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Lessons by 3blue1brown

3blue1brown.com

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Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#31

Post by jonahx »

dingosity wrote: post #7

2b1b does a video on how you raise e to a matrix (hint: raising something to e is converted into another function where it's not nonsensical to do such a thing.) In about 10 minutes he explains something my math methods instructor struggled with over two weeks (4 classes). I was resistant to the view that YouTube could host "decent" instructional content for a long time. That video was one of the first that was CLEAR…

I've had math instruction at the undergraduate and graduate level at top universities, with good instructors that I liked, and I can say without question YouTube is superior. There are many channels with outstanding content. This video is not an outlier.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#32

Post by seydor »

jackling wrote: post #2

I'm likely in the minority, but I found 3blue1brown videos difficult to understand and they usually give me a worse intuition about a concept than I previously had. I wonder why that is. Seems like most people I know swear by his videos.

- big duration of videos

- un-abstracting abstract concepts by creating concrete examples, which end up taking the focus away from the abstract version

- serial timeline, that is like a blackboard being constanty erased instead of adding to one big construction

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#33

Post by eimrine »

pdpi wrote: post #19
dingosity wrote: post #7

2b1b does a video on how you raise e to a matrix (hint: raising something to e is converted into another function where it's not nonsensical to do such a thing.) In about 10 minutes he explains something my math methods instructor struggled with over two weeks (4 classes). I was resistant to the view that YouTube could host "decent" instructional content for a long time. That video was one of the first that was CLEAR…

My "ten minutes to understand something I never quite got" moment was his video on Fourier Transforms.

Just listen to some music with spectrum visualization, this is a Fourier transform of what you are listening right now.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#35

Post by CogitoCogito »

JackFr wrote: post #29
coreyp_1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning is all about using your current knowledge and understanding to refine and augment those mental models. Be aware that many people don't watch videos to learn, they watch to be entertained. They think that they are learning, but really they are just watching animations. In the end, they can't actually do any of the math. They haven't actually learned anything. In the same vein, that's why TED talks are so popu…

Professor I had for Real Analysis (the second time I took it) was probably the best math professor I've ever had. He had the most extensive mental catalog of the wrong ways people could understand and the failure modes of students. When you would ask a question he was able to help, not just because he understood the material, but because he knew why you didn't. In my evaluation of him I mentioned this, but added that…

> He had the most extensive mental catalog of the wrong ways people could understand and the failure modes of students.

Back when I used to teach math classes as a grad student, I realized that a teacher has to actively work to keep that "mental catalog" for students. The problem is that longer you are in the math world, the clearer the subject becomes. The result is that to you the teacher it really just becomes braindead obvious what's going on. As time goes on, you have to fight this "problem" more and more to keep touch with the issues your students are having.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#36

Post by jmartrican »

jackling wrote: post #2

I'm likely in the minority, but I found 3blue1brown videos difficult to understand and they usually give me a worse intuition about a concept than I previously had. I wonder why that is. Seems like most people I know swear by his videos.

I agree. Besides the Neural Network video, I watch his other ones for entertainment, because I can't follow after a few minutes. I imagine I could follow if I stopped the vid to think and rewind as necessary.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#37

Post by ahmadmijot »

jackling wrote: post #2

I'm likely in the minority, but I found 3blue1brown videos difficult to understand and they usually give me a worse intuition about a concept than I previously had. I wonder why that is. Seems like most people I know swear by his videos.

Yeah me too. Some of his videos are really helps me understanding about math (particularly on linear algebra) but some of his (recent-ish) videos are way above my head. Maybe because I don't have any background on the subject.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#38

Post by haberman »

I would love it if some of these educational YouTube videos came with exercises.

I watch a lot of educational YouTube videos. But I've come to see them as more entertainment than education. Not in terms of the quality of the videos (which is often excellent), but in terms of what I retain. Sometimes I come across YouTube videos that YouTube claims I have watched, and I don't remember the first thing about them.

I think it's difficult to learn while being just a passive listener. You have to get your hands dirty playing around with the concepts. It would be so cool if these high-quality "lecture" videos were accompanied with high quality exercises.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#39

Post by pdpi »

eimrine wrote: post #33
pdpi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "ten minutes to understand something I never quite got" moment was his video on Fourier Transforms.

Just listen to some music with spectrum visualization, this is a Fourier transform of what you are listening right now.

Well, yes. That part is obvious enough. The interesting part is how you build the mapping from time domain to frequency domain. That is the part that never clicked for me.

Re: Lessons by 3blue1brown

#40

Post by jmartrican »

seydor wrote: post #32
jackling wrote: post #2

I'm likely in the minority, but I found 3blue1brown videos difficult to understand and they usually give me a worse intuition about a concept than I previously had. I wonder why that is. Seems like most people I know swear by his videos.

- big duration of videos - un-abstracting abstract concepts by creating concrete examples, which end up taking the focus away from the abstract version - serial timeline, that is like a blackboard being constanty erased instead of adding to one big construction

Solid points.
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