How Popularizers Make Learning Fun

[@SarahB-xy1wq]

As someone in the humanities/humanities-adjacent, I'm so glad to hear someone else talk about how we need "humanities communicators" too

[@WritingwithAndrew]

The club grows! 🎉

[@iantaakalla8180]

I agree that while the devil is in the details and people should read about interesting things themselves, there is also a fun in figuring out how a complex idea may be conveyed to people who otherwise may not care with the rigor and intellectual topic provides.

[@clint5253]

I have a buddy who studied Philosphy and he has taught me so much just in the course of us joking around and poking fun at each other. I am by no means competent in Philosphy, but I know things I didn't know previously, and I have an insane amount of inside jokes with my friend that help me remember the stuff. Learning and fun can make a beautiful union if you let it. Also, take my sub, you earned it.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks so much--for the sub but especially for the great thoughts!

[@fieuline2536]

On the one hand - absolutely. Learning materials that make good use of imagery and storytelling are amazing. Teachers and popularizers who know how to demonstrate passion in presentation are golden. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for sitting alone in a quiet room reading War and Peace for 3 hours, even if that is much more “boring” than watching a blockbuster action movie. In short, there are different kinds of boredom and different kinds of fun. I think a lot of fun on algorithm-driven platforms like KZbin tend to rely on cheap tricks for capturing and holding attention and are distracting from the kind of deep engagement that foster deep learning-not because fun is ipso facto non-rigorous but because algorithmic platforms reward distracting and shallow rhetorical strategies.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

For sure, different strategies for different purposes

[@uroborous1660]

"Nile Red and ContraPoints probably don't speak to the same audience" : Sir don't underestimate my range.😅. You can also include vtubers to this mix.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Ha--good thing I stuck with "probably" instead of "definitely" 😉

[@jamiepianist]

As an aspiring "popularizer" (what a great term), this was perfect for me to see. I will be engaging with all of the information you present on it, thank you!

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You bet--that's an exciting aspiration!

[@genrepunk]

Good food for thought, thanks! This does have me thinking about how people can come to mistake the sweetness for the medicine, but that's not the fault of the popularizer I suppose.

[@wamuuSPEEDWAGON]

Thank you Mr. Andrew! I had loads of fun listening to your video 👍🏼

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Glad to hear it!

[@AsuraSantosha]

What a great and entertaining video. I will say when I think about wether or not popularizing a topic has any downsides, the only thing I can think of is the Dunning-Kruger effect. By only showing someone a little snippet of something, they may begin to overestimate their own expertise. However, I dont think that means its not worth sparking interest in the topic for people and popularizing a subject probably does a lot more good than harm.

[@mcrumph]

This was fun. I also read literary criticism for fun to give you an idea of the hijinks I get up to (mostly centered around European Modernism.)

[@WritingwithAndrew]

From someone who recreationally reads rhetorical theory, I see you 😆

[@concertautist4474]

My reward for getting ahead work wise this weekend is some writing and maybe even the luxury of one of these videos.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

You'll have to tell me what getting ahead work wise is like! Maybe I'll catch up someday 😅

[@OfficialJacob]

super sigma video andrew

[@WritingwithAndrew]

always

[@Nina_k_]

I have ADHD and a great appetite for learning new stuff, but notice that a lot of academic research information is very inacessible to me because it is so incredibly dry that i can not focus on reading it. I just keep reading the same sentences and getting lost in thought. I sometimes use chatgpt to summarize and make it easier to read. If there are parts that specificaly pull my interest I will go back to the original paper and read the original text, usualy because I have more context I can read it better. Even though I am not in the field of the people who wrote the papers, I find inspiration in them as a designer, they help me find logic and new connections between seemingly unrelated topics!

[@dannicholas9267]

Fun blows fun blows the pants off arrogance and this is why pantless streakers at sporting events keep us safe from academics the true fools who make love of course with their pants on a sad event indeed. Dan Nicholas ... Hats (and academic pants) off to Andrew!

[@umbraemilitos]

VTubers are popularizing many interesting technologies, including mocap, complex integrated streaming systems, and collaborative virtual design. There's a reason their industry is worth more than $1billion now.

[@LostinMango]

1$ billion is small for a entire industry

[@umbraemilitos]

@GIGADEV690 A new one... that was never expected to grow beyond the scale of a small pop group?

[@ingjaldsleikestove]

I like your project, and I really like these rhetorical looks on other science content creators, but I would like a link to your dissertation that you mention many times. As a professor in physics didactic (in the Germanic meaning of didactic, not the anglo-american use of the word), I would like to read it.

[@WritingwithAndrew]

Thanks--(un)fortunately, it was recent enough that it's still under embargo (i.e., not available publicly). I'm working on getting at least some of it in publishable form, and I'll probably share it if/when that happens

[@wozaiwodejia]

So, I liked this video enough to switch from my phone to my laptop to .... complain. (Sorry.) Can you write your scripts in a way that everything can be followed by listening only? They are mostly spoken content and the switch in medium when the skull is talking, especially in a dialogue, makes it harder to follow in the best of circumstances and impossible if you're just listening. You can keep your skull making snarky comments on screen and give people a reward for watching. But right now, the videos are not nearly as good as they could be because of that and it's a simple fix. :)