x+1T2015/course/)

</comment><comment><USER45> Nobody seems to have mentioned a book that appeared here 19 days ago.

[Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son (1922)](([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23358380)](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23358380\))). It explains electricity without any technical jargon. Pretty nice first read. His atomic model is outdated, but that doesn't seem to interfere with anything. After reading the first initial letters, you might have a greater motivation to dive into more complicated texts.

</comment><comment><USER46> You might find the Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series helpful: [https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm](https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm)

</comment><comment><USER47> The Art of Electronics is perhaps the best textbook (in any subject) that I have read. I'd highly recommend it. It's exceedingly pragmatic and will discuss a mix of physical underpinnings as well as applications.

</comment><comment><USER48> I found the book "Practical Electronics for Investors" by Paul Scherz [0] to be one of the better ones.

My problem with learning electronics, and, to a lesser extent, electricity, was that most of the guides gave an 'ad-hoc' approach, giving "rules of thumb", recipes, etc. without really going into the reasons for it. They would start off with an (imo) overly technical explanation of quantum effects, then jump the more fundamental Ohm's law, etc., then jump into all the tips-n- tricks of circuit design.

For me, the two major factors to learning electronics were getting enough math sophistication that I could do calculus and linear algebra and being able to program (microcontrollers). The calculus and linear algebra gives tools for the 'passive' analysis and once you realize that most 'practical' electronics nowadays are basically routing power and signal, being able to program is the "meat" of it.

After understanding how to do passive steady-state circuit analysis, I briefly looked at how to do non-passive simulation (transistors, etc.) just to see how it was done (aka, learned how SPICE et. all do it).

Anyway, I found the "Practical Electronics for Inventors" book to be one of the few books that was practical from the outset and actually went into the theory, even if only briefly, without assuming I would get frightened by complex numbers.

There's obviously a path that doesn't involve calculus, linear algebra and programming, because people do it and have been doing it for many years, but these were the tools that helped me understand.

I would also recommend not doing this in the abstract. Arduino's [1] are, in my opinion, one of the better places to start. You can get an LED blinking within 5 minutes of onboxing. Adafruit [2] has many tutorial but they're more focused on using pre-built modules and I guess programming, to a lesser extent, than underlying theory.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors- Fourt...](https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth- Scherz/dp/1259587541)

[1] [https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-uno- rev3](https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-uno-rev3)

[2] [https://learn.adafruit.com/](https://learn.adafruit.com/)

</comment><comment><USER49> I wrote this a long time ago, when I was a teacher, which might be a good starting point.

[https://www.bournetoinvent.com/projects/7-SC- Torch/pages/1_L...](https://www.bournetoinvent.com/projects/7-SC- Torch/pages/1_Lesson.html)

(please excuse the crappy JS)

On another note, I would avoid the water in pipes analogy, as it fails pretty quickly. Electricity is hard to understand because you can't see its effects clearly, but at the end of the day it is caused by an electromagnetic field. Other fields such as gravitational fields, we tend to have a much more intuitive understanding of. Look for explanations that draw parallels between gravitational fields and electromagnetic fields.

</comment><comment><USER50> I would suggest things that use the hydraulics analogy, like this: [https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/Analogy/](https://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~dwharder/Analogy/)

<comment><USER51> I would probably recommend this. Thinking of electricity as analogous to water flow under gravity can get you a long way. I do recommend studying the mathematics of imaginary numbers (not hard, just takes a bit of time) since this is used for AC circuits and this is the tool that makes that stuff make sense.

When you get to active (transistors, diodes etc) devices don't spend much time trying to figure out the physics of these things just use the equations and keep it simple. Just as when you're cooking eggs in the morning it doesn't help much to understand prospecting, mining and metallurgy to use the frying pan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> I'm (early) in the process of writing Ultimate Electronics Book [1], which has interactive simulations built in. It was discussed extensively here on HN 4 months ago [2].

Take a look and let me know what you think.

[1] [https://ultimateelectronicsbook.com/](https://ultimateelectronicsbook.com/)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22315899](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22315899)

</comment><comment><USER53> Along with a book (lots of good recommendations to choose from here), I recommend getting yourself some basic tools for practical experimentation: breadboard, multimeter (even a cheap Chinesium model will be fine for low voltage DC work), an oscilloscope (entry level DSO models from Chinese OEMs such as Siglent and Rigol can be had very affordably), a bench power supply (Siglent and Rigol also offer these), and some components (Joe Knows kits that are sold on Amazon are a great way to stock up on decent quality resistors, capacitors, and semiconductors to help you get to building circuits).

If you get to wanting to experiment with faster circuits, you can ditch breadboards and their parasitics for Manhattan style construction[1] and be able to build _much_ faster circuits with better success. Or you can fall down another rabbit hole, learning how to design your own PCBs. With PCB services becoming mainstream nowadays, you can learn a tool such as KiCad (free software) and send out your gerbers to be manufactured for cheap.

[1]: [http://www.sdmakersguild.org/the-art-of-manhattan-style- circ...](http://www.sdmakersguild.org/the-art-of-manhattan-style-circuit- construction/)

</comment><comment><USER54> I'm the solo dev on an industrial training website. We have a short lesson about the basic electrical units (voltage, current, resistance) that might serve as an approachable introduction or handy reference: [https://www.lunchboxsessions.com/materials/basic- electrical-...](https://www.lunchboxsessions.com/materials/basic-electrical- concepts/basic-electrical-units-lesson)

<comment><USER55> Your site is really amazing. Well done! I was a mechanical engineer for a bit and it's fun going through your lessons and reacquainting myself with that world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I recommend the book "Make: Electronics 2nd Edition"

I knew nothing before starting the book and knew enough by about halfway through to start pursuing my own projects.

<comment><USER57> I like that his book is hands-on right from the start, and immediately defuses one's fear of electricity with exercises such as touching a battery to your tongue, blowing a fuse, and burning out an LED.

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> The ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs explains electricity and electronics for the beginner, and you might also get an interesting introduction to radio, too.

<comment><USER59> Many of the older editions are free on archive.org.

<comment><USER58> Which is a copyright violation, no doubt...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> I highly recommended "Every Circuit" it's a fun little electronics simulator which helps you to understand different electrical components and their interactions

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everycircu...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everycircuit.free)

<comment><USER61> I second this view with this old full circuit simulator: [https://www.falstad.com/circuit/](https://www.falstad.com/circuit/)

The default example here is the LCR-circuit which to understand mathematically requires a bit of work [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit)

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> I found the "Hello world from scratch"[1] series from Ben Eater incredibly helpful in connecting the dots between electricity and modern computers. Strictly speaking it is about electronics, still it is superbly presented and incredibly enlightening when coming from "normal" software engineering perspective of things.

What actually got me there was the book "Code" by Charles Petzold[2] which traces the development from early circuitry like light bulbs and telegraph wires to modern digital logic. I found that after being introduced to these concepts, learning about the fundamental physics was much more accessible since it was framed in the context of contemporary application.

1: [https://youtu.be/LnzuMJLZRdU](https://youtu.be/LnzuMJLZRdU)

2: [https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware- Softw...](https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware- Software/dp/0735611319)

</comment><comment><USER63> I like Tony Khuphaldt books. Simple but effective. The letter to radio engineer's son were super nice IMO ([https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30688/30688-h/30688-h.htm](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30688/30688-h/30688-h.htm))

don't forget googles and gloves

</comment><comment><USER64> I am going through this Udemy course with my kid and it's really enjoyable. The instructor is clear and really enjoys the topic:

[https://www.udemy.com/course/analog-electronics-robotics- lea...](https://www.udemy.com/course/analog-electronics-robotics-learn-by- building/)

</comment><comment><USER65> Have a look at [https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/](https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/)

It's from the developer of AFL and the Guerilla Guide to CNC. Check out the root domain for lots more interesting stuff.

</comment><comment><USER15> Not sure if it's generally applicable but I've learned a lot from reading and trying to understand how the circuits here work.

[https://ludens.cl/Electron/Electron.html](https://ludens.cl/Electron/Electron.html)

</comment><comment><USER66> Many folks have successfully used the US Navy training modules for electrical systems: [http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html](http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html)

</comment><comment><USER67> I enjoyed "There are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings" by Kenn Amdahl. It's a light hearted take in the form of a silly story, but it explains things surprisingly well.

Guess I should add that it covers the basics of electricity and the basics of electronics.

</comment><comment><USER68> Army manual on electricity [https://archive.org/stream/FM55-506-1/#page/n1/mode/2up](https://archive.org/stream/FM55-506-1/#page/n1/mode/2up)

<comment><USER69> this is something different, does army have any more such guides?

<comment><USER68> I looked on archive.org and found some other interesting ones

Radio [https://archive.org/details/TM11-666/page/n5/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/TM11-666/page/n5/mode/2up)

Map Reading [https://archive.org/details/FM21-26_201211](https://archive.org/details/FM21-26_201211)

Carpentry [https://archive.org/details/FM5-426/page/n17/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/FM5-426/page/n17/mode/2up)

Welding [https://archive.org/details/TM9-237/page/n5/mode/2up](https://archive.org/details/TM9-237/page/n5/mode/2up)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This is an anecdote but I hope it helps someone. I couldn't understand electronics for the longest time. I read all about the individual components and I understood them individually, but I still couldn't grasp what they did when put together. Digital circuits made perfect sense to me though. Finally I learned about the "LRC" circuit. When you put those 3 components together, you can understand their behavior with some equations. You can dial in some coefficients to get the behavior (the signal/wave) that you desire. I don't know how someone thought to put those components together into a unit originally though.

</comment><comment><USER70> [https://wiredthegame.com/](https://wiredthegame.com/) is a free video game that is designed to give an understanding of how electricity works. It's probably worth playing through.

</comment><comment><USER71> Outside of electricity fundamentals, this book is a great intro on how the grid works: [https://www.amazon.com/Electric-System-Nonelectrical- Profess...](https://www.amazon.com/Electric-System-Nonelectrical-Professional- Engineering-ebook/dp/B01N1IUI9O)

Or a shorter alternative: [https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-electricity- grid-works](https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-electricity-grid-works)

<comment><USER72> I bought this book on this recommendation and I don't agree that it should be called great. It did a good job of enumerating (what I presume to be) every major component of power systems. However, it didn't to a great job of explaining how any of those components work.

One example is capacitor banks, which it spent a few pages on. I'm told that they're more beneficial the closer to an inductive load they're installed, but I was never told why, or given any tools to figure it out why for myself. There's not even a citation.

After reading this book I have a better understanding of how much of the grid I don't understand, but I don't feel like there's any part I understand particularly better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER73> For the basics of how electricity works (as well as for an in depth understanding) my recommendation is Electricity 1-7. It's a textbook originally published in 1966, so it doesn't cover anything digital, just good old analog electricity.

[https://www.amazon.com/Electricity-One-Seven-Harry- Mileaf/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Electricity-One-Seven-Harry- Mileaf/dp/0810459523)

</comment><comment><USER74> I experienced the same issue when I was in college. I discovered that the way to learn for me was to find a niche category of projects and do them on my own. I actually wrote a blog post about it a while back: [https://burakkanber.com/blog/how-i-taught-myself- electronics...](https://burakkanber.com/blog/how-i-taught-myself-electronics/)

</comment><comment><USER75> Try "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software." It provides a very simple introduction to electricity. Beyond that, it's just a great introductory book on computing.

[https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware- Softw...](https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware- Software/dp/0735611319)

<comment><USER76> I absolutely love this book, but I'd say it's more an intro to computing (like you said) than electricity. Electricity is in there, but IIRC it doesn't go much further than the "water analogy" style of thinking about electricity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER77> I originally learned electricity from Isaac Asimov's understanding physics, volume 2 when I was 13(?). I don't remember the details, but it clearly worked and helped me in all future education.

If you want to try and learn some basics, and then try apply them, both AoE (mentioned already by pjc50) and "Practical Electronics for Inventors" are good choices.

The latter is much more affordable than AoE.

</comment><comment><USER78> Big fan of the No-Nonsense Technician-Class License Study Guide. In addition to vocabulary and terms, there's also sections about units and conversions and basic maths involved to understand the flow of electrical current as it passes through a system

[https://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/](https://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/)

</comment><comment><USER79> Not affiliated in any way, just found it enjoyable, an Android game called Circuit Jam was a really fun way to refresh some basics for me.

</comment><comment><USER80> I studied mechanical engineering in college, but we had to take a single EE course that made my head spin. What helped me a lot was the "hydraulic analogy": [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy)

Still tricky to apply it to AC though.

</comment><comment><USER81> I had an electronics learning lab from radio shack and loved the hands on aspects. [https://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-28-280-Electronics- Learnin...](https://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-28-280-Electronics-Learning- Lab/dp/B000W32P9Y)

You can still find them on ebay, or similar kits if you look around.

<comment><USER82> I had these as a kid but in reality at the time I think I was too young to understand the details of what was going on. Many of the components I would accidentally attach a large battery to and let the magic smoke out. I do miss Radio Shack though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER83> Although, not exactly what you're hoping for, there's a good documentary on the history of electricity called "Shock and Awe - The Story of Electricty".

It sometimes helps me understand better if I get some context on things, how people were thinking before it was discovered, what kinds of hyptothesis and experiments led to another and such.

</comment><comment><USER30> I wanted to add one more thing. You mentioned volts and amps. Try to think of them as units of measure. This helped me:

1 watt = 1 volt times 1 amp. So a watt is a volt-amp.

Similarly to how 1 joule is a newton-meter per second.

When you work with units of measure symbolically in this way, you don't need to worry about not having an intuitive grasp of a joule or a newton.

</comment><comment><USER84> The Manga Guide to Electricity is great! Plenty of non trivial introductory textbook level material.

[https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Electricity-Kazuhiro- Fuji...](https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Electricity-Kazuhiro- Fujitaki/dp/1593271972)

The whole Manga Guide to X series is great.

</comment><comment><USER85> Øyvind Nydal Dahl has lots of good resources on his website and mailing list.

[https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/category/basic- ele...](https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/category/basic-electronics/)

His mailing list is high quality but also high volume

</comment><comment><USER86> Best way to understand volts vs amps is a gravity analogy. Pulling electrons away from protons takes energy, and stores it, the same way that taking basketballs to the top of a cliff does. The voltage is the height of the cliff. The amps is how many basketballs per second you're dropping.

</comment><comment><USER87> Eugene Khutoryansky's youtube channel is great for understanding electrical concepts as well as a bunch of other math and physics concepts

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukBFPrXiKWA&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukBFPrXiKWA&t=1s)

</comment><comment><USER88> Watching Youtube videos of real people trying electrical builds (wiring a shed, van, new house, etc), then reading the comments by real electricians telling them all the places they've messed up and aren't to code has actually been a very good learning experience for me.

</comment><comment><USER89> I recommend MIT 8.02 - Electricity and Magnetism taught by Walter Lewin [1].

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtlJoXxlSFE&list=PLyQSN7X0ro...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtlJoXxlSFE&list=PLyQSN7X0ro2314mKyUiOILaOC2hk6Pc3j)

</comment><comment><USER90> Follow-up question: How do I safely experiment and play with my newfound amature electrical knowledge?

<comment><USER91> Stay with low power. (Low tension and low intensity.)

<comment><USER90> How? Use batteries only?

Obviously I shouldn't plug my own creations directly into the wall. Is it safe to use a low voltage "power brick"? Will any do, or do I need an especially robust one just in case?

<comment><USER82> As a kid I played with batteries and wall bricks or wall warts or whatever you call them(transformers). I would not say you need an especially robust one. They come in different sizes based on the amount of voltage they output and the potential current they can supply. Basically if you are playing with a 9 volt battery and want to replace it with a transformer just look for one that says 9v DC output on it.

<comment><USER82> There are people who say things like its not the voltage that kills its the current but through the human body under normal conditions it takes a decent bit of voltage to induce enough current to really hurt you. Watch out for things with large capacitors and large voltages. If you want to take something like that a part let it sit for a long time for the capacitors to discharge. I worked at a TV repair shop in high school dismantling tube TVs for scrap components. The first step after opening was to use a large screwdriver to discharge the flyback transformer.

<comment> non-entity > Watch out for things with large capacitors and large voltages.

Oh man I have some retrocomputing equipment I really want to play with but I'm a little worried as there's a huge capacitor, some of the wires coming off the power supply manual are visibly old and to add to it, one of the first pages in the maintenance manual is a CPR guide.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER92> I'm just going to put my two cents in and say if you start learning on "electron flow" materials instead of "conventional current" materials you'll have a much easier time understanding how just about every electronic component works.

</comment><comment><USER93> I found this tutorial to be extremely accessible [http://developer.wildernesslabs.co/Hardware/Tutorials/Electr...](http://developer.wildernesslabs.co/Hardware/Tutorials/Electronics/)

</comment><comment><USER94> I've enjoyed Make: Electronics from O'Reilly. I think it's a good mix of theory and experimentation.

[https://www.makershed.com/products/make- electronics-2ed](https://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics-2ed)

</comment><comment><USER95> The 'hydraulic analogy' can help with basic intuition about the terms - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_analogy)

</comment><comment><USER96> I am a researcher working in the the field of charge transport, electric current, material conductivity etc. I am happy to help you understand concepts and answer any of your questions as much as I can. Please don't hesitate to contact me.

</comment><comment><USER97> Old videos but they are clear, entertaining, and still my favorite: [https://www.youtube.com/user/acmeschool/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/acmeschool/videos)

</comment><comment><USER98> The Story of Electricity - BBC Documentary FullHD 1080p

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUeGianTKM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUeGianTKM)

Its sn excellent 3 hour documentary on how electricity was discovered.

<comment><USER69> just watched it last week. hence increased curiosity about this thread..

</comment></comment><comment><USER99> MIT 6.002 course, by Prof. Anant Agarwal. Videos are on youtube. Absolutely fantastic!

</comment><comment><USER100> I recommend the videos at this channel. Start with the basics.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0fGHsCEzGig- rSzkfCjMw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0fGHsCEzGig-rSzkfCjMw)

</comment><comment><USER101> What are you trying with self left study, and why do you want to learn?

These are important questions.

</comment><comment><USER102> [http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html)

Great resource, which dispels a lot of myths and misused terminology in many other traditional explanations. Fun read!

</comment><comment><USER103> Pirate Electronics[1] was a nice resource I backed on Kickstarter years ago.

[1] [https://pirateselectronics.teachable.com/](https://pirateselectronics.teachable.com/)

</comment><comment><USER104> The Demystified series of books is pretty good - lots of examples, with exercises and quizzes. On the topic, the series includes Electricity Demystified and Electronics Demystified by S.Gibilisco.

</comment><comment><USER105> You should get a breadboard, some components and a 5v power supply. Work through some problems in Practical Electronics for Inventors 3rd Edition. A scope would be nice, but a DMM would suffice.

</comment><comment><USER106> The Engineering Mindset has lots of good videos with nice examples - [https://theengineeringmindset.com](https://theengineeringmindset.com)

</comment><comment><USER107> There's a ton of content on YouTube that covers this topic.

For example I did a search for _ohm 's law class 11_ and that search finds pages of introductory videos on that topic.

</comment><comment><USER108> Take a look at these articles - they start with first principles:

[http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html](http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html)

<comment><USER109> This is the best resource I found that really explain what this whole electricity stuff is. I spent years at in engineering programs and none explain as well as it is by William.

</comment></comment><comment><USER110> Is there a good game where you build circuits and simulate them to accomplish various tasks?

I'd love something like shenzhen io but with more emphasis on circuits than signals

</comment><comment><USER111> Electric Power Systems; A Conceptual Introduction by Alexandra Von Meier is a very informative book.

</comment><comment><USER112> What worked for me was enrolling in Electronics 101 at my local community college.

</comment><comment><USER113> Manga guide to electricity is a cute read!

</comment><comment><USER114> Electroboom!

YouTube guy. Funny and does electronics basics.

</comment><comment><USER115> MITx Circuits & Electronics [1][2][3] (it's in 3 parts) MOOC. They are just starting a new instance today, so your timing is perfect.

This is a seriously good course. I've been interested in electronics on and off since I was a kid. I tried learning from various Radio Shack books, but never got very far. I tried some introductory classes at Caltech, and never got very far. Tried "The Art of Electronics" and it just didn't work.

That MITx course worked.

That said, it does get fairly mathematical...circuits involving inductance and capacitance are going to be analyzed using differential equations so if you have never had any exposure to such things it could be rough going.

If you've been through college calculus you should be fine, even if (like me) you've forgotten most of it. They have some refresher material that should bring enough back to get through it.

Here's what you learn in part 1:

• How to design and analyze circuits using the node method, superposition, and the Thevenin method

• How to employ lumped circuit models and abstraction to simplify circuit analysis

• How to use intuition to solve circuits

• Construction of simple digital gates using MOSFET transistors

• Measurement of circuit variables using tools such as virtual oscilloscopes, virtual multimeters, and virtual signal generators

Part 2 teaches:

• How to build amplifiers using MOSFETs

• How to use intuition to describe the approximate time and frequency behavior of first-order circuits containing energy storage elements like capacitors and inductors

• The relationship between the mathematical representation of first-order circuit behavior and corresponding real-life effects

• How to improve the speed of digital circuits

• Measurement of circuit variables using tools such as virtual oscilloscopes, virtual multimeters, and virtual signal generators

• How to compare the measurements with the behavior predicted by mathematical models and explain the discrepancies

Part 3:

• How to construct and analyze filters using capacitors and inductors

• How to use intuition to describe the approximate time and frequency behavior of second-order circuits containing energy storage elements (capacitors and inductors)

• The relationship between the mathematical representation of first-order circuit behavior and corresponding real-life effects

• Circuits applications using op-amps

• Measurement of circuit variables using tools such as virtual oscilloscopes, virtual multimeters, and virtual signal generators

• How to compare the measurements with the behavior predicted by mathematical models and explain the discrepancies

The first course is 4 weeks:

Week 1: From physics to electrical engineering; lumped abstraction, KVL, KCL, intuitive simplification techniques, nodal analysis

Week 2: Linearity, superposition, Thevenin & Norton methods, digital abstraction, digital logic, combinational gates

Week 3: MOSFET switch, MOSFET switch models, nonlinear resistors, nonlinear networks

Week 4: Small signal analysis, small signal circuit model, dependent sources

The second course is also 4 weeks:

Week 1: Amplifiers, MOSFET large signal analysis, MOSFET small signal analysis

Week 2: Capacitors, first-order RC circuits

Week 3: Inductors, first-order step response, first-order circuit analysis, impulses, digital circuit speed

Week 4: Impulse, step, ramp superposition, digital memory, state, ZIR, ZSR

The third is 6 weeks:

Week 1: Second-order circuits, damping in second-order systems

Week 2: Sinusoidal steady state analysis, frequency response, frequency response plots, impedance methods

Week 3: Filters, quality factor, time and frequency domain responses

Week 4: Op-amp abstraction, negative feedback, Op-amp amplifiers, Op-amp filters and other circuits

Week 5: Stability, positive feedback, oscillators, energy and power

Week 6: CMOS digital logic, breaking, the abstraction barrier

[1] [https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and- electronics-1-basic-...](https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and- electronics-1-basic-circuit-analysi-2)

[2] [https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and- electronics-2-amplif...](https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and- electronics-2-amplification-speed-a-2)

[3] [https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and- electronics-3-applic...](https://www.edx.org/course/circuits-and- electronics-3-applications-2)

</comment><comment><USER116> Before you try to understand electricity try to understand work and energy. Know the definition for a watt and what that means mechanically for example.

For really basic things: maxewels equations, ohms law, and the idea that in a closed system potential and kinetic energy are constant. Just grab a university level physics book.

V=IR (ohms law) gives you most of what you need for DC circuits. Remember that power is volts x amps so you can exchange one for the other (for free in an ideal world.)

Alternatively if you want a practical understanding here's what I learned from as a kid: forest mim's book (it's wrong in some ways but it works) the art of electronics (this has anything you could want to know and is well organized and written, like an O'Reilly book for electronics in general) and this really old book I found in a used book store titled "introduction to pulse circuits."

<comment><USER117> I would stay away from Maxwell's equations unless doing something to which they're truly relevant (designing an antenna or something I guess, maybe building a rail gun if you're into that). Maybe I'm blinded by the years I spent as a computational electrodynamics researcher but the model is a little heavyweight for your standard hobby project.

That said I really like your suggestion of starting with basic mechanics and thermodynamics. "Resistors get hot, motors do work, and capaciductors are like springs" goes a long way to tie everything else together

<comment><USER118> Sure capacitors are like springs, but I'd say inductors are more like flywheels.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER119> a kite and a key</comment>


What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier - <AUTHOR> http://blog.bufferapp.com/why-exercising-makes-us-happier <comment><USER2> Interesting that very few of these life hacking blog posts attempt to draw a distinction between different types of exercise. A marathon (or training for one) is a very different form of stress to a low-rep high-intensity power or oly lifting session, and I would expect their neurological effects to be miles apart.

Regarding the endorphin hypothesis, there's another parallel hypothesis which is that the good feelings of exercise are just a symptom of oxygen deprivation in the brain:

        Altitude-chamber tests have shown that as oxygen deprivation
        increases, some victims experience a sense of increasing
        well-being, even euphoria, while they're losing the ability
        to function in a thoughtful, coordinated manner.

Source: [http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/pilot-talk/ntsb- debriefer/a-...](http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/pilot-talk/ntsb- debriefer/a-deadly-sense-of-euphoria.html)

<comment><USER3> I saw recently a show on Discovery about the rescue swimmer training program and they mentioned that euphoria is one of the symptoms of oxygen deprivation. At one moment one of the candidates stayed too much under water and fainted, yet when they pulled him outside, he had a grin on his face and looked euphoric.

<comment><USER4> I have trained in swimming for a big part of my youth, not competition but skills. When practicing swimming under water all teachers were certain to warn us to not push too far. If you are reaching your limits there is a small window where you don't feel anything anymore, which you can possibly ignore by a feeling of "I can do this", which makes you euphoric as well. Combined with lack of oxygen the euphoria will actually put your life at risk while your down there being happy...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good post, but I think there is too much emphasis in general on tracking and logging workouts.

I find the whole tracking and logging weights, reps and feelings while working out to be daunting and pointless. Maybe it's because I am not a "I'm going to start working out and dieting" type person, rather I just live a healthy lifestyle by design. I don't "diet", I just try to eat healthy in general. I don't have a "work out routine", I just try to be physical every day. It makes the whole exercise process more a part of my natural life, rather than something I have to schedule.

I enjoy going to the gym and getting a good workout, doing whatever I feel like at the moment. The important part to me is working up a sweat and getting my heart pumping, not how many reps with a certain weight I did. I can see if you have a goal of weight loss or increasing your strength to a certain level that can be measured by numbers, but if you are aiming for general health, why do you need to keep a detailed log? Just try to exercise everyday, regardless of what that includes.

If you do keep a detailed log of your workouts, what kind of actionable data does that information provide you? Do you refer back to it daily, weekly, monthly and try to optimize your workouts based on your previous history? If so, how?

<comment><USER6> Tracking your workouts is important for debugging later - if you're not getting the results you want, how can you figure out the issue if you don't know what you've been doing?

If your goal is "general health" and you're doing okay, you're lucky (or you should set harder / more specific goals!) But as an example, I thought I was eating well, but when I started tracking my calories for a few months, I realized I had underestimated my daily calorie intake by about 400 calories, and I was still eating way too many carbs for what I considered to be a "low- carb" diet.

I'm also on Fitocracy (was using spreadsheets before) to track weightlifting - tracking is a necessity for lifting IMO.

<comment><USER5> I am not familiar with Fitocracy but it seems to be getting much love here. Part of my dislike for tracking and measuring fitness might come from my experience with cumbersome apps that make the process a pain. I used Fitness Buddy for a period, and found it way to complicated and in-depth to make tracking how much weight I lifted and the reps quickly between exercises. I'll give Fitocracy a shot, and see if I change my mind.

As a side note, I do like tracking how much I walk, but not for debugging, but for motivation. I'd like to hit a 100 miles before the end of the year just by walking at lunch, but for no other reason that personal pride I guess.

<comment><USER7> Hi, one of the cofounders behind Fitocracy here.

While much of the discussion here is focused on tracking activity, I want to mention that we at Fitocracy consider tracking secondary to the social experience the app and site provide. We believe that the key to long term success isn't about numbers on a screen but rather, making fitness a part of your identity and every day life through spending time with people and communities just like you. I highly recommend you check out the social aspects of the experience if you download the app :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Endorphins? Where's the link to the science?

[http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-297-- 1102-...](http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-297-- 1102-0,00.html)

quote:

      "I believe this endorphin in runners is a total fantasy
      in the pop culture," said psychobiologist Huda Akil, Ph.D.,
      from the University of Michigan.

      The endorphin theory had several problems, the most serious
      being that endorphins are too large to pass through the
      blood-brain barrier that border-patrols your gray matter.

<comment><USER9> As with most of the neuroscience research, there exists a counter evidence to this -

Boecker, H., Sprenger, T., Spilker, M.E., Henriksen, G., Koppenhoefer, M., Wagner, K.J., Valet, M., Berthele, A., Tolle, T.R. (2008). The Runner's High: Opioidergic Mechanisms in the Human Brain. Cerebral Cortex DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn013[<http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/11/2523.full>]

<comment><USER10> Other study shows that the effect is mediated through endocannabinoids not endorphins (But the effect is very real): <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14625449>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > _If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. > As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting > the enemy or fleeing from it._

That's exaggerated. It's simply a reaction to increased level of effort. It's not always a full-fledged fight-or-flight response, unless it's a quite strenuous type of exercise.

> _The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been really > sedentary, provide most of the health benefits. You get prolonged life, > reduced disease risk — all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes > of being active._

Makes sense. Exercise a little every day, even if it's some very mild form like walking. Laying down on the couch all day long is bad.

<comment><USER12> >> all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active.

> Makes sense

Does it? I'd say the _last_ twenty minutes of exercise is what counts - it's the difficult part.

<comment><USER13> It depends on the exercise modality.

If you're doing cardio for VO2 max or endurance training, end-of-set effort generally counts for more (though a proper warm-up sets you up for success).

For skill activities, cumulative experience matters, but form breakdown with fatigue limits single-session gains. Going flat-out all the time isn't beneficial.

For weight training, hypertrophy (size/mass increase) seems to be based on time-under-tension and total volume (so that last set matters), while strength and power training rely on motor-unit recruitment and/or speed, both of which are maximized when you're relatively fresh.

Even for hypertrophy and endurance, there are diminishing returns to additional sets. Somewhere between 3-5 sets for a given exercise and you're not going to see much additional advantage. A training session may include other movements to stimulate muscle from different angles, at different ranges of motion, or independently of other synergist/agonist muscles.

The article is discussing _one_ aspect of _one_ form of exercise. The conclusions it reaches (happiness / mood influences of cardio) aren't generalizeable to either all effects or all forms of exercise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The anecdotal evidence in my personal case which supports the ideas in this blog post is overwhelming. Having started an exercise and diet regimen a few months ago, I have noticed a vast improvement not just in physical health but in mental health.

I feel brighter (not in the intelligence sense but in the photonic sense). That is, I feel like I'm pushing positive energy out into the world instead of negative energy. It has been a fairly subtle shift over the last 3 months, but in my mind it is undeniable.

<comment><USER15> I like how you put this, I feel the same way. It's like having the sludge drained out of your head.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> After spending a couple of years exercising on and off and never really getting these gains, I have finally gotten into a routine where I exercise at least 3 times a week. I've been doing this for more than a year. Here's what I've learned from that experience:

1\. Start small. It's much easier to talk yourself into exercising for 10 minutes 3 days a week.

2\. Exercise at home. I hated going to a gym so I never did it.

3\. Do something fun.

All of these made it much easier to exercise consistently, which was my goal. I stopped running and weight lifting and started doing yoga, cycling, rock climbing and boxing instead. I'm not ripped or anything but I have plenty of functional strength and more energy and happiness than I've ever felt before. I'd say yoga and biking give me the most long-lasting pleasure, whereas rock climbing and boxing give me a quick intense flood when I'm done with them. It's really great feeling like this...most days I feel ready to do something crazy and fun like bike to wine country for wine tasting, or spend time in a wood shop, or go to another country on a whim. Last year I felt like I peaked at going out to dinner with friends a couple times a week (and I barely had energy for that). I also don't miss the mid-afternoon lazy slump or the weeks where I'd feel like my thinking was foggy and there was no way to clear it.

<comment><USER17> Agree on all points, though I think there's something to be said for 10 minutes 7 days a week – routine is really important. But having a yoga mat, balance ball and some weights at home really helps on rainy days, and making sure you enjoy your workouts rather than dreading them sounds so obvious, but it feels like most of us have been indoctrinated with the idea it's something we have to suffer through.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The one thing that makes a significant change for me is sleeping well. For me to get a good night's sleep, though, I need to exercise during the day, dim the lights at night, and to keep a consistent time of going to bed. The biggest part of exercise = happy, for me, is the fact that I sleep well afterwards.

</comment><comment><USER19> A year and a half ago I started doing triathlons and moved all the way up to doing a full Ironman this year. Due to the amount of training involved it's an awesome motivator to get you in shape and control your daily plan. Highly recommend it (even if just doing sprint/olympic/half distance) to anyone looking for a structured approach to staying healthy.

I also think it's a great way for entrepreneurs to exercise their minds. The full Ironman is extremely long and takes long term determination. It's not something you can simply hack together (as some people do by minimal training and walking 6-hour marathons). So in a way it allows me to go through a long term process of building up my body (i.e. a company) and make tweaks along the way to improve the performance. I can't tell you how many times I've failed along the way and get better as a result.

Although there is no real way to quantify this, I would say my ability to focus at work as drastically increased. I much more confident and happy as a result.

</infomercial>

Curious - anyone else on HN do triathlons?

<comment><USER20> I don't do triathlons because of the time commitment involved. I'm training for a marathon and that's a big enough commitment.

I still think the best way to learn to be an entrepreneur is to be an entrepreneur.

If you enjoy a specific sport or activity, enjoy it for it's own merits. Rarely do things like marathons or Ironman or sports make sense just as ways to keep in shape - unless that's the only thing that will motivate you.

So what I am saying is that sports are great on their own, no need to justify them by assuming they "build character" in other parts of your life.

My guess is that success-oriented people do triathlons, not that triathlons produce success-oriented people.

<comment><USER21> Triathlon training really isn't just tacking together the training you would do for all three sports; this would be impossible. Instead, it is doing the same amount of training as you would do if you were doing one of the three sports exclusively. But in the same amount of training, you are training to perform three sports rather than one.

This necessarily means that a triathlete is not performing to his/her ability in any single sport. For example, a good time for the marathon portion of an Ironman is 2:40-2:50, but a competitive marathon time is 2:05 or faster. Just to add additional perspective, a good marathon time for an amateur runner is 2:30, faster than what a topnotch triathlete would be expected to pull off.

<comment><USER22> > Just to add additional perspective, a good marathon time for an amateur > runner is 2:30...

That's not a good time for an amateur, it's an insanely good time for an amateur. The world record is currently 2:03:38. A 2:30 would have put you in 22nd place (out of 26,000!) in this year's Boston Marathon.

<comment><USER21> 2:30 is an eternity away from 2:03:38.

I am not thinking of dabblers; many people will do marathons after having barely trained. The goal for these people is just to finish.

I think 2:30 is achievable for a healthy, moderately talented man who is not merely dabbling: someone who is training correctly and has put in a few years of sustained, injury-free effort.

2:30 is still very much an amateur time. For example, I think that even though 2:15 or faster is professional-caliber it is still nowhere near being competitive.

<comment><USER22> Of course it's an amateur time: You're not going to win any serious marathons running a 2:30, and if you have no chance to win, you can't really be described as a "professional". But c'mon, 2:30 is an _amazing_ time for an amateur. Obviously it's "achievable", since maybe a dozen "amateur" runners managed it in Boston this year, but it's well beyond "good", as you initially described it. It's well into the top 1% of amateur marathon runners.

<comment><USER19> This whole argument is slightly tangental, but I figured I needed to chime in ;) A 2:30 is a ridiculous time for an amateur. It'll easy put you in the top 0.5% of amateurs in the world. To put in this in perspective... a 2:30 marathon pace puts you at doing roughly 17m30s 5km's, 8 times in a row!

<comment><USER21> Haha, yes, I agree. 2:30 would probably be run at the pinnacle of one's amateur career -- a personal best rather than a typical time.

I do want to point out somewhat pedantically that it takes being in better- than-2:30 shape to run 2:30 on the Boston course, a notoriously slow course. There are runners who ran more slowly than 2:30 in Boston when they could have run 2:30 elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> The book Spark by John Ratey is a decent read for anyone who wants to go more in-depth on this topic. The big idea that Ratey tries to get across is a reframing of exercise as something that is essential to mental health, with positive physical side-effects. There's been a lot of work recently tying exercise to increased neuroplatisity that's covered as well.

<comment><USER20> I like this reframing. I've used it as my primary motivator for engaging in aerobic exercise.

I used to struggle to jog a mile at a slow pace, now I'm training for a marathon.

<comment><USER24> I used to exercise to get better, and as for me, the ability I seem able to improve physically (as far as cardio endurance goes) hrough training is very limited. I saw some studies a few years ago that indicated I wasn't the only one, and about 10% of people in a well controlled study saw very limited improvement through training.

However, the mental benefits are key. So the reframing matters to me. If the purpose of cardiovascular exercise was just to run a marathon, it'd be a waste.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Recently on HN:

"Exercise Does Not Make You Less Depressed (bmj.com)" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4446400>

</comment><comment><USER26> This is, so to speak, micro-level. There is also macro-level.

Exercises produces self-confidence, alters self-image and lifts self-esteem. This results in more realistic self-image (less self-delusion and reality distortion) which, in turn, decreases the pain (emotional weariness) caused by cognitive dissonance (when facing reality). This makes you happy.

Go ahead, and tell us where the one ends and the other begins..)

</comment><comment><USER27> While I don't deny that exercise helps some people feel better, this has got to quite variable from individual to individual. For example exercise doesn't make me happy or energized, it just makes me tired.

<comment> steve-howard Me too. Some people report that exercise makes them feel smarter; after I work out I can sometimes barely form sentences (and I'm not doing anything extreme, either). There's a minute chance that it helps my overall mental health at other times, but I don't really have a way to measure that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> According to another study I read runner's high is caused by endocannabinoids.

<http://www.eckerd.edu/academics/biology/faculty/gerdeman.php>

Edit: Oops wrong link: [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120510-runne...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120510-runners- high-evolution-people-dogs-science/)

</comment><comment><USER29> I don't remember ever feeling "hapiness" after doing exercise. All that's left after it it's the overwhelming feeling of being tired.

<comment><USER30> If you don't exercise regularly, I believe that's normal.

In my experience, it takes a week or three of keeping to the schedule, and then I start noticing that I'm just really upbeat & feel great, even though I'm sore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> 'the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it'

probably not

</comment><comment><USER32> Take note startups -- find a way to put this in a pill and you can make billions of dollars.

Yeah, exercise is free but only if your time has no value.

<comment><USER33> My quality of life and health is much better due to regular exercise -- I don't think I could afford to _not_ workout. It definitely has a positive impact on my business relationships as well as my motivation, and saves me a ton in healthcare expenses.

<comment><USER32> Hence the pill.

<comment><USER34> I love your idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> science or fiction. Whenever I work out, I feel great. period.

</comment><comment><USER36> interesting, and motivating, read, thanks for sharing it</comment>


A guide on how to be a Programmer (2002) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer <comment><USER2> After reading the first few bits in the "beginner" section, this reminds me of my experience with "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" by Kageyama Toshiro 7p [0] (Go the game). It's a terrific book where he stresses the fundamentals even if you feel like you're above it. I read the book cover-to-cover many times at different stages of my life as a go player, each time learning something new.

The book starts on ladders, a pretty basic concept that I teach to beginners within 15 minutes or so of learning the rules. [1]

      Still on ladders?  Ridiculous!  Even looking at this page is beneath me.

      Yes, but even if you feel you are being cheated, read on a little further.
      Don't forget the fundamentals.  Our study begins with ladders.

[0]: [http://www.gobooks.info/g28.html](http://www.gobooks.info/g28.html)

[1]: [http://senseis.xmp.net/?Ladders](http://senseis.xmp.net/?Ladders)

<comment><USER3> What's "don'"?

<comment><USER2> There's a horizontal scroll bar :)

I'm not sure how to format a block quote without it.

Edit: Well, just added newlines. Seems to look ok.

<comment><USER4> Don't use leading spaces, just use >

Or do use leading spaces, but insert line breaks. Remember that people on mobile have very short screens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There's some heavy stuff in here.

> Go home if you have a contagious disease. You should go home if you are > thinking suicidal thoughts. You should take a break or go home if you think > homicidal thoughts for more than a few seconds. You should send someone home > if they show serious mental malfunctioning or signs of mental illness beyond > mild depression. If you are tempted to be dishonest or deceptive in a way > that you normally are not due to fatigue, you should take a break. Don't use > cocaine or amphetamines to combat fatigue. Don't abuse caffeine.

[https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer/blob/master/en...](https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer/blob/master/en/1-Beginner/Team- Skills/10-How%20to%20Recognize%20When%20to%20Go%20Home.md)

<comment><USER5> What about modafinil?

<comment><USER6> I haven't read the article yet (I intend to do so when I get some free time). But the best advice I can give you for maximising your productivity as a programmer is to sleep when you are tired. Try not to make an exception of it.

Some people are not very good at organizing their free time so that they get enough sleep the night before. This will hurt your career as a programmer. If you want to improve your performance, drugs will be nowhere near as effective as sleep.

If you have a social or medical situation that making it so that you can't sleep, do whatever you can to fix that problem. I advise you to try to make it your top priority. Get professional help if you need it.

If you are in a situation where you can't sleep because your work/commute time is eating into your sleep time, quit. You are damaging your health and also your ability to grow as a programmer. It is not worth it in any way.

Nothing else I have done has been so important to my life and career as the above.

<comment><USER7> Agreed here. I found myself lethargic and frankly stupid until I discovered, through a sleep study, that I have sleep apnea. To cure this, I was simply prescribed an anti histamine pill, to be taken once a day, and a corticosteroid spray to be taken in the nostrils once a day. My sleep apnea was cured within a week and my abilities as a developer increased tenfold.

It is really amazing how much of a difference in your personality and abilities a good night's sleep can make.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> [https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer/blob/master/en...](https://github.com/braydie/HowToBeAProgrammer/blob/master/en/1-Beginner/Team- Skills/09-Take%20Breaks%20when%20Stumped.md)

This one weird trick has helped me solve so many problems that I thought were impassable in my day-to-day development. Bonus points if you couple it with purposeless walking.

<comment><USER9> Walk to the coffee machine. Explain the problem to the coworker at the coffee machine (if no coworker is nearby, just explain to the coffee machine). While explaining the solution will magically materialize. This variation of the rubber duck method is so effective it's scary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> For the managerial myth of "It is possible to estimate software development reliably. (It is not even theoretically possible.)", can anyone provide good resources/references?

<comment><USER11> I'm pretty sure the canonical source is "Mythical Man Month" by Fred Brooks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Step 1. Learn how to code

Step 2. Get someone to pay you for it

On how to be a _good_ programmer though, this seems like a solid guide. Looking forward to reading through more of it.

<comment><USER13> I think that Step 2 can be replaced with the even simpler "Step 2. Code". Paid programmers are not the only programmers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The thing on this guide that is big for me is "How to Learn Design Skills" but then the suggestions are underwhelming. If there was a list of "canonical" well designed projects to learn from, that would be helpful.

</comment><comment><USER9> > Since I have children, I try to spend evenings with them _sometimes_.

My emphasis.

Next in this series: "How to be a parent": step 1 be home for dinner -- You answer to your kids first and your boss second.

</comment><comment><USER15> I like that "Choosing Languages" is considered advanced.

</comment><comment><USER16> Is there some way to generate an epub based on that repo?

<comment><USER17> Got it: [https://www.gitbook.com/download/epub/book/braydie/how-to- be...](https://www.gitbook.com/download/epub/book/braydie/how-to-be-a- programmer?lang=en)

PDF and mobi also available, as well as the Chinese version: [https://www.gitbook.com/book/braydie/how-to-be-a- programmer/...](https://www.gitbook.com/book/braydie/how-to-be-a- programmer/details)

<comment><USER16> Great, thanks :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Its too vague. too much wanting to convey in one article

<comment><USER19> As there is a table of contents with separated sections, I'm not sure we can consider this as just an article. It looks more like a book/guide to me. I think you can read its different part over time and not in one shot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> this is why you should implement good test coverage in the beginning</comment>