We are aiming for reliability instead of adventure or fun. If participating in the course is dreary instead of glamorous, it still meets the design requirements if it works 90% of the time.
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Not to focus too much on "lectures." There are 2000 minutes in 40 lectures. You could read 1 or 2 thousand pages in that time. If the class periods consist of silent reading, the course still meets the design requirements if it works 90% of the time.
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Hypothesis B (for "books"): It is possible to write a sequence of words, so that after reading them or hearing them, a typical student will know X.
(e.g X = E&M)
gives a hundred reasons to doubt it.
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Jackson's "Electrodynamics" is 800 pages long. I bet some people learned the subject by reading it—but not from page 1 to page 800, in order, a single time. More likely by making "reader of Jackson" a part of their identity for a while.
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Jackson doesn't meet the design requirement.
The point of the hypothetical is to put all of the responsibility for the outcome of reading the book on the author, none on the reader. All of the responsibility for the outcome of the course on the teacher, none on the learner.
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(Does that apportioning of responsibility sound like it's in bad taste?
But if it was available, a guarantee to learn something hard in exchange for 2000 fairly passive minutes, would you decline to learn it that way?)
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It's funny—when I was working on K12 edu, what really bothered me about teaching machines was the fascistic, anti-creative bit.
Now that I'm working on expert learning, I have a different perspective: if such a machine truly worked, I'd *love* to use one for topics I care about.
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Hypothesis D (for "dialog" or "Direct Instruction"): It is possible to script a dialog between teacher and learner, so that after going through this dialog the learner will know X.
The students don't only listen, they reply to prompts.
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D is a seemingly simple modification of B but I believe it changes everything. I believe in Hypothesis D, a little bit from reading Engelmann and mostly from 2 years experience teaching simple things to my young kid.
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Up close, those "simple things" from K-6 education don't look so simple. Engelmann's scripts impress me greatly, not just because they are effective. They are beautiful in a way.
Hypothesis D is that what works for kids could also work for grown-ups.
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Does anything like it already exist, for grown-ups?
Maybe quantum country , pursuing a "mnemonic medium" seemingly not influenced by Engelmann
Maybe 's products, more directly influenced by Engelmann
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Execute Program (executeprogram.com) is a bit closer to Zig's format than the mnemonic medium.
You might also enjoy Chessable MoveTrainer, which adapts chess books into scripted interactives: chessable.com/movetrainer/
