3 ms·

>effortful He clearly wasn't effective in his English classes. >edutainment is not learning I learned more things from entertainment than any textbook or cla

>effortful He clearly wasn't effective in his English classes. >edutainment is not learning I learned more things from entertainment than any textbook or classroom ever taught me. Also, his choice of font is a blight upon typography.

082349872349872 3y ago
> in his English classes How's your italian? (「ペンネ」wa, oishii desu ne?) Edit: for that matter, effortful has become more cromulent than I would've guessed: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=effortful&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=effortful&year...
wlesieutre 3y ago
effortful adjective showing or requiring effort https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effortful https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effortful
vkou 3y ago
> I learned more things from entertainment than any textbook or classroom ever taught me. It sounds like you should have probably paid more attention to your books, and in the classroom. If you can't get much value out of subject matter experts condensing the salient points of a topic into a book, with accompanying exercises that require you to master those points to solve... It probably means you didn't do the exercises. Do the exercises.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  No, I'm serious when I say that formal education taught me nowhere near what the rest of life did. Oregon Trail taught me more about American history than textbooks ever did, likewise Age of Empires II than textbooks ever did concerning medieval history. One of those Carmen Sandiego games did a better job teaching me English than any textbooks or classes ever did. And god damn RPG Maker (read: computer programming) taught me more about math than any textbooks or classes ever did. To say nothing of all the games that demanded I learn how to do complex arithmetic in my head on the spot. Looking back, the core lesson I took away is that you need to find the subject matter fun or meaningful to be able to learn it. No amount of "effort" is going to help if you simply don't, or worse can't, give a damn about the subject matter or the way it's presented.
  - mathgeek 3y ago
    > Looking back, the core lesson I took away is that you need to find the subject matter fun or meaningful to be able to learn it. No amount of "effort" is going to help if you simply don't, or worse can't, give a damn about the subject matter or the way it's presented. While there are plenty of folks for whom this is true (myself included at times), it’s not a universal experience. I am good friends with folks who find joy in learning no matter how it is presented.
  - markus_zhang 3y ago
    Just curious, but once those games trigger curiosities you could still fall back into books and papers which are more in depth. I feel there are two kinds of academic(or anything technical) knowledge in the world: One is of sugar, tastes sweet but does not provide much depth -- most youtube videos, blog posts and HN belong to this catalog. The other is of full course which provides in depth knowledge, and one needs not only to read but to try and practice based on them -- books, papers and some videos/blogs belong to this catalog.
gandalfgreybeer 3y ago
Isn’t effortful an actual word? Also let’s try not to pick on things that are beside the point. Especially if you look at the author’s site and he’s a non-native speaker. We’d probably make similar mistakes if we were to try Italian. On a tangential note, what does it mean to be “effective” in a class?
mfcl 3y ago
> I learned more things from entertainment than any textbook or classroom ever taught me. This statement is abstract enough that it can be both true and false depending on what one means when saying that. Can you be more specific? Have you watched movies and listening to music that gave you the skills to have the job or career you have? Did YouTube videos give you the knowledge to work in a scientific lab or start your own company? Do you have any example? There's a lot of educational content out there that's probably better to consume than dumb silly content, but skills and deep knowledge can only be acquired with practice, distraction-free studying, and similar activities.

082349872349872 3y ago

> in his English classes How's your italian? (「ペンネ」wa, oishii desu ne?) Edit: for that matter, effortful has become more cromulent than I would've guessed: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=effortful&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=effortful&year...

wlesieutre 3y ago

effortful adjective showing or requiring effort https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effortful https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/effortful

vkou 3y ago

> I learned more things from entertainment than any textbook or classroom ever taught me. It sounds like you should have probably paid more attention to your books, and in the classroom. If you can't get much value out of subject matter experts condensing the salient points of a topic into a book, with accompanying exercises that require you to master those points to solve... It probably means you didn't do the exercises. Do the exercises.

Dalewyn 3y ago
No, I'm serious when I say that formal education taught me nowhere near what the rest of life did. Oregon Trail taught me more about American history than textbooks ever did, likewise Age of Empires II than textbooks ever did concerning medieval history. One of those Carmen Sandiego games did a better job teaching me English than any textbooks or classes ever did. And god damn RPG Maker (read: computer programming) taught me more about math than any textbooks or classes ever did. To say nothing of all the games that demanded I learn how to do complex arithmetic in my head on the spot. Looking back, the core lesson I took away is that you need to find the subject matter fun or meaningful to be able to learn it. No amount of "effort" is going to help if you simply don't, or worse can't, give a damn about the subject matter or the way it's presented.
- mathgeek 3y ago
  > Looking back, the core lesson I took away is that you need to find the subject matter fun or meaningful to be able to learn it. No amount of "effort" is going to help if you simply don't, or worse can't, give a damn about the subject matter or the way it's presented. While there are plenty of folks for whom this is true (myself included at times), it’s not a universal experience. I am good friends with folks who find joy in learning no matter how it is presented.
- markus_zhang 3y ago
  Just curious, but once those games trigger curiosities you could still fall back into books and papers which are more in depth. I feel there are two kinds of academic(or anything technical) knowledge in the world: One is of sugar, tastes sweet but does not provide much depth -- most youtube videos, blog posts and HN belong to this catalog. The other is of full course which provides in depth knowledge, and one needs not only to read but to try and practice based on them -- books, papers and some videos/blogs belong to this catalog.

gandalfgreybeer 3y ago

Isn’t effortful an actual word? Also let’s try not to pick on things that are beside the point. Especially if you look at the author’s site and he’s a non-native speaker. We’d probably make similar mistakes if we were to try Italian. On a tangential note, what does it mean to be “effective” in a class?

mfcl 3y ago

> I learned more things from entertainment than any textbook or classroom ever taught me. This statement is abstract enough that it can be both true and false depending on what one means when saying that. Can you be more specific? Have you watched movies and listening to music that gave you the skills to have the job or career you have? Did YouTube videos give you the knowledge to work in a scientific lab or start your own company? Do you have any example? There's a lot of educational content out there that's probably better to consume than dumb silly content, but skills and deep knowledge can only be acquired with practice, distraction-free studying, and similar activities.