In 2024, it's easier to learn when you are alone
ChatGPT has already revolutionised learning. Here's a brief spew of thoughts on it.
I recently realised something I’ve realised many times already, but somehow always forget about -- I *hate* learning in groups.
It’s obsolete. LLMs were the last nail in the coffin.
I think group learning traditionally has a few purposes. A big and obvious on
Actually presenting new information.
Intelligent & responsive teacher to explain specific misunderstandings
Motivation through social pressure
Socialisation
Actually presenting new information.
This used to be very important -- the teacher has information to impart to their students, it’s best to lecture as many people as possible at the same time to disseminate it.
But it’s become far less important over time, and it is straight up obsolete today.
Compare a video series online to a lecturer with a blackboard talking to a group of students. If you have the video, you can pause or accelerate the information flow to go at a pace you need - stopping to think whenever you want.
You have much clearer visualisations -- animations that have been built and optimised specifically for this purpose -- vs somebody drawing on a whiteboard on the fly.
The lecturer also only has *one attempt* to explain the content, and they have to do it in real time. A video production gets an arbitrary number of attempts to make it as good as possible, and then it is put in a pool with all of the other videos teaching the same topic, and only the very best of those make it to your attention (through the filtering process of the internet recommendations).
When I was in university they still did lectures multiple times per day, but they also recorded them. Why? Why not make one really good lecture series and use that, instead of making a new one of poor quality every semester?
I asked one of the lecturers once, and they said “I would be out of a job.” What a waste.
Whatever reasons remain for doing live lectures, it is not to directly impart information to those in attendance.
Intelligent & responsive teacher to explain specific misunderstandings
Sometimes you might not understand a very specific word, or very specific aspect, and having somebody to ask about it (or to correct you when you start going down the wrong path) is a massive accelerant for learning. This is why one-on-one tutors are so much better than teachers in a class -- there are many more opportunities to ask questions and be corrected.
But ChatGPT has changed that. Now I chat with GPT-4 about what I am learning, and copy and paste my own explanations for it to review and correct, and it’s *better* that a one on one tutor. It is more knowledgeable, more patient, I don’t feel bad annoying it, and it has more context then the teacher does for where I’m at (for my case, at least). It’s also easier to ask ChatGPT incredibly stupid questions that you might be embarrassed to ask a tutor (especially if they are a friend or colleague) like “What, what actually is a vector?”.
It’s not perfectly reliable, but neither is a human teacher. It’s also getting better over time.
One major drawback is that it can’t yet draw diagrams to explain things. I still need a combination of pictures, quizzes, and verbal explanations to best learn something, and GPT-4 today only really helps with the last one. But it creating pictures, or even interactive animations, doesn’t seem too far away -- it already can do it in a basic, not-quite-trustworthy-enough way.
That leaves social motivation which... to be honest, I simply don’t have this problem. If I am learning something it’s because I *want* to learn it. I’ve found ways to structure my daily routine around learning it, and it feels difficult to *not* do it -- after all, that’s what I do every morning around 10am at a cafe when not working! Having the habit is very important, and I think I would struggle a lot more if it took *work* to sit down and get started, but as it is, social motivation to study is not needed IF you can build a habit and structure without it. When I am in a new place, or have some reason to stay home rather than go to the work-location, I do find it much harder to sit down and study.
The last one is socialisation. I do worry a little about what happens as more and more of the things the necessarily *required* socialisation can be done easier individually. This is a continuous trend in society (work is done with less interaction with other humans, study is, etc, etc). I think we need to figure out ways to work with it rather than say “yes, it’s worse in every other way, but at least we are socialising!”.
One way I do this is by bringing my girlfriend along when I study. She just sits next to me and plays the sims, but it’s nice. I used to sometimes do similar things with friends, although it is difficult to be like “Okay, no talking, just be.”
Another way is to do things that are genuinely improved by having friends around with friends as much as possible. Eating food, perhaps, playing video games, playing sports, etc. I’m not sure.
There is no conclusion. Goodbye.