/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #11552031

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Books vs Online Lectures/Courses

Anonymous Fri 10 Apr 19:33:42 2020 No.11552031 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>11552054 >>11552343

Which do you prefer, and which is the more efficient method of learning a new subject?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 10 Apr 2020 19:40:11 No.11552051 Report

Quoted By: >>11552077

The purpose of lectures is to give you a rough overview of the course and how the concepts are related to each other and (possibly) to real-world applications. The purpose of books is to "set in stone": in the case of maths, present the corresponding definitions, theorems and proofs, and in the case of other sciences present concepts along with their mathematical or disciplinary formalities. You definitely need both, and depending on how well you do with textbooks you may approach them in any order (e.g. read a book and then attend a lecture to get the big picture, or attend the lecture and then deepen your knowledge through books).

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 10 Apr 2020 19:40:36 No.11552054 Report

Quoted By: >>11552077 >>11552343

>>11552031
Neither.
Use both along with self study. By self study I don't mean just sitting there reading, but doing exercises over and over again by rote. Understanding is pointless until you can do related exercises by rote. Only when you force yourself to become a brainless automaton can you unlock true understanding. Once you can do the related exercises to your subject without thinking, can you free your conscious mind to explore and be creative with the data you have successfully chinese-room'd. Become a chinese room, not a genius. True genius comes from understanding that understanding is an event that occurs, memorization is the exercise that bootstraps understanding into the higher order thought groups.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 10 Apr 2020 19:47:07 No.11552077 Report

Quoted By:

Like >>11552051 and >>11552054 say, both are essential. But since you specify "learning a new subject" I'd have to say lecture. A good /sci/ book will take an elementary approach and detail a subject with rigour, such that you spend weeks/months working through it and keep it for later as a reference. This is suboptimal for first exposure. A lecture on the other hand is ideally lead by an expert who passionately and persuasively tours your through a subject's milestones. This should provide you with the motivation for further study and a framework within which you can do so.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 10 Apr 2020 21:14:36 No.11552343 Report

Quoted By:

>>11552031
I see it a bit like>>11552054, but with this caveat: the smarter you are, the less exercise/memorization you'll need, so if you're a brainlet, then refine your skills more. It has also been proven that there is some correlation between neuroplasticity and memory and/or intelligence, so I suggest you to look up some ways to train your prefrontal cortex with fast, focused mnemonic training (alongside aerobic exercise), since that'll help you ever so slightly with learning anything in general after a couple of weeks

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