(Looking back at comments, replying to this a bit later.)
1) Exactly. It's like spoiling a movie.
2) Hah, the postmortem is more about the Reddit interaction (write up about went well / things I'd change). I'm planning on working on the site as long as I can. It's a life mission at this point.
Learning has stayed enjoyable, I tend to write insights that really strike me and get excited to share. (Which leads to me studying it more and figuring out new insights.)
When learning is drudgery (this happens often), I tend to let the topic sit a bit, and I don't write publicly about it. The articles on the blog are what genuinely get me excited about the topic. I do think there's usually a way to see a topic that makes it come alive.
As an example, I'm working on quaternions. I have a large list of notes here: http://aha.betterexplained.com/t/quaternion/267 and I'm slowly getting an intuition that I'll then work into an article.
3) I like word problems because they force us to ask the uncomfortable question of whether we can think with the material (vs. follow the steps). That said, this check of whether you're thinking or following steps can be accomplished with other types of questions too. For me the method isn't as important as the outcome.
4) Good question. So far, my audience is typically people who are self-motivated (i.e., they have a test, are curious, need homework help, etc.) vs. giving a talk to a potentially uninterested audience. (Not intentionally uninterested, but a volunteer audience.)
The primary motivations to learn are probably:
* practicality
* curiosity
* beauty / awe
* sense of accomplishment
Depending on your audience you'd have to tailor it. But I think beauty/awe is more powerful than we think. Even for a technical talk, I'd get people see the aha! moment. It's the sugar that helps the medicine go down.
1) Exactly. It's like spoiling a movie.
2) Hah, the postmortem is more about the Reddit interaction (write up about went well / things I'd change). I'm planning on working on the site as long as I can. It's a life mission at this point.
Learning has stayed enjoyable, I tend to write insights that really strike me and get excited to share. (Which leads to me studying it more and figuring out new insights.)
When learning is drudgery (this happens often), I tend to let the topic sit a bit, and I don't write publicly about it. The articles on the blog are what genuinely get me excited about the topic. I do think there's usually a way to see a topic that makes it come alive.
As an example, I'm working on quaternions. I have a large list of notes here: http://aha.betterexplained.com/t/quaternion/267 and I'm slowly getting an intuition that I'll then work into an article.
3) I like word problems because they force us to ask the uncomfortable question of whether we can think with the material (vs. follow the steps). That said, this check of whether you're thinking or following steps can be accomplished with other types of questions too. For me the method isn't as important as the outcome.
4) Good question. So far, my audience is typically people who are self-motivated (i.e., they have a test, are curious, need homework help, etc.) vs. giving a talk to a potentially uninterested audience. (Not intentionally uninterested, but a volunteer audience.)
The primary motivations to learn are probably:
* practicality
* curiosity
* beauty / awe
* sense of accomplishment
Depending on your audience you'd have to tailor it. But I think beauty/awe is more powerful than we think. Even for a technical talk, I'd get people see the aha! moment. It's the sugar that helps the medicine go down.