Why are different kinds of learning so differently compressible?
If I can work through a textbook in 20 1-hour sittings, I usually get similar results from 10 2-hour or 5 4-hour sessions. But piano isn’t that way at all: a 20x1hr piece simply can’t be learned in 5 sessions IME.
Conversation
How much of this is cognitive vs embodied understanding?
I know that drumming for me had both elements - cognitive being much easier to compress. Embodied required the muscles to learn it, which took spaced repetition, not just pure repetition.
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Yes! Easier to build off of a foundation.
Andy - I was just wondering if you can do a textbook on a net new topic in a compressed way just like you could a textbook on an existing topic? How much is this about new neural pathways vs existing ones?
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It’s hard to say! When I read textbooks now, even in new fields, they’re usually building on my knowledge of physics, math, biology, information, philosophy, etc. I bet some more esoteric topics would be so unfamiliar to trigger this.