Live quantum mechanics study session with Dwarkesh Patel (Patreon)

I mentioned in my latest essay that my recent thinking about reading comprehension was inspired in part by recording a live study session with Dwarkesh Patel. That video is now live—enjoy! We also recorded a traditional interview, full of Dwarkesh's trademark probing questions.

The study video is unscripted. You'll see me making lots of mistakes, some of which I don't catch during our study session. You'll see us both get very tangled in an example problem for the last half hour or so. But I hope you'll also enjoy seeing some unusual study practices in action.

You'll notice the very demanding way that I'm constantly asking questions of the book and myself. This is a routine practice among scholarly readers—I'm not doing anything unique—but I've noticed that many professionals have had no exposure to this sort of close reading, and find it quite surprising. Something I find interesting about this is that it's hard for people to even know that they're unaware of others' reading practices: reading is usually invisible, private, silent.

Of course, what's less routine is the way that I'm writing memory prompts as I read. It's certainly a more overt difference from typical reading practices, but I think it's actually less important for capacity-building than the demanding interpretive work I'm doing. In any case, the two are entwined, as I described in my latest essay on reading comprehension and memory systems.

I'm already getting asked: is this prototype available for others to use? Sorry—not yet. It's held together by duct tape; a couple days of work would be necessary before a wider audience could use it; I'm not sure I want to sacrifice that time at the moment. But if I do devote more time to it, you all would get access long before a public audience.