Comments on Elliot Temple's screencasts plus thoughts on book reading

In a recent FI email, Elliot asked for feedback on his tutoring videos. I decided to write a blog post with a dual purpose: (1) provide feedback and (2) think about my own use of the videos and request feedback.

I'll quote the email and add my comments inline:

> Alan, others, got opinions/feedback/etc on my recent videos? Tutoring InternetRules and Max, and gigahurt discussion tree.
>
> Any ideas for me to be a better teacher? 

no

> Any parts you’d particularly like or dislike if you were the student? Anything that is particularly good or bad for the video audience? 

i don't recall disliking anything.

> Have you learned much? 

I think i've learned enough that i expect to learn more from future videos. i expect this might be the case for years.

> Do you watch around 100%/80%/60%/40%/20%/0%? Why?

i've recently changed how I use your videos. I now almost 100%[1] play (@ 1.75X speed) your videos in the background as I do other stuff, and I do this for a lot more time per day than previously. My intent is to consume all of your video content. i partially made this change because you started putting out video content faster than I was consuming it.

[1] sometimes i hear something in the videos that is both interesting to me and I didn't totally understand it. in these cases i either switch to the video and listen, or i pause the video and wait to get back to it until i finish the other task i was working on, which should only be a few minutes.

> what do you like and dislike about the videos compared to text? 

for video, i dislike not being able to see a transcription. but overall i think the format is fine. i like that i can consume them while doing other stuff. i can't do that with your text.

> would you prefer one or the other, or a mix similar to what i do now, or a different mix?

with the new change in my consumption rate, i'm happy with the mix of video to text that you currently produce.

So far I've done zero book reading since I started my learning plan.

I think I should start reading books, like by Goldratt. I already read 2 of his books, which I enjoyed a lot and I think I learned a great deal. So I want to read 2 more of his books that Elliot has recommended. (I recorded the names of the books in my learning plan.)

i guess i should do something like read a chapter per day, or X number of pages (if the chapters are too long), or Y number of minutes, or maybe I should come up with a combination metric. Example: don't stop reading until I've read for 30 minutes, or 10 pages, or 1 chapter, whichever happens first. Then immediately follow the reading by writing a blog post about it.

also maybe i should do book reading as the first thing in the morning. that's when i'm at my most mentally fresh. currently the first thing I do in the morning is catch up on reading FI email, curi blog posts, etc. So I would have to move this reading to a later part of the day, which I think is fine. I'll try this method out and see how it works (with documentation about it).

thoughts on my ideas/plans?