It’s my first attempt in a long time to write about things other than the start-up I’m currently building in the crypto space
Have you considered that you are so far out of the mainstream that any advice you’d give to the mainstream would be actively harmful?
The majority of children, and I say this as having been one of them, are not self-motivated self-directed learners. If I’d been allowed to self-direct in middle and high school, I’d have played video games for 16 hours a day, barely taking breaks to eat and sleep.
Yes, schools fail geniuses. But they do work for quite a lot of not-geniuses. I’m okay with that trade-off.
Yes, schools fail geniuses. But they do work for quite a lot of not-geniuses. I’m okay with that trade-off.
Having acknowledged this trade-off (which is the important part!), I do think that we can substantially minimize the value we lose by it. For instance, it should be much easier than it is now, for kids who are not well-suited to school to “opt out” somehow—pursuing self-directed learning, or even just going to specialized schools designed to better fit their needs.
The majority of children, and I say this as having been one of them, are not self-motivated self-directed learners.
Maybe because you’ve been trained out of it? I’d argue that every person is a self-directed learner: A toddler learns to walk, to speak by imitating his environment—the motivation for this comes from him. So why should it be any different for a 12 year old?
If I’d been allowed to self-direct in middle and high school, I’d have played video games for 16 hours a day, barely taking breaks to eat and sleep.
The fact that you would have played video games all day seems to me to be a kind of cry for help. Video games are the least adult-directed activity there is, in a world where children can no longer go outdoors and find others to play with, freely, away from adults, as they once did.
In a world like the one I imagine, learning, expanding your skills, is as enticing as video games. What attracts you to video games is not a dopamine rush (otherwise the effect of educational games wouldn’t be so disappointing), but the feeling that you personally brought about what happened in this game.
And we can replicate that in an educational context as well, but not through stupidly gamifying what currently exists. But simply giving children the opportunity to approach everything in a self-directed way.
And this can also take place in a school, which, however, would no longer resemble the one we have today.
And by the way, video games are actually quite a good way to learn all kinds of skills. I’ve recently come across a paper by Benoit Bediou and his colleagues (2018) that reviewed all of the recent research (published since 2000) concerning the cognitive effects of playing action video games.
The analysis of the correlational studies indicated, overall, strong positive relationships between amount of time gaming and high scores on tests of perception, top-down attention, spatial cognition, multitasking, and cognitive flexibility (ability to switch strategies quickly when old ones don’t work anymore).
Other research by Linda Jackson and her colleagues (2012) has found significant positive correlations between amount of time playing video games and every aspect of creativity measured by Torrance’s Tests.
There is also a paper that has shown significant positive correlations between video gaming and the personality characteristic referred to as openness to new experiences (Chory & Goodboy, 2011).
I’d argue that every person is a self-directed learner
Beware the typical mind fallacy. There are quite a few people who have a hard time knowing their own preferences. If nothing else, school is a good way to get exposure to subjects that you might not have thought that you’d like. I’m a programmer by profession, but on my own time, I read quite a lot of history. That’s entirely due to school. If I’d been “self-directed”, in the sense of being able to choose my own curriculum at school, I’d have spent all my time learning programming, and I wouldn’t have realized that I had other preferences.
A toddler learns to walk, to speak by imitating his environment—the motivation for this comes from him. So why should it be any different for a 12 year old?
Because Algebra and Trigonometry are considerably more boring than learning to walk and use the bathroom.
I’m sorry, I just don’t buy your idea that we can make school as interesting or more interesting than video games. At some point you have to buckle down and do a bunch of drudge work in order to get to the interesting stuff. Video games, by making the reward loop so quick, actively train against that kind of persistence and perseverance. Yes, they may train creativity, but creativity is overrated. Being able to buckle down and grind is underrated, especially in this community.
Have you considered that you are so far out of the mainstream that any advice you’d give to the mainstream would be actively harmful?
The majority of children, and I say this as having been one of them, are not self-motivated self-directed learners. If I’d been allowed to self-direct in middle and high school, I’d have played video games for 16 hours a day, barely taking breaks to eat and sleep.
Yes, schools fail geniuses. But they do work for quite a lot of not-geniuses. I’m okay with that trade-off.
Having acknowledged this trade-off (which is the important part!), I do think that we can substantially minimize the value we lose by it. For instance, it should be much easier than it is now, for kids who are not well-suited to school to “opt out” somehow—pursuing self-directed learning, or even just going to specialized schools designed to better fit their needs.
Maybe because you’ve been trained out of it? I’d argue that every person is a self-directed learner: A toddler learns to walk, to speak by imitating his environment—the motivation for this comes from him. So why should it be any different for a 12 year old?
The fact that you would have played video games all day seems to me to be a kind of cry for help. Video games are the least adult-directed activity there is, in a world where children can no longer go outdoors and find others to play with, freely, away from adults, as they once did.
In a world like the one I imagine, learning, expanding your skills, is as enticing as video games. What attracts you to video games is not a dopamine rush (otherwise the effect of educational games wouldn’t be so disappointing), but the feeling that you personally brought about what happened in this game.
And we can replicate that in an educational context as well, but not through stupidly gamifying what currently exists. But simply giving children the opportunity to approach everything in a self-directed way.
And this can also take place in a school, which, however, would no longer resemble the one we have today.
And by the way, video games are actually quite a good way to learn all kinds of skills. I’ve recently come across a paper by Benoit Bediou and his colleagues (2018) that reviewed all of the recent research (published since 2000) concerning the cognitive effects of playing action video games.
The analysis of the correlational studies indicated, overall, strong positive relationships between amount of time gaming and high scores on tests of perception, top-down attention, spatial cognition, multitasking, and cognitive flexibility (ability to switch strategies quickly when old ones don’t work anymore).
Other research by Linda Jackson and her colleagues (2012) has found significant positive correlations between amount of time playing video games and every aspect of creativity measured by Torrance’s Tests.
There is also a paper that has shown significant positive correlations between video gaming and the personality characteristic referred to as openness to new experiences (Chory & Goodboy, 2011).
Beware the typical mind fallacy. There are quite a few people who have a hard time knowing their own preferences. If nothing else, school is a good way to get exposure to subjects that you might not have thought that you’d like. I’m a programmer by profession, but on my own time, I read quite a lot of history. That’s entirely due to school. If I’d been “self-directed”, in the sense of being able to choose my own curriculum at school, I’d have spent all my time learning programming, and I wouldn’t have realized that I had other preferences.
Because Algebra and Trigonometry are considerably more boring than learning to walk and use the bathroom.
I’m sorry, I just don’t buy your idea that we can make school as interesting or more interesting than video games. At some point you have to buckle down and do a bunch of drudge work in order to get to the interesting stuff. Video games, by making the reward loop so quick, actively train against that kind of persistence and perseverance. Yes, they may train creativity, but creativity is overrated. Being able to buckle down and grind is underrated, especially in this community.