- Sometimes learning can be hard,
so hard that it feels like it isn't worth it.
Let's fix that.
(soft music)
Hello and thank you to our Patreon supporters
for making this video possible.
Because we have a Patreon now, whoo!
Anyway, I hate learning,
so, I'm ending the channel.
No, but can you imagine, the views!
Anyway, I bring it up because,
I guess it's kind of ironic.
If you watch our videos,
you might assume that the three of us
have this wholesome, unconditionally loving
relationship with learning.
Like we were born with this unusually strong desire
to figure stuff out,
but I don't think that's true.
(bell ringing)
Hello.
- Hello.
- Okay, I have a question for you guys.
Do you like learning?
- Yes.
- Yes, but-
- Next question (chuckles)
- Continuing on that but, hmm.
Do you actually like learning though?
- Okay, so basically,
I think I like the idea
of being someone who likes learning,
but like, actually sitting and learning,
like there are a lot of like, asterisks on it.
- I like being knowledgeable.
I like being able to like have a conversation
and be knowledgeable about topics.
But to get to the point of being knowledgeable,
(scoffs) that's pain!
- Yeah, I do find that sometimes,
a lot of the joys of learning are like locked behind,
like basically paperwork.
I don't know how else to say it.
I find it really difficult to get excited
about learning things when you're taught facts
and information in isolation.
- Yeah, you want to apply it to the real world, you know?
- Yeah, it's like a toast and butter.
You've gotta put the facts on the toast of the world.
You know what I mean?
You were making so much sense.
- And then I made more sense, right?
- It's kinda like the three of us exist
in this weird space
where we like the idea of learning.
We like having learned something,
but we don't like that, unfortunately,
necessary bit in the middle.
So today in this video,
we are going to figure out why learning is so hard
and hopefully, how to make it easier.
This is gonna be a big one.
- The research for this question
didn't take a few days or weeks,
it took over a year,
learning about learning through application.
We challenged ourselves to pursue little things,
weird things, and things so big
that we were kind of doomed to fail.
- [Taha] We documented the process
and examined every step of the way.
- [Melissa] Where do I start without a syllabus to guide me?
- [Sabrina] When do I find the time to read a 300 page book
about olive oil?
- [Taha] Why keep going
when I just want to play "Minecraft?"
- [Melissa] We found all these little obstacles
that have nothing to do
with the thing we were trying to learn.
- [Sabrina] And everything to do with a faulty approach
to learning itself.
- [Taha] One that we wanna fix.
- So, what did we find?
Now, I should say that this isn't gonna be
the be all end all all of education issues.
Race, class, culture can impact your approach,
your access, your experience in learning.
Because as you know,
(glass clattering)
we live in a society.
However, these are the problems
that we found ourselves struggling with the most.
So here's why learning can be so hard.
- First, we need to understand how thinking works.
A simple model of the mind has three parts.
The collection of all the knowledge
you've built up in your life,
the sights, sounds in situation around you,
and the working memory.
This is where elements from long-term memory
and the environment are combined to better understand
and interact with the world.
In other words, thinking.
Thoughts from this process
that transfer to long-term memory for future use
can be considered learning.
While this process seems straightforward,
it can fall apart in three major ways.
Let's assume you're trying to figure out
where grass comes from.
If your long-term memory
doesn't have enough related knowledge,
your ability to learn weakens.
This is because your energy is spent on the basics,
like determining whether a fact is relevant
or googling the definition of a new word.
You're building the paths connecting your environment
in long-term memory to your working memory.
Unfortunately, this slows progress
on the thing you actually care about.
Making exploring unfamiliar territory frustrating
instead of exciting.
Common techniques to ease those frustrations
are visual demonstrations, jokes, and personal stories.
They can create a better,
more memorable atmosphere for learning,
but they can also serve as distractions.
Ones that shift focus away from the core goal.
Forming a tempting exit
for people who may already want a way out.
But suppose you have the background knowledge
and determination you need,
applying that knowledge can still be a challenge.
In school, your teachers were your educational GPS.
Narrowing the scope of the problem
and controlling the pace of new information.
Outside of that structure,
it's easy to be overwhelmed by your own curiosity,
seemingly trapped between an academic maze
that costs $200 to enter
or hoping someone has made a simple video
answering your question.
So, that's the problem, or at least part of it.
It was honestly kind of weird
seeing the frustrations that we felt for so long
laid out so neatly on the pages in black and white.
If the problem was so obvious, so well-documented,
why isn't more being done about it?
- [Both] So we're doing something about it.
- Melissa. - [Melissa] Oh!
- So, secretly, we have actually been
doing something about it,
this whole year, basically.
We've been trying to solve these problems
through our videos and making you lab rats.
- Welcome, lab rats.
Okay, so problem number one.
As I mentioned before,
the amount of long-term memory
or general knowledge you have
can limit the amount that you can learn.
So this is your brain on limited long-term memory.
This is your brain on "Answer In Progress."
Did I change slides?
Yeah, I did, big.
- Many wrinkles.
- And the reason why this is your brain
on "Answer In Progress"
is because we take an interdisciplinary approach.
We're talking about all of these things
so that we can help you build up
a kind of broader range of knowledge
just by watching these videos.
We aren't building out a niche,
which some people would say is a bad strategy
for growing out a YouTube channel,
but who cares about that?
I care about that.
Please share this channel.
- For the low price of one share,
you can save three kids from getting real jobs.
- [Melissa] Double thumbs up.
- But the second problem is that,
when you're learning,
you become the frustrated stock image man from Google.
"Oh no, learning is so hard."
Sometimes learning can be really trying
because it's just a series of information
that you have to memorize,
and that can just be very boring.
And so, we're trying to solve this problem.
So how do we do that?
We do that by Immaculate Vibes.
Wow!
(Sabrina laughing)
The process of discovery can be exciting in itself.
As seen here from a documentary film
called "Phineas and Ferb"
going from "Hmm mildly interested" to "WOW!"
That is somebody enjoying learning.
Basically, what I'm saying is that,
learning theory in isolation can be dry
No longer wow.
However, interesting applications of that theory,
can become wow!
For example:
machine learning ethics,
may be pretty dry.
Deciding who to hit with a train,
very interesting.
- [Melissa] Learning alone can be... lonely.
- Learning alone can be lonely, nice.
- The dramatic pause!
- In our videos, we try to take you along
this chaotic journey of learning.
And boy... it’s chaotic.
But we try our best to follow some sort of scientific method.
We start with an observation!
Olive oil fraud.
Then we ask a question.
What is olive oil fraud?
- And can we do it?
- We do some research.
And this is where it gets interesting or sad,
depending on if you're you or us.
Uh...
(all laughing)
- And even if we fail,
we still learn something along the way,
- Because really, it's the process of discovery where the real learning happens!
So, that's how we are trying to solve this.
This presentation, I envisioned it
as a way to clarify what we're doing.
I'm not entirely confident we got there,
but I hope you understood.
So here's the dream.
Step one, we make a neighborhood of nerds
who love learning, who love discovery.
Step two, we just keep doing that, I guess.
And step three, profit.
- Nice.
- [Sabrina] But like, actually-
- Wait, what did this slide do in this presentation?
- What, who put the screenshot our Patreon page,
patreon.com/answerinprogress?
What was that?
Patreon.com/answerinprogress? What was that?
Patreon.com/answerinprogress?
(all laughing)
- You're such a bad actor it's outrageous.
- The dumbest thing I have ever done.
(all laughing)
- [Melissa] Do you think people got it? I think people get it.
- This YouTube channel has had an identity crisis,
like every two years,
but I'm kinda hoping that this is the one that sticks.
Because learning to love,
learning really embracing that
has been a problem I've cared about my whole life.
I've got one of those quirky brains.
Like you need to trick into functioning,
but that's just me,
Melissa and Taha have their own reasons
for why they're doing this.
Why we're doing this.
For me, one of the things that I think
"Answer In Progress" is about,
and one of the reasons why I really care about it is that,
there is so much information online.
Like, there is no point in human history
that we have had this much access
to the collective human knowledge.
What we're trying to do is distill parts
of this huge body of work that's just out there
on the internet into small, interesting things
that people can actually learn from.
- "Answer in Progress" just makes me excited
to want to learn more things.
Maybe it's because we've kinda started to build
this little community amongst the three of us.
- Like a by-product of posting things on the internet
and having a comment section
that people can provide feedback and thoughts to
is that it's not just the three of us,
it's I think 500,000 now.
- It's wild, it's just-
- It's pretty crazy.
One thing that I'm really excited about
is like, when I was learning in school,
even when the topics were interesting,
I felt like there wasn't any point in learning
anything that wasn't gonna be tested.
And I'm really excited to, like,
if I start researching a tangent and exploring a tangent,
to be able to give myself the permission,
to just continue to go deep into that tangent
and learn about it,
and find interesting things about it,
and then tell everyone on the internet
is like such a fun, continuous,
huge online collaborative group project
that will just never end.
- So, that's it.
That's who we are.
That's what we're doing.
And if you like it,
if you believe in it,
then share this video with a friend,
share this channel with a friend.
And if you have a couple dollars to spare every month,
you can also support our Patreon.
Because we have a Patreon now, ta-da! (chuckles)
In case you don't know,
Patreon is a platform that lets you pledge
a certain amount of money to a creator every month,
to help them keep doing what they're doing.
If you support us on Patreon,
not only do you help us continue to make videos,
but you also get an exclusive podcast,
behind the scenes footage, and other chaos.
Now I'm not gonna lie to you.
The benefits are fun,
but they're not highly produced
because we don't wanna put all of our energy
behind a paywall.
The goal is to keep making stuff
for this channel for anyone to see.
And if you wanna help us keep doing that,
keep answering interesting questions in ambitious ways,
and honestly paying the bills,
then support us on Patreon.
It's linked in the description,
but either way, have a lovely day.
(upbeat bright music)