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Against 3x Speed

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Re: Against 3x Speed

#141

Post by aspyct »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #118
elil17 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/ This lets you skip filler content automatically for many popular videos.

It is more that these days everything is a video. Even things that should be two to three paragraphs of text or maybe a picture or two.

I agree with this, though it depends on what you're learning and what you already know.

For example, I do not care for videos about code. I'm experienced in that domain and I want to get right into the meat of things: scroll to the appropriate paragraph, see the example I'm looking for, and move one.

I could see why a beginner would need a slower pace with more "filler" explanation and background information. Videos are a nice format for this, because they allow one to just sit back like we did at school and take in the information.

But that's only considering programming. Other domains are better suited to videos. For example, visual arts in general: painting, photography, filmmaking... I couldn't imagine explaining a picture with words only, or a human interaction with pictures only. Perhaps when I have more experience, but for now, I like videos.

Re: Against 3x Speed

#142

Post by culebron21 »

I'm impressed more by the comments than the article itself. Some people insist they make progress and listen 3x, but nobody showed any practical measurements of own skills.

A personal example: I used to listen to a famous linguist, and everything seemed nice and clear, but then I decided to go in details on one particular question (I think accentuantion), and opened his book. It was like if you showed your programming code to a farmer: incomprehensible stream of linguistic terms. My complacency was shattered in 1 minute.

There's some scientific evidence as well:

1. Lectures are proved to be a bad way to learn things. https://www.science.org/content/article/lectures-arent-just-...

2. A nice experiment showing that if you enjoy a lesson, it usually means you make no progress, meanwhile hard practice actually does make you progress: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/39/19251

I suppose, those who insist they learn something, do make progress at memorizing trivia, but not at practical skills or any systematic understanding.

This kind of knowledge feels firm only until it's tested by practical task or by serious questioning.

Re: Against 3x Speed

#143

Post by lrem »

RandomLensman wrote: post #93
saivan wrote: post #4

I get the point you're making - but honestly I have to raise the counter argument, which I think is equally valid. Take for example, the average lecture video. The information density is so low, that I'd imagine that a 60 minute video could be compressed into 10-12 minutes without any loss of information. It really depends on what you're listening to/watching.

You describe a symptom of a high data/low effect situation that is pretty common these days. The real question is what to do with the 50 minutes left after distilling the information down to 10 minutes. Just absorb more data or do something with it?

From learning point of view? Unanimously do something with it. Or at least see some examples of someone doing something with it to make you care about what you just learned. It's very high to remember a fact, as in commit to long-term memory, if there was no feeling attached.

Re: Against 3x Speed

#144

Post by tsmeets »

sschueller wrote: post #92
saivan wrote: post #4

I get the point you're making - but honestly I have to raise the counter argument, which I think is equally valid. Take for example, the average lecture video. The information density is so low, that I'd imagine that a 60 minute video could be compressed into 10-12 minutes without any loss of information. It really depends on what you're listening to/watching.

I would prefer a plugin that could remove "ehm"s and pauses from speakers that are new to the game.

Not sure how well it removes "ehm"s, but I use unsilence[1] a lot for lectures. It removes the silent bits from a video file. It isn't a browser plugin however. You have to download the lecture before converting.

It works quite well in my experience.

[1] https://github.com/lagmoellertim/unsilence

Re: Against 3x Speed

#145

Post by Errancer »

trabant00 wrote: post #129
porker wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The few podcasts I listen to, I do so in 0.2x speed or even less. Not by slowing the playback speed, obviously, but by pausing and rewinding very often to think about what has been said and even take notes if I find something that resonates with me Which podcasts have you found that contain thought provoking information? I've tried to get into podcasts but haven't found the ones to keep my interest yet.

"The History of Rome" and "Philosophize This". I finished them both in a superficial way, while driving on my daily commute. Now I listen to them in my spare time and try to really dig deep, take notes and read the original material on topics that resonate to me. After I finish them again this way I will search for something of similar quality. "Revolutions" seems to be it.

I highly recommend "History of philosophy without any gaps".

Re: Against 3x Speed

#146

Post by sandgiant »

porker wrote: post #107
trabant00 wrote: post #67

The few podcasts I listen to, I do so in 0.2x speed or even less. Not by slowing the playback speed, obviously, but by pausing and rewinding very often to think about what has been said and even take notes if I find something that resonates with me. Most podcasts though I listen to at infinite speed, meaning I don't listen to them at all. You can go through them 2-3x speed because there's really nothing there. It's l…

> The few podcasts I listen to, I do so in 0.2x speed or even less. Not by slowing the playback speed, obviously, but by pausing and rewinding very often to think about what has been said and even take notes if I find something that resonates with me Which podcasts have you found that contain thought provoking information? I've tried to get into podcasts but haven't found the ones to keep my interest yet.

Psychology in Seattle has some excellent well researched content. It has very concretely changed or modified my perspectives on relationships, parenthood and mental illness.

The "deep dives" are definitely the best.

Re: Against 3x Speed

#147

Post by aspyct »

trabant00 wrote: post #129
porker wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The few podcasts I listen to, I do so in 0.2x speed or even less. Not by slowing the playback speed, obviously, but by pausing and rewinding very often to think about what has been said and even take notes if I find something that resonates with me Which podcasts have you found that contain thought provoking information? I've tried to get into podcasts but haven't found the ones to keep my interest yet.

"The History of Rome" and "Philosophize This". I finished them both in a superficial way, while driving on my daily commute. Now I listen to them in my spare time and try to really dig deep, take notes and read the original material on topics that resonate to me. After I finish them again this way I will search for something of similar quality. "Revolutions" seems to be it.

Oh, the history of Rome. Don't know about this particular podcast, but the history is absolutely amazing and 1000% worth reading/listening about.

I've always hated history lessons at school. But the history of Rome was amazing! Good teacher too. I guess it was the audiobook of the time :D

Re: Against 3x Speed

#148

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Thlom wrote: post #108
tempestn wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the type of information, for me. I love podcasts (history, policy, some news) but when I'm trying to research a topic or find instructions on something, or that kind of thing, I also vastly prefer text. Kind of drives me crazy when the most relevant source I can find is a 15 minute youtube video explaining something that could be distilled into a paragraph of text.

Same. Especially Youtube videos explaining and showing something really simple that takes like 5 seconds but they go on for 10-15 minutes. I suspect it has something to do with Youtubes algorithms that encourages creators to make long videos.

In part. There was definitely a 10 min target time for a long while.

However, a lot of TV shows - particularly USA ones seem to needlessly repeat everything like there running a lecture for amnesiacs. Here's what we're going to say in the first part, here's the first part, we say what we said we would, now a recap, then a break so we review the whole first part ... now we're 10 minutes into the show and we've seen about two minutes of unique footage. It's harrowing -- I'll take overdrawn explanations in preference to that.

Re: Against 3x Speed

#149

Post by extrememacaroni »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #134

There are three kinds of learning - new contextual framework (There is no god, armies used to be retinues of retinues) - new skills (make fire from sticks, algebra and calculus) - new information (Henry V won at agincourt) The big important ones are the contextual frameworks. Without them humanity and individual humans are just floundering. And if there is any big political divide it's because people are not in same…

You make a fire with algebra and calculus because your brain overheats, right?

Re: Against 3x Speed

#150

Post by polote »

First, listening 3x is impossible for most content, I almost never listen to x1 but I'm very rarely able to go past x2.5.

Also at that speed it is almost impossible to understand complex things, so if you listen at x3 or x2 and you never go back or reduce the speed to understand specific parts then you are not listening.

On Youtube

- Shift+> or Shift+- Left and Right let you go back 15 secondes backwards or forwardds

This makes it super easy to skip or speed useless parts and go back and slow down usefull ones

Last, people who say they listen to podcasts or videos to learn are not learning anything, podcasts or videos are just good ways to have a broad understanding of a topic

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