Thanks for writing this! You make really good points, and in hindsight, I did not make the explanation clear enough. (I even made some annoying mistakes as well.)
One reason I like written technical content is precisely what you consider a con: you are forced to research the things you don't understand. Otherwise, you can't proceed. I am convinced that it is the best way to learn, as it makes you actively do things, not just ride along. Don't get me wrong, I love video content, but it can often give you the false illusion of understanding something. In mathematics at least, real understanding comes from solving problems and using the available objects/tools so solve problems.
(On a personal note, I create written content because I am writing a book, and it is easier to insert a short post into my content flow. Otherwise, I would make some videos but still keep the written content.)
Ohhh this is such an interesting comment, thank you for responding!! SO MANY THOUGHTS!!
Arrrghh I agree and disagree.
> One reason I like written technical content is precisely what you consider a con: you are forced to research the things you don't understand. Otherwise, you can't proceed. I am convinced that it is the best way to learn, as it makes you actively do things, not just ride along.
This is true. And to be clear, it's not that I consider it a con, it's just.. I feel like it's in the wrong grocery isle.
When I'm checking my email, most of the time it's because I have a few minutes here and there. In the morning in bed, during lunch, before I go to bed, on the bus... somewhere with a scope of like 10-40 minutes.
80% of my emails I can get through in like 3-8 seconds each. I would estimate 90% of them take <2 minutes.
So I'm knocking them down, and then I stumble upon a highly technical email, like the palindrome, that might require an hour+ of effort. Relatively speaking, it's a shock. I'm in an "email" frame so I'm expecting this not to take that much effort.
But, it's math, haha. So it's never easy. But at the same time I get nerd-sniped and jump into it anyway.
But then it sucks up the time and I hit a point where I have to do something else (go to bed, lunch ends, etc), and I'm FRUSTRATED because I don't have the time to do the work to achieve the intellectual satisfaction.
I think this might be a whole other newsletter... because I also want to mention that I think:
Perceived understanding (written) % < Actual understanding (written) % < Actual understanding (video) % < Perceived understanding (video) %
i.e.
- on average, people underestimate how much they understand from written content
- on average, overestimate how much they understand from video content
- on average, people gain more actual understanding from video that from written
So I think the two things you said are true (written forces research, illusion of understanding from video) but I also think you generally understand more from video than from written, since cognitive load is wasted on written.
BUT!! I also think that videos are scaffolding, and at some point you should transition from video to written to doing it entirely on your own (e.g. Bloom's taxonomy).
Thanks for writing this! You make really good points, and in hindsight, I did not make the explanation clear enough. (I even made some annoying mistakes as well.)
One reason I like written technical content is precisely what you consider a con: you are forced to research the things you don't understand. Otherwise, you can't proceed. I am convinced that it is the best way to learn, as it makes you actively do things, not just ride along. Don't get me wrong, I love video content, but it can often give you the false illusion of understanding something. In mathematics at least, real understanding comes from solving problems and using the available objects/tools so solve problems.
(On a personal note, I create written content because I am writing a book, and it is easier to insert a short post into my content flow. Otherwise, I would make some videos but still keep the written content.)
Ohhh this is such an interesting comment, thank you for responding!! SO MANY THOUGHTS!!
Arrrghh I agree and disagree.
> One reason I like written technical content is precisely what you consider a con: you are forced to research the things you don't understand. Otherwise, you can't proceed. I am convinced that it is the best way to learn, as it makes you actively do things, not just ride along.
This is true. And to be clear, it's not that I consider it a con, it's just.. I feel like it's in the wrong grocery isle.
When I'm checking my email, most of the time it's because I have a few minutes here and there. In the morning in bed, during lunch, before I go to bed, on the bus... somewhere with a scope of like 10-40 minutes.
80% of my emails I can get through in like 3-8 seconds each. I would estimate 90% of them take <2 minutes.
So I'm knocking them down, and then I stumble upon a highly technical email, like the palindrome, that might require an hour+ of effort. Relatively speaking, it's a shock. I'm in an "email" frame so I'm expecting this not to take that much effort.
But, it's math, haha. So it's never easy. But at the same time I get nerd-sniped and jump into it anyway.
But then it sucks up the time and I hit a point where I have to do something else (go to bed, lunch ends, etc), and I'm FRUSTRATED because I don't have the time to do the work to achieve the intellectual satisfaction.
I think this might be a whole other newsletter... because I also want to mention that I think:
Perceived understanding (written) % < Actual understanding (written) % < Actual understanding (video) % < Perceived understanding (video) %
i.e.
- on average, people underestimate how much they understand from written content
- on average, overestimate how much they understand from video content
- on average, people gain more actual understanding from video that from written
So I think the two things you said are true (written forces research, illusion of understanding from video) but I also think you generally understand more from video than from written, since cognitive load is wasted on written.
BUT!! I also think that videos are scaffolding, and at some point you should transition from video to written to doing it entirely on your own (e.g. Bloom's taxonomy).
yeah this will be another newsletter