The experience of learning online could be on a spectrum of tough, hard-to-follow, taking rigorous notes, to easy to understand, bite-sized convenient to remember, and audio-only (no need to actually watch the video).
Andrej Karpathy prefers the former approach, a fact that anyone familiar with his technically sophisticated and coding-intensive YouTube videos can attest to. He recently posted:
Andrej Karpathy prefers the former approach, a fact that anyone familiar with his technically sophisticated and coding-intensive YouTube videos can attest to. He recently posted:
Learning is not supposed to be fun. It doesn't have to be actively not fun either, but the primary feeling should be that of effort. It should look a lot less like that "10 minute full body" workout from your local digital media creator and a lot more like a serious session at the gym. You want the mental equivalent of sweating.
Consider the opportunity cost of snacking and seek the meal - the textbooks, docs, papers, manuals, longform. Allocate a 4 hour window. Don't just read, take notes, re-read, re-phrase, process, manipulate, learn.
Moreover, advising educators and content creators:
..please consider writing/recording longform, designed for someone to get "sweaty", especially in today's era of quantity over quality.
I agree with Karpathy; an intense, gym-like learning experience results in much better understanding and longer retention than mere passive consumption.
Yet, I also feel the ideal approach varies depending on your learning goals, available time, and mental focus. For those seeking a basic understanding, quick 'learn-in-X-days' content can be perfectly suitable.