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The most surprising thing I learnt from the past 5 years of full-time teaching both complete beginners and experienced programmers is this: The main barrier to

The most surprising thing I learnt from the past 5 years of full-time teaching both complete beginners and experienced programmers is this: The main barrier to learning, for most people, is emotional, not intellectual. Because of that, I disagree with most of what Karpathy wrote here.

homarp 2y ago
can you elaborate on the 'emotional' part?
- samarthr1 2y ago
  not GP, but, there are times when I just dont have the "will" to do anything "useful", when I just want to veg out, and be passive (as in , I am willing to listen to something, but not in the frame of mind to process anything) (Or) Another interpretation of GP is the mental barrier that "X Topic is very hard", and I am not _that_ smart, so I dont want to fail?
- cloogshicer 2y ago
  Sure! A lot of students have feelings of self-doubt. They get easily frustrated, or bored, or impatient. They feel like they're not good enough, or that they will never get this. They get stuck in negative thought spirals like that. They don't dare asking questions because they've been taught that it's a sign of weakness. etc. These feelings are often entirely disconnected from reality, even the best students have them. Because of that, I think any piece of educational content needs to tackle the emotional side as well, maybe even primarily. So I do see the point of fun in learning, if it can help cross these emotional barriers.
H8crilA 2y ago
But you're agreeing? Emotionally it is easier to listen to 10 podcast episodes talking about LLMs, rather than to code a simple one yourself. Yet both can take a similar amount of time.
- cloogshicer 2y ago
  I guess my point is that for some (maybe most) people, doing the latter is just not an option without a lot of guidance and, possibly, introducing some lighthearted elements and fun as well.
  - Draiken 2y ago
    Which he explicitly says it can be done. It simply should not be the main focus, which is what edutainment is.

homarp 2y ago

can you elaborate on the 'emotional' part?

samarthr1 2y ago
not GP, but, there are times when I just dont have the "will" to do anything "useful", when I just want to veg out, and be passive (as in , I am willing to listen to something, but not in the frame of mind to process anything) (Or) Another interpretation of GP is the mental barrier that "X Topic is very hard", and I am not _that_ smart, so I dont want to fail?
cloogshicer 2y ago
Sure! A lot of students have feelings of self-doubt. They get easily frustrated, or bored, or impatient. They feel like they're not good enough, or that they will never get this. They get stuck in negative thought spirals like that. They don't dare asking questions because they've been taught that it's a sign of weakness. etc. These feelings are often entirely disconnected from reality, even the best students have them. Because of that, I think any piece of educational content needs to tackle the emotional side as well, maybe even primarily. So I do see the point of fun in learning, if it can help cross these emotional barriers.

H8crilA 2y ago

But you're agreeing? Emotionally it is easier to listen to 10 podcast episodes talking about LLMs, rather than to code a simple one yourself. Yet both can take a similar amount of time.

cloogshicer 2y ago
I guess my point is that for some (maybe most) people, doing the latter is just not an option without a lot of guidance and, possibly, introducing some lighthearted elements and fun as well.
- Draiken 2y ago
  Which he explicitly says it can be done. It simply should not be the main focus, which is what edutainment is.