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Comment by tw1010 | Hacker News Reader

Try only learning things with books for 4 months and then tell me it doesn't work.

I tend to notice that learning from books get a lot harder if I allow my brain to be flooded with whatever chemicals are released when I watch youtube or game of thrones. If I avoid those for a while, and avoid sugar etc, and if I work out every day and get enough nutrients etc, then my ability to learn via books is no trouble at all.

Sounds like I'm telling you to just eat your vegetables, to do what your parental archetype is already screaming in the back of your head to do, and hence might you feel like not doing it in rebellion, but it's totally true based on my experience. I used to be the biggest youtube nerd/"I only learn with video"-type around. But now I only learn via books and I feel a lot healthier as a consequence. I finally feel like my brain is functioning like it's supposed to.

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Do you feel like this is ultimately related to the medium or to the content as well? Intuitively new media won't have as much (good quality) content as books, so that might be the main issue here.

I'm not the parent but if I had to guess, I'd say it's the way new media seems to erode our ability to concentrate for long periods of time. YouTube et al provide us with endless stimulation such that we never allow ourselves to get bored anymore. Then, if we're doing something we may find tedious and difficult (say, grinding problems from a math textbook) then we can't handle the lack of stimulation and get restless as a consequence.

Taking a break from all of that stimulation is a good way to quiet our minds and relearn how to focus.

Quality schmality. Many books I read do little more than just enumerate facts (e.g. history books, especially the dry ones). The reason I remember the facts I read in books and don't remember a lot of the random bits of knowledge I've seen on "history of ancient rome" twitter accounts, or whatever, is because I set aside large blocks of undistracted time to read, where I allow myself to imagine the scenarios described (without feeling pressure to get back to work, nor have some "hey I wonder what casey neistat is doing"-type voice distracting me from really absorbing what I'm reading) and think a lot about how what I'm learning connects to what I've learned before.

Another kinda big reason I can find it harder to learn via the internet vs books is because there's so much deception online. You get primed to always think and try to figure out "ok, how much of this is marketing, or signalling, or the author just spewing BS, and how much is something I can rely on", which takes away cognitive resources from what otherwise could have been spent on building a rich and secure knowledge-base.

I feel like it's appropriate to mention this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

> Intuitively new media won't have as much (good quality) content as books

care to share that intuition? this doesn't seem obvious to me unfortunately

Experts in the field might not have much time to make and promote a youtube channel, because they are busy writing these books and papers.

Books have been around for thousands of years, websites like YouTube for just over a decade.

I don't see the argument line here. Because books have been around for thousands of years we have perfected the creation of books (at least compared to videos)? In terms of raw quantities I suppose most books written in 2018 and most videos produced in 2019 were rubbish

I agree that having a disciplined focus on learning as an exercise...there is more work on your part as a reader.

I think the point from the article is that we have richer ways to convey information. I feel like that is fair. I mean we type out our thoughts, the most ineffective way to share our passion around a topic.

I'd be interested in a seeming statement you are making; the book vs video (or possibly the attempt of mixing and matching).

Ask me again after I try reading their book Quantum Country to tackle this richer repetitive approach.

I work with a lot of those folks that burn through the book a day and exercise their WPM speed to the 6 and 7 hundreds....they talk about the book after but its lost a month later and only fragments remain.

In my (anecdotal) experience in both attending and teaching classes (/presentations), richer ways to convey information incite the audience to switch off and undergo/experience the "class".

You whip out a blackboard & chalk, and the difference is palpable.

I'm not saying is impossible to teach with "richer" methods, but i am saying that there is more to teaching than conveying information.

> You whip out a blackboard & chalk, and the difference is palpable.

I don't quite understand what you're implying. Using the blackboard is a richer (more "multimedia", more "live") way to teach than just a plain lecture/presentation, right? Is it your experience that students phase out during such sections? Because my experience is quite the contrary.

I agree with this. I recently implemented similar changes in my daily routine. I am at least twice as capable and productive.

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