I find physics fascinating and sometimes, I definitely feel like I understand certain topics. I took a lot of physics courses in college despite ultimately majoring in something else and I’ve read a bunch of papers and books. I can’t even count the number of YouTube videos I’ve watched from physicists (especially PBS Spacetime, Dr. Don Lincoln on the Fermilab channel, Sixty Symbols, and now Angela Collier).

But I have not done the math. I don’t understand shit. When I talk to a real physicist, I pretty much immediately get reminded of that. It feels like I have the vocabulary words memorized but none of the actual knowledge.

I don’t think I see knowledge in a digital vs non-digital sense. People often learn things in different fashions - I’m sure you’ve heard people say they are visual learners vs auditory or something like that. There is some truth to that, but overall it’s easier to remember and retain things when we’re exposed to them in a variety of ways. Teaching someone or explaining something you just learned is a great way to retain things- yes, it may come out all over the place at first, but you’ll often find it becomes easier as you revisit the topic or try explaining it again later. There’s also a difference between knowing something and understanding something. You can watch tutorials on something, but until you start applying that knowledge, it might not feel as tangible. Oftentimes, there’s a point with any knowledge where we hit a wall and mentally spin our wheels trying to understand it- super normal, else everyone would be experts on everything. Overcoming that wall usually means taking some steps back and picking up some pieces of knowledge which we might not have been exposed to previously. This is one of the reasons we’re seeing more education efforts focused on Project-Based Learning.