On: The building blocks of understanding are memorizat...

[SamBam]

... the author wrote a book on the topic, and teaches a fairly famous course on it. I'd hope you'd give those credentials at least as much weight as some HN self-proclaimed expert.

[bsder → SamBam]

> ... the author wrote a book on the topic, and teaches a fairly famous course on it.

Sadly, that doesn't automatically mean anything from a correctness perspective.

Educational methodology, in particular, tends to be absolutely rife with fads more than fact and immediately sets off my alerts.

This is doubly problematic when someone touts how popular their course is instead of how effective it is.

[SamBam → bsder]

Context: You disparage someone as simply touting their personal anecdote, and ask if anyone around here is a "real" expert.

If someone had replied "why yes, actually I just wrote a book on the topic, and I teach a huge course on it," would you have accepted that person as being "versed" in the topic?

Can we at least agree that the author is actually more qualified than you seem to give credit for in your original post?

[pbhjpbhj → SamBam]

See also authors of dieting fads. Popularity doesn't make you right [nor wrong].