The Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Hands Dirty

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There's to some extent a trade off between efficiency and getting your hands dirty. I don't necessarily care about how long it might take to do something like I'm potentially willing to let it take you know two or four times as long if it allows me to reach some kind of outcome that couldn't be reached without it all being in one person's head. But then at the same time there are ideas that I just simply can't explore because they're impractical with the amount of velocity that I can generate. There's another huge related trade off which is just that I am not as expert in all of those things as would potentially be a team of great people that could be assembled around them.

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How can we accelerate learning? Is spaced repetition the best way to absorb information over the long term? Do we always read non-fiction works with the goal of learning? What are some less common but perhaps more valuable types of information that can be put on flash cards? What sorts of things are worth remembering anyway? Why is it important to commit some ideas to memory when so much information is easily findable on the internet? What benefits are derived from being involved in all stages of a project pipeline from concept to execution (as opposed to being involved only in one part, like the research phase)? Why should more researchers be involved in para-academic projects? Where can one find funding for para-academic research?

Andy Matuschak invents tools that expand what people can think and do. His current research focuses on a new written medium which makes it much easier to remember what you read. In previous roles, Andy led R&D at Khan Academy and helped build iOS at Apple. You can read more about his work at andymatuschak.org and follow him on Twitter at @andy_matuschak.

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