We often tell people to read the Sequences, but perhaps some people are better suited to jumping right into A Technical Explanation. Rereading it for the first time in awhile I was surprised at how much ground it covers, and how dense it is compared to the sequences.
That said, in my experience dense material is harder to learn, even if clearly explained. Naturally and cleverly repetitive material is best suited for learning. So in conclusion, uh, I dunno.
Nope. I vaguely feel like it would be a good idea before seeing the last movie(s), but I haven’t made a specific plan.
Before this goes too much further, I should note that I mostly haven’t read it because I don’t feel especially called to read it, not because these reasons are pushing me away.
I tried to get my brother to read it, and while talking with him, we realized that the story had become longer than many of the Harry Potter novels themselves. It’s sheer length is going to turn people off; he said he’d have to choose between reading it or reading another Discworld novel, and I didn’t have a very good answer to that.
Without having seen this comment yet, I came here to approach the same topic from a very different perspective. There’s been a conversation elsewhere about why newbies don’t read the sequences; I commented with a summary of my theories about it, and came over here to find out if the question is of enough concern to the LW community at large to be worth its own post. (I had originally written a much longer comment, noticed it was getting out of hand, and posted a shortened version, so I have a bit of text on the subject already.)
I’ll be digging around in the site search for prior discussion of the topic, but if anyone knows offhand of earlier relevant threads, that would be handy to have.
Since my earlier reply, I read through the Technical Explanation, and I did find it a lot more helpful than the Intuitive Explanation. The latter did a good job of explaining the theorem, but the former more clearly enunciated why anyone but a statistician should care.
Also—following up on my previous comment—someone asked after the longer post describing my experience with the sequences and my suggestions for easier integration of newbies, so I pasted it over here for anyone interested. I recommend reading that in addition to the thread I already linked, not instead of; most of the thread took place after I wrote it.
We often tell people to read the Sequences, but perhaps some people are better suited to jumping right into A Technical Explanation. Rereading it for the first time in awhile I was surprised at how much ground it covers, and how dense it is compared to the sequences.
That said, in my experience dense material is harder to learn, even if clearly explained. Naturally and cleverly repetitive material is best suited for learning. So in conclusion, uh, I dunno.
Prediction: a year after HPatMoR is finished, newbies will be as reluctant to read through it as they are relucant to read through the sequences now.
I’m already reluctant to read it, but that’s partly because I haven’t actually read all the books yet. ;)
That shouldn’t stop you—knowledge of HP cannon is useful mostly for speculation purposes, in this case.
Can’t guarantee it won’t spoil you for reading about the cannon versions of the characters, though ;)
canon :)
I haven’t read any of the books, or seen any of the films, and I don’t intend to, but that hasn’t stopped me appreciating HPatMoR.
I can understand that; I’m reluctant in part because I DO intend to read/see them.
Are you in the process of reading the books now?
Nope. I vaguely feel like it would be a good idea before seeing the last movie(s), but I haven’t made a specific plan.
Before this goes too much further, I should note that I mostly haven’t read it because I don’t feel especially called to read it, not because these reasons are pushing me away.
I tried to get my brother to read it, and while talking with him, we realized that the story had become longer than many of the Harry Potter novels themselves. It’s sheer length is going to turn people off; he said he’d have to choose between reading it or reading another Discworld novel, and I didn’t have a very good answer to that.
Without having seen this comment yet, I came here to approach the same topic from a very different perspective. There’s been a conversation elsewhere about why newbies don’t read the sequences; I commented with a summary of my theories about it, and came over here to find out if the question is of enough concern to the LW community at large to be worth its own post. (I had originally written a much longer comment, noticed it was getting out of hand, and posted a shortened version, so I have a bit of text on the subject already.)
I’ll be digging around in the site search for prior discussion of the topic, but if anyone knows offhand of earlier relevant threads, that would be handy to have.
Since my earlier reply, I read through the Technical Explanation, and I did find it a lot more helpful than the Intuitive Explanation. The latter did a good job of explaining the theorem, but the former more clearly enunciated why anyone but a statistician should care.
Also—following up on my previous comment—someone asked after the longer post describing my experience with the sequences and my suggestions for easier integration of newbies, so I pasted it over here for anyone interested. I recommend reading that in addition to the thread I already linked, not instead of; most of the thread took place after I wrote it.