3 ms·
When I read a book once I learn from it, but I miss a lot (understatement!), too. Why would it be any different from a video? What I should like about a TED tal
by Fnoord 5y ago
When I read a book once I learn from it, but I miss a lot (understatement!), too. Why would it be any different from a video? What I should like about a TED talk is that its to the point (lunchbreak amount of time so not requiring long attention) and uses a form of humor or cleverness to bring a (or multiple) point(s) across. Such helps with information sticking, forming a long-term memory. Some books do this too, many don't. There's a lot of bad books out there, and a lot of bad videos. The good thing about a video which contains noise is that you can combine the content with something else, and focus on the good parts, but it doesn't help with forming long-term memory because you can only focus attention on one thing (there's no such thing as multi-tasking, just like how a CPU quickly switches; we're single core.). I do this all the time with podcasts, Netflix, etc but not with a book (nor audiobook). A book requires my full attention, even when its boring. I can't put myself to skipping stuff in it, even if its boring, even if its fiction (I'm missing stuff regardless, but not knowingly). Knowingly skipping feels wrong, except quitting. Quitting is always OK, unless its mandatory content from some authority (boss, teacher, mom, child, etc). I feel like a reference to Learning How To Learn (Coursera course) is also appropriate given its a solid foundation on the subject of how to learn, how learning works, and how to improve such. When I went to private high school, the first course day contained similar content, and its valuable. Anyway, a TED talk is IMO meant as a short summary to learn about a subject. If it interests you, you dive deep into it, and people who watch a lot of TED talks are akin to generalists who want to know a little bit about a lot of things (akin to refusing to specialize). Which has its pros and cons. The world needs both, e.g. both 1st and 2nd line helpdesk.