Purpose

Learning something new is exciting and daunting. It can also be annoying and time-consuming when you already know a significant part of what's being taught.

Solutions

Fast-Forwarding

A lot of learning material is broken down into modules, and to an extent the later material builds on the earlier. This makes fast-forwarding/skipping modules a viable solution. You can fast-forward even when things aren't so nicely broken down.

Keyword Search

Sometimes there's transcripts provided along with recorded learning material. Whether they're tied interactively to the media or not, you can search for the keywords you're most interested in and jump to those spots with relative ease.

Learning by Doing

A lot of the time the best way to learn is to work on a project that uses the skill you want to learn. When you get stuck, just Google your way out of it or go to the relevant part of the documentation.

Module Types

Setting the Table

Obtaining and installing materials, libraries, etc.

Prerequisites

Learning entire subjects that the current material won't make sense without.

Subtopics

This is the bread and butter module type: "Do you understand X?" (X can be a subtopic description, but even better is an example of the subtopic)

Business Model

Sharing Economy

There is a massive and growing body of media which is fodder for annotation and modularization:

1) podcasts
2) conference talks
3) news media
4) MOOCs
5) topical/long-form YouTube
6) docuseries
7) ...

API

Recorded Media

Provide JSON file like this:

{
  "filename": "How to Navigate a Codebase"
  "prereqs": [
    "I know a programming language to some extent.",
    "I know how to use a terminal to some extent."
  ],
  "outcomes": [
    "I know how to navigate a codebase."
  ],
  "modules": [
    {
      "name": "Find a Good Project",
      "start": 25.32,
      "end": 141.12,
      "outcome": "I have a project in mind whose codebase I want to navigate."
    },
    {
      "name": "Clone the Project",
      "start": 141.12,
      "end": 157.65,
      "outcome": "I've cloned the project."
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Notes

• "start" is in seconds
• "prereqs" and "outcomes" should eventually support module names which are standardized and map to fuller definitions

UI

A plugin/iframe that lets you mark an outcome as "done", indicating that you already know the topic, so it skips you to the relevant parts. Start with YouTube.

Prereqs: TBD

Static Media

TBD

Applications

Podcasts

Some podcasts provide helpful metadata for navigating to the parts you're interested in. Then there's always the handy fast-forward button. Wouldn't it be nicer if you could

1. check the boxes of the topics you're interested in and have those queued up?
2. store the "want to listen" items that you don't yet have the requisite knowledge to understand?
3. have a standardized, centralized list of topics you a) are interested in and b) understand?

Resources

• YouTube iframe API
• use asciinema for tech talk type things?
  • or castty (includes sound)
• https://github.com/sampotts/plyr#api
• https://github.com/vime-js/vime