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This is very good. Cc
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📣 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. andymatuschak.org/books/
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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