On how to teach (and learn) most effectively, a comment made in 1766 by Samuel Johnson (in James Boswell's Life of Johnson):

... Talking of education, 'People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures. — You might teach making of shoes by lectures!' ...

Yes, and one might argue that live lectures offer, in addition to demonstrations, potential for Q&A-interaction between student and teacher — which neither podcasts nor TED Talks provide. Hmmmmmmm ...

_{(cf Johnson on Anecdotes (1999-04-19), Read Through (2003-02-16), Picky about Fact (2003-03-11), Habitual Virtue (2008-12-18), Johnson on Virtue (2016-07-01), ...) - ^z - 2019-04-21}