... works as a web developer in Hveragerði, Iceland, and writes about the web, digital publishing, and web/product development
These are his notes
“Why books don’t work - Andy Matuschak”
Dude has an agenda, mostly mentions shitty story-science books, and has clearly never been taught how to read for learning which is a separate skill from reading for fun. Accidentally makes a couple of good points, though.
Art Kavanagh I read that piece of polemic a little over a month ago, fully intended to go back to reread and study it and, as your micropost has just reminded me, promptly forgot all about it! I find it interesting because I think I’ve got a good memory for ideas, concepts and abstractions (so I’m normally good at learning things from books) but an absolutely terrible memory for events and episodes (so, while I like reading fiction, I don’t retain much more than a general impression). Anyway, thanks for the reminder.
Gary Bloom He’s not saying anything new, and others have experimented with alternatives to flat text. Alan Kay conceived of the DynaBook back in the 60s, as a means to learn by creating simulations. Smalltalk and eToys came out of it, and he has inspired others.
@gebloom He's not being nearly as interesting as Alan Kay who was talking about building a complete and dynamic programming environment that was easily learnable and powerful for both the young and the old.
The book type this guy has 'invented' basically just integrates timed quizzes into an otherwise normal web-based ebook.
Gary Bloom Yeah, his creative pitch at the end was as inspiring as a new detergent, "Now with extra-powerful cleaning agents!"