The main point of this article can be summarized as follows:

To understand something, you must actively engage with it. However, non-fiction books make an implicit assumption: that people absorb knowledge by reading sentences. Lectures face a similar problem: conveying knowledge through words is difficult. To improve learning, there should be a new medium that embraces the idea of "actively engaging."

However, in my opinion, it is not the medium that matters, but rather the content that can transform a reader from a passive mode into an active one. Take Feynman's book, "Six Easy Pieces" for example. He describes the topics so well that you can visualize what is happening.

The lectures-as-warmup model is a post-hoc rationalization, but it does gesture at a deep theory about cognition: to understand something, you must actively engage with it. That notion, taken seriously, would utterly transform classrooms. We’d prioritize activities like interactive discussions and projects; we’d deploy direct instruction only when it’s the best way to enable those activities.

When books do work, it’s generally for readers who deploy skillful metacognition to engage effectively with the book’s ideas. This kind of metacognition is unavailable to many readers and taxing for the rest.