Side note, but much as I like Khan Academy overall, I've always struggled with Sal's slow and repetitive speaking style in the videos.

"Now you add the five ... [pause] ... add the five ... add the five to the seven ... to the seven..."

Running them at 1.5 - 2x helps a bit, but it's still annoying to the point that I find it very distracting.

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sudo_cowsay 15 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

While it depends entirely on personal opinion, I believe that it helps significantly. It helps build up the problem/solution from the ground up and he goes through each step out loud to help a student understand. I get that some people hate it and think it is so childish for such simple steps. For other people, it helps a lot. Learning on KA works best if started aat a young age and done consistently (you get used to the style and you learn everything from the ground up).

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wafflemaker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

OTOH creating neural connections takes time. It's a real distance. Small for us, but great for the cells. That's why explaining difficult concepts too fast, while cool for people getting things instantly, is not good for general population.

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teiferer 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I very much agree and it saddens me often when I see folks dial it up to 1.5x or 2x "because it is boring otherwise". They might think they just get as much, only in half the time, but I'd hypothesize that they retain less because the mind needs some time to digest.

Similar with the trend to auto-cut pauses that speakers make, just to cram in more text into a youtube video. Destroys not just the pacing but any chance for the mind to take its time.

I'd love to see studies about this.

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jbstack 31 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

There's a difference between pacing (good), and repetitive speech (bad). Between pacing and repetitive speech.

	▲	teiferer 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Ironically, spaced repetition is the key to successful learning. Obviously one can overdo it. And there is variance in what people require. But not giving things time, instead giving in to the dopamine-craving, that's killing your learning abilities.

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tptacek an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I originally learned linear algebra from Gilbert Strang's OCW videos, and I was only able to stick with them by 2x'ing the playback rate; at this point, hearing Strang at his normal speaking rate sounds to me like hearing him after a Robitussin bender.

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homieg33 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

This is exactly what my kid said about why he doesn’t like Kahn academy.

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dprkh 37 minutes ago | parent [-]

What would you recommend over khan academy?

	▲	jbstack 23 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I've not tried it myself, but I consistently hear good things about Math Academy. It uses a knowledge graph so that it knows whether you've satisfied prerequisites for a topic, and it adapts itself to your level. I've never taken the plunge because it's very expensive at $49 a month, but it seems to be the one that serious maths learners use. I did the trial of Brilliant the other day. You can get 7 days free, then another 7 days added if you cancel the first trial before the end. After that you can continue to get 2 free lessons per day with ads. I think it's about $20 a month for unlimited lessons. The maths problems are more visual (which makes them quite intuitive) and it has a nicer, more polished UI than Khan Academy. It's easier to stay in the mood for doing more lessons. The main downsides compared to Khan are that the explanations are quite minimal (short descriptions, no videos), and it doesn't reach as advanced a level as Khan. I'm looking at it as more a way to do a refresher on the maths I already learned at school rather than a serious learning tool. If it were $5 a month I'd probably consider subbing for a couple of months and trying to blitz through all the material before switching back to Khan to fill in the gaps.
	▲	sudo_cowsay 13 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		While I am a strong supporter of KA, I just use regular schooling to review and back up what I learned on Khan.