Pseudo-Learning: Students are falling into a Satisfaction Trap

Simran decided to study DS & Algo this weekend,
& followed these Youtube tutorials:
0: Introduction to Big O Notation and Time Complexity 🤕
1: An Overview of Arrays and Memory 🥱
2: Top 7 Mistakes you should not do in Coding Interview 🤔
3: Reality of 1 crore package of IIT, NIT, IIIT 😲
4: Why you should be dating in your 20s, life advice 🤔
5: Shenaz Gill's reaction on Siddharth Shukla's case 😳
6: Unseen Video of Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas 👀
7: Deepika Padukone Makes Cake for Hubby Ranveer Singh 😍
8: How to make Yummy Eggless Vanilla Cake at Home 😋

And now Simran is preparing a Chocolate Cake. . . ❤️

youtubeAlgorithm = 1;
simran = 0;

No, this is NOT a Satisfaction Trap, this is a Distraction Trap.

I've talked about this a lot of times before on LinkedIn, nothing new. This is generally a consequence of the intelligent YouTube algorithm + our curiosity and excitement for clickbait content.

After my LinkedIn post about this, a lot of students got better at it. Now whenever they start falling into the Distraction Trap, they realize it very quickly.

Realization is important.

But there is something more-scary, I call it as a Satisfaction Trap.

pseudo-learning & satisfaction-trap

So Simran realized that she should avoid Distraction Trap.
She cleaned her YouTube history and decided that she will only stick to Educational Content on Youtube, now here comes the Psuedo Learning and Satisfaction Trap.

She again started studying DS & Algo:
0: Introduction to Big O Notation and Time Complexity
1: An Overview of Arrays and Memory
2: The Ultimate DSA roadmap for cracking FANG companies
3: Best Language for solving DS problems
4: Top 5 programming languages as a beginner
5: Learn PYTHON in 5 minutes
6: How Long Does It Take to Learn Python? (And Get a Job)
7: Fastest Way to become a Software Developer
8: Journey of Software Engineer from Tier-3 college to FANG
and more educational videos...

This is Pseudo-learning, avoid this!

So Akshay, what is wrong with watching these videos?
You are just cribbing because you hate other creators.
We learn a lot of new things from these videos, we get motivation and inspiration.
Listen Akshay, why don't you just stop shit-posting about others and focus on yourself.

See,
the problem is not with these videos,
the problem is not with the creators, (they put their heart and soul into make these videos, I've huge respect for them)
the actual problem is that these are not the core learning videos, when we had a target to learn DSA, we just deviate towards this Pseudo Learning.
Though we learned something from these videos, but it is not needed at this point of time.

the BIGGEST problem is whenever Simran watches 8-10 such videos, she gets a feeling of satisfaction that she studied a lot of things today.
This is false satisfaction, we learned something, but we did not actually study anything, this is a Satisfaction Trap. (pardon me for using the words learn and study loosely here)r

and I call this as Psuedo Learning. It's learning, but not-a-learning. 🤷‍♂️

The content we sometimes categorize as Educational is rather just motivational, inspirational, tips & tricks and hacks 🤷‍♂️
and after watching 5 hours of this, we get a sense of learning satisfaction, even though we just did not learn anything substantial.

Example: A podcast where a successful engineer at FANG shares his journey of how he struggled and crack the interviews is Motivational content. But students generally think of it as an Educational content and think that they studied a lot today.

Now please don't curse me for using the words Motivational and Educational very loosely here(English is my second language), but just try to understand the point I'm trying to present. There's a very subtle difference which we should realize.

As I always say,
The rate at which information is injected into our heads today is insane. It's okay to watch everything, all this is important too, but the number of such things in our feed today is at utmost peak, we don't need all that.

It definitely gives you some /learning /ideas /perspectives /information /motivation /inspiration but ask yourself before consuming anything, do you really need this?

Just be conscious of the fact that you are trading your Time which you will never get back.

Even this post took 4-5 minutes of your life which you can never get back. NEVER!! 🙂

and needless to say that how short is our student life, we are expected to be on the moon in 4 years, isn't it? 🙂

So, the best is to be conscious and realize that all this is happening just around us.

Realization is important.

and also remember,

We don't have to run away from Intelligent Distractions, we have to super-intelligently avoid them 😎

I have discussed all this with a lot of students already and it made sense to them.
Now they are able to better achieve their targets.
Now when they take a goal to study ReactJs, they are very conscious and take better-decision while picking up the content from their feed. You just have to start ignoring. A wise man said, Ignorance is a Bliss 😌

lastly, to sum up everything,

Beware of pseudo-learning my friends and avoid this Satisfaction Trap!

Cheers,
Akshay Saini

PS. If you find the article helpful, then please share it with your network on Social Media. 🙏