[abdullahkhalids]

Unfortunately, for a lot of people, including undergraduates, the dopamine hit they get from watching a video or passively reading a textbook makes them believe that these are adequate substitutes for doing thousands of exercises.

In my university, undergraduates have admitted that they have done fewer than 50 questions throughout the entirety of my math course. Their grades obviously reflect that, but they will do the same next semester.

[mattkrause]

Can I press you to explain what you think dopamine is/does?

I'm curious because I'm a neuroscientist who occasionally works on dopaminergic stuff and "passively reading a textbook" is so far from the canonical examples we use for dopamine activity, but the idea of dopamine/dopamine 'hits' has taken on a life of its own that seems quite different from the neurotransmitter.

[abdullahkhalids]

I am a physicist, so I will dare not make any technical neuroscience claims. I meant "dopamine" in the causal sense of people feeling pleasure from passively reading a book because they think it is useful work.