cousin_it comments on Media bias - Less Wrong

36 Post author: PhilGoetz 05 July 2009 04:54PM

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Comment author: anonym 05 July 2009 07:38:52PM *  8 points [-]

I think that lectures and presentations are 'friendlier' for at least the following reasons:

  • fewer assumptions are made about the background of the audience in lectures (lectures are often the 1st exposure, aimed at students; papers/textbooks assume more background)
  • the paper/text is expected to be authoritative in a way that a lecture isn't (books/papers contribute to academic reputation, lectures do not)
  • the [primary] purpose of a lecture is to teach, while the [primary] purpose of a paper is to expand human knowledge (and to improve the author's reputation); so the lecturer seeks to maximize understanding in the audience, while the academic author seeks to maximize his future reputation
Comment author: cousin_it 05 July 2009 09:51:30PM *  8 points [-]

A possible addition to your list: maybe scientists don't know their texts are impenetrable. I know I often skip important but "obvious" steps without noticing when explaining stuff. Lectures get repeated and can plausibly evolve to be understandable, while texts stay set in stone.

Comment author: prase 06 July 2009 10:32:07PM 0 points [-]

There are many texts origining from lectures and they are generally no more penetrable than texts written from scratch.

I am a bit skeptical about evolution of understandability. It seems to me that lecturers able to take a feedback and improve the structure of their explanations are rather rare.

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