What will Replace the Book?
I recently stumbled upon a fascinating article by Andy Matuschak titled Why Books Don’t Work. A very provocative title, but with compelling arguments. I recommend reading it in its entirety.
In summary, the author argues that non-fictional books (as opposed to fictional books produced for casual reading) are poor at imparting knowledge to people. Their existence is girded by a basic assumption: that if people simply read, they will understand. He compares reading a book to sitting in a lecture; a lecturer will lecture away, expecting students to listen and understand the material. And that is rarely the case. I for one can vouch for that!
The author further explains that the reason why we take this assumption about books (and lectures for that matter) for granted is because it is rendered invisible by the medium itself. That is, it is so natural to read a book that it is hard to question the medium’s demerits.
The author suggests that we need to explore other forms of media that can do a couple of things right.
First, we need a medium that leverages human cognition to our advantage. Books and lectures rely on the “transmission model” which stipulates that knowledge can be imparted to readers or students by directly transmitting it to them. According to Andy, it is a very naive model and has been thoroughly discredited in most pedagogical circles. Instead, a hypothetical new medium could provide a reader an accessibly way of comprehending what is being conveyed. Textbooks do that by offering practice questions and discussion topics. This is a form of metacognition; it makes the reader think about how to think about the material. It enables readers to gauge their level of understanding as they proceed through a textbook. But this process is a skill that has to be cultivated, and can place enormous amount of strain on a naive reader. Which leads us to the second point: ease of use.
Learning is hard. Learning how to learn in a new domain can be daunting. And if done improperly, it can lead to a misguided understanding about a topic. That’s where courses come into play. Courses offer a way to make the journey from zero to hero easier so to speak. It is difficult to envision a medium that can offer the same benefits as a course independently. Perhaps that is why forums and classrooms continue to exist: there is nothing better than having an interactive session with someone who knows his/her stuff. However, archived classrooms can act as a reasonable substitute. An archived classroom session can allow readers to “relive” the discussion after the fact. I have no idea how effective such a thing would be, but it could help ease the metacognition effort required to engage with the material.
The question of what will replace the book is fertile ground for future researchers. Hypermedia, MOOCs and platforms like Udemy today have given us a glimpse of the possibilities. Perhaps the book will continue to exist by virtue of the Lindy effect. I haven’t a clue. For now, we only have the question.
Found this interesting? Give it some 👏.Want more? Good! Head over to my blog Looping in Thought for more fascinating reads: http://abesamma.github.io
