New essay distilling one strand of some ongoing work
I argue that books lack a functioning model of how people learn—instead, they're (accidentally, invisibly) built around a model that's plainly false. Plus some early models for what to do about it. https://andymatuschak.org/books/
I read this yesterday and thought about it and I'm generally unimpressed. I would have loved to see an in-depth teardown of the quantum computing book and why they believe it solves the issue, rather than a series of good, but existing questions
My main critique of trying to make books into some sort of substitute for full-fledged classroom experiences is that isn't the JTBD. Books should focus on maintaining momentum and flow, thus maximizing interest and pleasure, thus sparking further discovery
I've never seen an end-of-chapter exercise, question, or "assignment" that I felt added anything. And it usually detracts. Books are now lead gen for webinars, courses, workshops, or other personal/social interactions
Hmm. You’re thinking of particular types of books. In technical books, exercises and homework problem sets are the main part.
More generally I recall you were skeptical of spaced repetition too. I think this may be more about 2 different styles of relating to textual media.
Possibly your preferences derive from your core “power of centralization” (and I assume, global centralization) hedgehog model, whereas spaced repetition and books reimagined this way create their own centers based on local theories. I am fine with it since I prefer fragmentation
I guess I think in terms of impact, and I can't think of a textbook or related book that had a significant one on me. The ones that did were kind of breathless corkscrew wanderings through the mind of someone who had distilled a lot of experience and thinking
Opposite for me. Worked through 4-5 books each containing 100s-1000s of problems in high school. That’s how I learned most of the physics and math I know. All STEM education is like this until grad level.