Stop learning, start thinking [LINK]

NancyLebovitz

Stop Learning, by Jacob Barnett. This is an 18 minute video, and I think there's a lot to be said for getting the material in the order given.

However, if you'd rather have text, here it is in rot13. Wnpbo Oneargg pbzrf bss nf naablvat. Ybhq, ohzcgvbhf, naq ynhtuf ng zbfg bs uvf bja wbxrf. Ur'f nyfb n zngu cebqvtl, naq unf nhgvfz. Ur gnyxf nobhg ubj ur jnf qvntabfrq nf orvat hanoyr gb yrnea gb gnyx, ohg orpnhfr ur unq gvzr gb guvax, ur fgnegrq rkcybevat zngu. Vg'f abg fb onq gb snvy svatre-cnvagvat. Ur gnyxf nobhg Arjgba naq Rvafgrva nf univat orra oybpxrq bss sebz yrneavat sbe n juvyr (cynthr dhnenagvar naq cngrag bssvpr erfcrpgviryl), fb gung gurl unq gvzr gb guvax. Ur erpbzzraqf gnxvat gvzr gb guvax nobhg jung lbh pner nobhg.

Would anyone happen to remember the alternate history story where the plague doesn't come to England, so Newton has professorial duties and never discovers anything?

Stop Learning, by Jacob Barnett. This is an 18 minute video, and I think there's a lot to be said for getting the material in the order given.

Would anyone happen to remember the alternate history story where the plague doesn't come to England, so Newton has professorial duties and never discovers anything?

Thanks for the comment. I was twitching slightly as the negative karma came and went and came back.

From my point of view, it was important to get past how annoying he was to the content. I agree that some of his worst habits faded as the talk went on.

I think his point is that formal learning can fill time in a way that's almost as wasteful as video games, and that there's a lot of fruit which isn't exactly low-hanging, but can be reached by thinking about what you already know.

...formal learning can fill time in a way that's almost as wasteful as video games...

I would like to point out that:

books, music, socialising, board/card games etc can fill time "in a way that is as wasteful as video games"
conversely video games can provide an interesting, enriching and fulfilling experience, just as books, music etc can (of course YMMV - for all of these media!)

...and express a wish that video games are not used as a proxy for "evil time wasting".

0Vaniver14y

I agree that much of formal learning is explicitly designed to keep kids out of trouble by filling time and keeping them in one place where a relatively small number of adults can watch them, and that that purpose (though not other purposes of school) would often be better fulfilled by having the kids play video games in a giant room. [...] Do you mean that the content was important enough to overcome his deficiencies as a speaker, or that his deficiencies as a speaker contributed to the content? (Thankfully, the largest problem I had with his talk will be fixed by puberty, and other presentation problems can be corrected by a small amount of deliberate practice. I suspect it'll be better for him to keep some deficiencies as counter-signalling, but we'll see what he chooses.) I felt like much of his point could be better conveyed by someone that understood the purposes of the system- to him, as mostly a victim of the system, it's easy to say "yeah, special ed was a total waste of my time; the system isn't set up to make the most of first-rate minds." Right- it really isn't. But what are the tradeoffs that the system designers face?