I've got a pile of math, physics and computer books that I've been meaning to get through, but I would prefer to go through them with someone likewise interested. If you're up for an experiment, I'd like to pick a book to study with someone, or a group, and at the same time I'd like to develop web resources to make it an experience where no one feels like they are being dragged down by the use of the internet as the medium. All the book discussion sites I've seen out there are almost completely useless for reading or studying a book as a group, so this is no small trick. [Read more…]

A core problem with the internet is that it facilitates a very short attention span. Even well-meaning research is easily turned into hours of tangents and segues that would have been much shorter and more productive with a limited print resource. Books seem, on the face of it, absurdly restricted compared to the resources available on the web, but one rarely is more productive at studying on the web. The web is still best at being a supplementary resource. Given the choice between the PDF and a paper version of the same, I'll choose the latter every time.

The problems are manifold [Read more…]