Comment by bmer
1 year ago
It's not the tech itself that is the problem, and I think viewing it as the problem would lead one to miss a key trio of problems, that is equally applicable to books.
The problem has three interrelated parts: a) we do not value developing the capacity to think, b) the ability to think is not valued (by whom? I'm not quite sure), and c) we do not value doing things slowly.
a) Most have the mistaken notion that the capacity to think is fixed with respect to various biological factors. Putting aside whether the biology truly does fix this (I do not know enough here) the fact remains that this misses that there exist tools which can help us organize our thinking so that it appears to be "better". Examples of this are plenty in mathematics, where the symbolic "language" you use alone can make a massive difference to your "ability" to deal with a problem.
Some tools are more like internal narratives: if one develops a narrative that isn't constantly judging whether they are "thinking fast enough" or are "being productive enough" they ironically end up thinking more effectively.
(For examples of people interested in making such tools better known:
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691156668/th...
https://barbaraoakley.com/books/)
And some tools are simply more biological: a person in good physical health can think more clearly than a person for whom this is not true, for the simple reason of nutrient supply to the brain being more efficient in the former than the latter.
Schools fail us on all these points. In particular, many current widely accepted textbooks are part of the problem here: https://bookstore.ams.org/view?ProductCode=SPEC/80
There's also what our culture tends to portray in entertainment. Contrary to what other think, I think entertainment is not harmless enjoyment due to the nature of our brain: as far as I know, there is no good way to consciously choose the weights you are applying to various inputs, while receiving that input (unless, ironically, you have training). Advertisers realize this, which is why "product placement", or "paid" narrative tweaking (presenting a story that is "cleaned up") work.
But more importantly, our entertainment industry does a terrible job of showing what is actually beautiful and exciting about problems in the real world. Instead, it defaults to shooting bullets, and adrenaline driven excitement. In a "biopic" about a scientist, it cares not about the immense beauty of their patient struggles, or what habits they purposefully cultivated in order to think more effectively, and instead prefers to view their achievements through a dramatic lens of romance and "lightning bolts of inspiration".
It is just as easy to put such entertain in the form of a book (e.g. Sherlock Holmes).
b) my contention that the ability to think is not valued, and perhaps actively devalued, is due to the fact that people are very willing to pollute information highways and entertainment feeds, in order to make profits. They are willing to distract people constantly from things they would prefer to be doing. They are willing to interrupt with needless reminders and notifications. They are willing to use Skinner Boxes to keep a person engaged regardless of what their conscious mind is interested in. Most importantly, they are willing to pay thoughtful people to figure out the best ways to do this: https://www.economist.com/1843/2016/10/20/the-scientists-who...
This is why technology is so disruptive. It is not usually designed to prioritize our ability to think, but is instead designed for other purposes. Which common place operating can you point to which has in-built tools to help a person manage over-use, or help a person track their time usage, or help someone stick to their goals around usage, or provides notifications in order to help a person get back on task? How many Skinner Boxes exist that around getting people to stick it out over the long term and engage with difficult material? (Most mathematics textbooks would be better as games.)
None. The issue could equally exist with, and without books. Dilution of quality of information, misinformation, de-focusing information: none of those ideas are tied to a particular medium.
c) To create something new that is truly valuable is time consuming. You cannot be overly prideful and expect to just "disrupt" things. You need to understand fairly well what the old process was, and work with people who use the old process. Perhaps even hire them as parts of the product-testing loop. You need to spend time thinking about the design, or employ people who are willing to do this. You need to spend time maintaining things, rather than just making the next new thing, yet you also need to be able to realize that "backwards compatibility" is not productive for humanity (who does backwards compatibility truly serve well? why are their wants prioritized).
None of these are ideas that are common in tech. So, the products the tech industry produces are for $$$ are overall, pretty likely to be garbage. But again, there is nothing unique about this to technology as it stands today: mass production, thoughtless production...these can be problems in any industry, and are problems in other industries too (e.g. the building industry).
I don't think the students will do better only because they are spending more time handwriting or reading books.
“And some tools are simply more biological: a person in good physical health can think more clearly than a person for whom this is not true, for the simple reason of nutrient supply to the brain being more efficient in the former than the latter.”
Most important learning aid: easily-available, nutritious breakfast and lunch. Quit fooling around with school lunch accounts and debt, financial qualification for free or reduced-price meals; just feed the kids decent food.
Hungry, malnourished kids can’t begin to concentrate. Disadvantaged American kids aren’t (usually) short of total calories, but they are often short of good food available at the right times. Good meals at home require more money and/or time and thought. Little home economics programs throughout the school years would be both good academic opportunities (apply those fractions we’ve been working on, see what baking soda does when it meets an acid) and cultivate the thinking that makes cooking at home an easier routine as an adult.
Second-most important: physical activity that doesn’t feel like a punishment. This is trickier.
Re: food, I don't disagree, but how do we get decent food? It's hard enough to find decent food if you're an adult. For example: sugar is commonly used in the food industry to help make everything taste better, including savoury food! This is not yet something I have confirmed, but I suspect also that most food comes from farms that cannot provide nutritious vegetables, fruits, eggs, or milk due to exhausted soils and poorly fed (and cruelly kept) animals. In the second case: apart from the incredible cruelty, how nutritious do you think the milk of factory cows, or the eggs of factory chickens, if they themselves, are not healthy? Similarly, how do we know that plant produce that comes from farms that tend to grow only one type of crop still meets nutritional standards? Is anyone measuring? Would love to get some clarification on this.).
Re: physical activity. It might be easier than food because of the above concerns, because it is much more within our control?
We're helped out in part by the fact that physical exercise feels good.
The issue is that the way physical exercise is presented in school tends to be through competition and/or sports. From here, and due to other signals being received, it's not hard for kids to develop immense self-consciousness which makes it something they wish to avoid.
Kids also don't learn to combine meditation and physical exercise. Meditation to help manage the social anxiety, and to help manage the physical discomfort. Yoga is surprisingly simple (no equipment required) yet effective for maintaining flexibility, posture, and strength, while also being easily amenable to incorporating meditation.
For cardiac health: there is little science employed in helping a student gradually improve their physical capacity, in a gradual fashion. HIIT is some of the best we know of for time-efficient exercises that also naturally take into account personal limits. How do you know you've done enough HIIT for the day? You're panting hard. You've hit your goal, your body will do the rest. Tolerance for discomfort improves hand-in-hand with improvements to self-image, and increased cardiac fitness. Before the student knows it, it isn't "awful drudgery" to consider doing a "12 minute run". Because they've gradually prepared for it!
The physical activity has to be fun which is very individual so to each their own. This is usually done my forcing the kids to do all of them in school and hope something sticks for their rest life.
It is little more complex than that there are especially elenentary school stuff which you need to learn doing mechanically(reading, simple Matt etc) and for those games migh be better than pen and paper. Lets put it this way if you need think about reading you are not probably thinking what you are reading.