Conversation

Podcasts imo a true problem-to-be-solved (in Clay Christensen sense) medium. Very few people actually prefer audio as a medium to consume information. It mainly solves the "boring commute" or "boring chores" problem. Change my mind.
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Corollary: screencasts are an under-rated medium. While a lot of people DO like consuming a visual+audio track, it demands full attention if you're combining the two. Or at least, high-interrupt (glance to grok every new slide, which will be 1 every 1-2 minutes at a minimum)
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Corollary 2: When context overrides purpose the content is not *serious*. Unless there is a serendipitous match (eg. music is audio-only context and fit to purpose). You wouldn't try to teach geometry in a podcast for eg. except to the blind
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Corollary 3: If you're putting your content in podcast form when that is NOT the form best-suited for the purpose, you're implicitly declaring it's not that important. It's a nice-to-have time filler.
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Replying to
Having read my share of dense mathematical texts, I have to laugh at people who claim the learned something deep in a podcast. Learning something deep = read once, have some tea, read again, read the appendix, have a cigarette, read again, do practice problems, read again...
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By the way, to relate this to the usual way of teaching mathematics - the role of the lecture is not to literally teach you anything. The role of the lecturer is to provide motivation and guidance for a form of self-instruction you do alone with the text.
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I think my best math teachers did something else: they demonstrated how to actually think, by doing it out loud with a chalkboard. Working through a theorem in a book is different from watching an experienced mathematician think aloud through it. You miss subtleties on your own.
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Well, that's the guidance I refer to, isn't it? But the observational data dissipates quickly if you don't fix it by reading the text afterwards.
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