Paul T. Hill examines the real-world factors that can complicate, delay, and in some instances interfere with the positive cause-and-effect relationships identified by the theories behind school choice. He explains why schools of choice haven't yet achieved a broader appeal and suggests more realistic expectations about timing and a more complete understanding of what must be done to make choice work.

A surprisingly simple way for students to master any subject--based on one of the world's most popular online courses and the bestselling book A Mind for Numbers A Mind for Numbers and its wildly popular online companion course "Learning How to Learn" have empowered more than two million learners of all ages from around the world to master subjects that they once struggled with. Fans often wish they'd discovered these learning strategies earlier and ask how they can help their kids master these skills as well. Now in this new book for kids and teens, the authors reveal how to make the most of time spent studying. We all have the tools to learn what might not seem to come naturally to us at first--the secret is to understand how the brain works so we can unlock its power. This book explains: Why sometimes letting your mind wander is an important part of the learning process How to avoid "rut think" in order to think outside the box Why having a poor memory can be a good thing The value of metaphors in developing understanding A simple, yet powerful, way to stop procrastinating Filled with illustrations, application questions, and exercises, this book makes learning easy and fun.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

An eccentric romp of a book, Learning As I Go takes shots at our messy culture, picks a lover's quarrel with the Catholic Church, throws unabashed educational advice at young people, and pays homage to books and writers. Along the way, Jeff Minick looks at burka babes and crazy ladies, finds beauty in small places, shops with Flannery O'Connor at WalMart, shakes hands with adult adolescents, and examines honor and duty in a world which seems bereft of both. All of Joe Ecclesia's "Letters to the Bishop," originally published in Chronicles Magazine, are included here. In addition, there are twenty-nine other essays, nearly all of which have appeared in Chronicles, the Smoky Mountain News, vocabula.com, and other magazines. Minick is also the author of the novel Amanda Bell. Of this story of loss and redemption, one online reviewer wrote: "Victimized by a series of unfortunate events, Amanda Bell--a beautiful, twenty-seven-year-old woman--seeks to recede further and further into herself...Meeting an unlikely figure in modern literature, however, Amanda slowly lets down her walls and eventually lets herself slip into love. Amanda Bell may remind us all that love comes in many forms."

Go is rapidly becoming the preferred language for building web services. While there are plenty of tutorials available that teach Go's syntax to developers with experience in other programming languages, tutorials aren't enough. They don't teach Go's idioms, so developers end up recreating patterns that don't make sense in a Go context. This practical guide provides the essential background you need to write clear and idiomatic Go. No matter your level of experience, you'll learn how to think like a Go developer. Author Jon Bodner introduces the design patterns experienced Go developers have adopted and explores the rationale for using them. You'll also get a preview of Go's upcoming generics support and how it fits into the language. Learn how to write idiomatic code in Go and design a Go project Understand the reasons for the design decisions in Go Set up a Go development environment for a solo developer or team Learn how and when to use reflection, unsafe, and cgo Discover how Go's features allow the language to run efficiently Know which Go features you should use sparingly or not at all

A curious JavaScript developer's practical guide to deep dive into Deno and get the most out of it for building secure web applications Key FeaturesUnderstand Deno’s essential concepts and featuresLearn how to use Deno in real-world scenariosUse Deno to develop, test, and deploy web applications and toolsBook Description Deno is a JavaScript and TypeScript runtime with secure defaults and a great developer experience. With Deno Web Development, you'll learn all about Deno's primitives, its principles, and how you can use them to build real-world applications. The book is divided into three main sections: an introduction to Deno, building an API from scratch, and testing and deploying a Deno application. The book starts by getting you up to speed with Deno's runtime and the reason why it was developed. You'll explore some of the concepts introduced by Node, why many of them transitioned into Deno, and why new features were introduced. After understanding Deno and why it was created, you will start to experiment with Deno, exploring the toolchain and writing simple scripts and CLI applications. As you progress to the second section, you will create a simple web application and then add more features to it. This application will evolve from a simple 'hello world' API to a web application connected to the database, with users, authentication, and a JavaScript client. In the third section, the book will take you through topics such as dependency management, configuration and testing, finishing with an application deployed in a cloud environment. By the end of this web development book, you will become comfortable with using Deno to create, maintain, and deploy secure and reliable web applications. What you will learnUnderstand why you should use DenoGet to grips with tooling and the Deno ecosystemBuild Deno web applications using existing Node.js knowledge and the newest ECMA Script 6 featuresExplore the standard library and the benefits of Deno’s security modelDiscover common practices and web frameworks to build a REST API in DenoStructure a web application using common architecture practicesTest and deploy a Deno application in the cloud using DockerWho this book is for This book is for web developers who want to leverage their JavaScript and TypeScript skills in a secure, simple, and modern runtime, using Deno for web app development. Beginner-level knowledge of Node.js is recommended but not required.

Summary Deep Learning and the Game of Go teaches you how to apply the power of deep learning to complex reasoning tasks by building a Go-playing AI. After exposing you to the foundations of machine and deep learning, you'll use Python to build a bot and then teach it the rules of the game. Foreword by Thore Graepel, DeepMind Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology The ancient strategy game of Go is an incredible case study for AI. In 2016, a deep learning-based system shocked the Go world by defeating a world champion. Shortly after that, the upgraded AlphaGo Zero crushed the original bot by using deep reinforcement learning to master the game. Now, you can learn those same deep learning techniques by building your own Go bot! About the Book Deep Learning and the Game of Go introduces deep learning by teaching you to build a Go-winning bot. As you progress, you'll apply increasingly complex training techniques and strategies using the Python deep learning library Keras. You'll enjoy watching your bot master the game of Go, and along the way, you'll discover how to apply your new deep learning skills to a wide range of other scenarios! What's inside Build and teach a self-improving game AI Enhance classical game AI systems with deep learning Implement neural networks for deep learning About the Reader All you need are basic Python skills and high school-level math. No deep learning experience required. About the Author Max Pumperla and Kevin Ferguson are experienced deep learning specialists skilled in distributed systems and data science. Together, Max and Kevin built the open source bot BetaGo. Table of Contents PART 1 - FOUNDATIONS Toward deep learning: a machine-learning introduction Go as a machine-learning problem Implementing your first Go bot PART 2 - MACHINE LEARNING AND GAME AI Playing games with tree search Getting started with neural networks Designing a neural network for Go data Learning from data: a deep-learning bot Deploying bots in the wild Learning by practice: reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning with policy gradients Reinforcement learning with value methods Reinforcement learning with actor-critic methods PART 3 - GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS AlphaGo: Bringing it all together AlphaGo Zero: Integrating tree search with reinforcement learning