I also went to a small undergraduate college, with small class sizes and many passionate, engaging professors, where classes were a mixture of lecture and discu

I also went to a small undergraduate college, with small class sizes and many passionate, engaging professors, where classes were a mixture of lecture and discussion. And half of the classes still bored the crap out of me. Even with a great teacher, the speed at which the material is presented is never going to match each person's learning flow. Too slow for things they get instantly, too fast for concepts they have trouble with, and everyone is different. And even debate in a small class is inefficient. Contrast a debate in a 20-person class with a debate in the HN comment threads. The class will sometimes be focused on a thread I'm not interested in. Sometimes I will want to chime in, but others are holding the floor. Time is a scarce resource and 20 students are contesting it. On HN, we can all read and comment simultaneously. No downtime.