Knowledge media face an awkward chasm between theories.
The old theory was naive transmissionism: "I'll convey this knowledge by telling you about it." That's effectively books' learning model.
But we know that model's wrong: learning is an active process of assimilation.
Conversation
Books, videos, etc. work great for learning, provided one chooses for oneself what to do and when, and can stop or switch anytime for any reason.
1
Replying to
Yes, those are valuable preconditions for learning in any medium, but it's just not the case that they reliably work great, even in that setting. Effective learning from a book requires tons of challenging metacognitive work—which is why works like How to Read a Book are popular.
Replying to
As effective as speech and writing can be, they can always be done poorly.
Good thread on the value of Feynman’s educational contribution:
1
1
But, I agree there are important differences between media, and further improvements to make.
The ability to rewind, speed up, or skip around a lecture on YouTube makes it immensely better than a live lecture.


