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There’s probably a corollary here: train yourself to notice when you’re feeling confused, and then tell yourself this is a good thing; you’re actually learning something new.

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@jfarmer

May 5, 2021

Most students optimize for the feeling of learning, but genuine learning requires long periods of focused concentration and confusion. I think this is why 99% of educational content on the web is mostly filler. That's what gets students engaged and feeling good quickly.

5:11 PM · Oct 17, 2021Twitter Web App

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Super love Jesse's observation. This is why common advice for newsletter writers is "get to 20 issues". This points writers in a clear and tangible direction and makes the vagueness of learning tolerable. And at the end, they learn so much more than expected.

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Yeah, there's (at least) two modes, I think: 1. Learn how to sit w/ genuine confusion 2. Operate in a way where confusion doesn't have time to derail you With luck, (2) leads you to some new insight and makes (1) feel less hopeless.

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So I think like, when you can't teach something clear and tangible, one way to do it is by deliberately creating constraints then letting people "play". 20 issues is a clear constraint. So is "run every day" or "create a video every day" and so forth.

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At least, this is how I would attempt to solve this problem.

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The most effective learners get excited when they're confused because they know that confusion is the feeling immediately before understanding.

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Students' learning really takes off if they embrace confusion. Convince them: · Massive exposure builds scaffolding to support high-performance learning · The more cognitive discomfort you can tolerate, the faster you'll learn · Set unreasonable goals—you'll surprise yourself

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Spot on. Thanks for the perspective.