Teach Yourself Physics: a travel companion Paperback – January 31, 2020

I’m a Junior in college, perusing my Engineering Physics degree and I loved this book!! The author creates a sort of family tree with the concepts of physics, recommending a book at each descendant. In addition, the final two parts help teach you how to be a better student of any subject, while still honing in on physics. I will definitely recommend it to some of my fellow students!Side note, I finished it in 2-3 days, it’s very easy to digest!

This is a great book. I repeat, this is a GREAT BOOK! I wish I had encountered this book or one like it 30 years ago. I had always thought that self-learning was deficient when compared to classroom instruction; however, the author makes the point that there are some definite advantages to self-learning. So the first great thing about this book is its inspirational quality, instilling in the reader the idea that the reader is smart enough to do this, and that with the proper approach, self learning can take place at an impressive speed.The second great thing is his his idea that it's best to start with an overview book, and then progress to more specific and technical books once you have an idea about what's really going on in this subject. The author breaks physics down in to several sub-areas. For each area, he recommends one or more general overview books, and also lists some books that go more deeply into that area. I was happy to see that I already owned many of these books; I just haven't taken the right approach in the past to using those books for self-learning. He also has an interesting discussion explaining the difference between a widely taught textbook, and a book that is effective for self-learning. That brings me to the third great thing.The book contains some strategies and tactics for effective self-learning. I don't have a catchy name for his recommended approach, but it reminds me of water flowing downhill. If you put an obstacle in the way of flowing water, the water doesn't just stop in front of the obstacle. It flows around the obstacle; it finds another path. In this way, there's no need to be frustrated if you can't understand something you read in a book. It may be that you just need it explained in a different way, so switch to another book that until you find the explanation that makes sense to you.Based on this book, I'm going to restart my quest for deeper understanding of physics.

Give my story here, might be quite irrelevant. I'm working as a graduate research assistant in the material science department for more than 3 years now. I started to read physics textbooks/research because of my own research. Oftentimes I found physics book confusing, and I can hardly learn any physical theory effectively. As a guy who needs to publish at least one paper a year, my frustrating self-learning process creates tensions, sometimes friction between me and my advisor. Politely speaking, I know the physical details in my paper is not as clear as it should be, but I literally don't have effective way to use my limited time to learn physical theories. My advisor doesn't understand my concerns and asked me why am I not on board. But all I did for the last three years is trying to get on board and embark on more meaningful research, rather than get all the seemingly correct results and argue with reviewers of my papers.The day before I bought this book I was talking to a recently-graduated Ph.D. friend about quitting my program. The central piece of advice my friend gave me was: just say you're sorry and stick to what your advisor told you to do. Does that mean I have to follow the lead from a faculty member whose Ph.D. training is centered around a topic totally irrelevant to what I am doing? He doesn't even have the patience of letting me finish my research ideas these days. I feel hopeless after that talk.Got the book yesterday and finish it today, just wanna give myself another thrust to get motivated (i.e. trying to find the meaning of my life). And Jakob did a great job of explaining how a layman could study physical theory more effectively by using a top-bottom method along with good sources. Some of the advice he gives is already my daily practice which means I am not as hopeless as I thought I was. I'm a big fan of his no-nonsense series, and now this book will definitely secure a permanent position on my bookshelf.I don't give 5-star because it lacks book recommendations on stat mech, which is most relevant to my research. And I probably should start writing blogs for things I newly learned too... Anyway, thank Jakob for reviving a walking-dead Ph.D. candidate.

A book that leads me to many other good books is a valuable book to me, partially because it is a source of inspiration and partially because it saves me time. This book really does have a travel guide feel, which I don’t think I’ve encountered much with books about subjects like science. I read this book pretty quickly and felt like I had traveled all over the place and have plans to return to a lot of interesting places. It is a good place for starting (or continuing) a physics journey.I like the honestly of the author. I like people who write candidly about subjects and their own knowledge of them. The author is very relatable, and it is easy to feel his passion about physics and for it to be contagious. Most discussions about physics are either too impersonal and not approachable, or they are flashy and shallow.This book is actually different from what I expected, and the sections are pretty short, but I think it works. I’ll come back to this book periodically through my physics journey to see what I missed on the first read. I didn’t understand most of the questions suggested for each subject, so I think I’ll get more out of it once I’ve read some other things.