[jackling]

I'm likely in the minority, but I found 3blue1brown videos difficult to understand and they usually give me a worse intuition about a concept than I previously had. I wonder why that is. Seems like most people I know swear by his videos.

[coreyp_1]

Learning is all about using your current knowledge and understanding to refine and augment those mental models.

Be aware that many people don't watch videos to learn, they watch to be entertained. They think that they are learning, but really they are just watching animations. In the end, they can't actually do any of the math. They haven't actually learned anything. In the same vein, that's why TED talks are so popular. It's like eating dessert... all sugar and no nutrients.

I'm not saying that 3b1b videos aren't instructional, but rather that they are so well put together that they can satisfy the entertainment-seekers while still offering meaningful content.

The question is, then, why don't you get anything out of the videos? That brings us back to the problem of mental models of understanding.

If someone teaches a subject from a completely different perspective, it may be that it confuses you as your brain tries to harmonize the two conflicting mental models, and the video moves along too quickly for you to be able to benefit from the realignment.

This is not an attack on you, btw. In fact, I believe that this realization helped me a lot as an educator to be patient when teaching. Furthermore, it does not mean that your initial understanding is wrong, but that it is a different perspective than that which is being presented by the instructor.

Alternatively, it may be that the videos move through a particular concept too quickly. I find this is an issue, too. Once I understand something new, I like to almost daydream about the concept, exploring it mentally so that I understand it from a lot of different angles. I think of it in different situations and to see if my intuitions make sense, and if they don't I ask for clarifications. You can't do that when watching a video because it doesn't stop to answer your questions.

I like 3b1b videos. Some of them I can binge on all day simply because they "click" and make sense. Others I have had to spend days (or weeks) thinking about in order to digest and understand the perspective that Grant is trying to convey. They are definitely high value and I greatly appreciate Grant's work, but I definitely have to work, too, in order to benefit from some of them.

[JackFr]

Professor I had for Real Analysis (the second time I took it) was probably the best math professor I've ever had. He had the most extensive mental catalog of the wrong ways people could understand and the failure modes of students. When you would ask a question he was able to help, not just because he understood the material, but because he knew why you didn't.

In my evaluation of him I mentioned this, but added that he was probably wasted on 3rd and 4th year math majors, and should be teaching more intro classes where the quality of instruction was markedly worse.

[CogitoCogito]

> He had the most extensive mental catalog of the wrong ways people could understand and the failure modes of students.

Back when I used to teach math classes as a grad student, I realized that a teacher has to actively work to keep that "mental catalog" for students. The problem is that longer you are in the math world, the clearer the subject becomes. The result is that to you the teacher it really just becomes braindead obvious what's going on. As time goes on, you have to fight this "problem" more and more to keep touch with the issues your students are having.

[seanw444]

I think that applies to many topics. Maybe math more than others due to the complexity of it all, but it seems commonplace that as you become more of an expert on a topic, the more detached from "newbyism" you become. It's harder to put yourself in the shoes of a beginner to see what they're seeing and know what they're missing.

[phkahler]

>> When you would ask a question he was able to help, not just because he understood the material, but because he knew why you didn't.

When my high schooler come to me with math problems, the first thing I do is look at the failures and figure out what higher level step or concept is missing in the brain. Then I explain that, sometimes more than once with different approaches. Once the higher level thing clicks, I can just sit back and mostly watch.

Sometimes I'm not sure how a concept clicked, but something did and the right answers start coming out.

[rand0mx1]

how do you conclude that people watch videos to only get entertained? What fun will be derived from Topics like Fourier Transforms, Taylor's Series, Eigen vectors which already studied by fewer students.

[silversmith]

For me it's the visual component, especially the animated transitions that very neatly highlight the relation between various concepts or values.

I learned most of the topics in those videos well enough to pass highschool/university exams, but very often the real "aha!" moment came after seeing lines transform from one into another, planes deforming, or boxes being subdivided in 3blue1brown video.

[C-x_C-f]

If you're looking for more a more traditional style I've heard good things about Michael Penn at https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelPennMath

[seydor]

- big duration of videos

- un-abstracting abstract concepts by creating concrete examples, which end up taking the focus away from the abstract version

- serial timeline, that is like a blackboard being constanty erased instead of adding to one big construction

[jmartrican]

Solid points.

[dingosity]

Well. I mean. We all have different ways we learn. Are there youtube channels that HAVE worked for you?

[jackling]

Tibees (https://www.youtube.com/@tibees) I found very helpful. Usually I buy textbooks when I want to learn something new. It could just be that I'm not a good visual learner.

[mliker]

That's the first time I've heard that. Curious what about it makes it harder for you. That's a shame, but it seems like 3b1b doesn't cater to your learning style!

[jackling]

After thinking about it a bit, I believe it may be 2 different things.

1) When I learn something, I like daydreaming about it and coming up with a mental model of how it is in my own head. So, having someone else's vision and animations used can screw up my own mental model and make it harder for me to forge connections between concepts.

2) I enjoy rigorous math more. I find it hard to make logical leaps and assume properties about things unless they were previously established as facts. This is why I like analysis a lot, althought I'm not great at it. I think 3B1B is more informal when explaining things, and the lack of rigour confuses me over time. Especially in a longer video.

[MawKKe]

When I took a "presentation skills" course at Uni, they taught us that humans are very bad at reading and listening at the same time. Something about the brain regions utilized by these two activities overlap, and cannot be simultaneously be processing two different things. For this reason the visual portion of a presentation (slides) should be kept minimal and act as immediate support for the vocal portion of the presentation. If the two are not "in sync" the audience is unable to follow the presentation fully.

I think 3b1b videos constantly break this rule; there is a LOT of going on visually, while the narrator is talking non-stop about some loosely related things or trivia. More often than not I have to re-watch segments multiple times because I cannot understand what the hell am I supposed to be paying attention to.

[Tarrosion]

Mostly I've been a huge fan and think I learn a lot, but occasionally his explanation doesn't click with me. One example is his Fourier series where I want to think about a change of basis and multiplying an input signal by "reference" functions, but his explanation is more about circles spinning on circles.

[jmartrican]

I agree. Besides the Neural Network video, I watch his other ones for entertainment, because I can't follow after a few minutes. I imagine I could follow if I stopped the vid to think and rewind as necessary.

[dkarl]

I think 3blue1brown gives you great starting intuition. When you work more deeply with a subject, you develop intuition that is more general and precise, and you understand the relationship between the simple model you started with and the more complex and nuanced understanding you developed over time. A different starting intuition than the one you started with won't be as good as your experienced intuition, and it won't be integrated with it, either, so it would feel like a step back.

[veltas]

No shame in that, I love his videos but I think it's well established that there are different kinds of learners out there. His content matches what works for me, and it's worth reminding people like me that one size doesn't fit all. But for those he does speak to, he is a fantastic teacher worthy of the praise he gets.

[jameshart]

Careful - if by ‘different styles of learners’ you mean the old Visual/auditory/reading/kinesthetic ‘learning styles’ model, that is largely debunked and discredited as far as I understand it (see eg https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/05/learning-sty...).

I think it’s absolutely the case that some lessons work for some people at some times for some topics and don’t for others - but that’s not likely down to any innate ‘learning style’ that one person has over another. The same approach on a different topic on a different day might have the exact opposite effect in terms of who gets most out of the lesson.

[password54321]

I actually believe a lot of people feel the same way but watch anyway because of the entertainment value the animations provide. But it really has made me realise that good animations alone really aren't enough and have found dry pieces of text from wikipedia to be better at times.

[cloogshicer]

I feel the same. There are often big leaps he makes in terms of understanding, where I get lost.

[ahmadmijot]

Yeah me too. Some of his videos are really helps me understanding about math (particularly on linear algebra) but some of his (recent-ish) videos are way above my head. Maybe because I don't have any background on the subject.

[viburnum]

What usually happens to me is 2/3rds of the way through he rushes through seem keep points and it goes from feeling like a clear explanation to feeling like a magic trick.

[chrsig]

Were there any specific things that were making it difficult for you?

[postsantum]

Any alternatives to recommend?

[guerrilla]

Just do a lot of exercise and keep going over the same stuff (periodically) until you see deeper into it.

[hwestiii]

Numberphile is good, but more "crowd sourced".