Behind the Videos: Some Thoughts on the Research/Reading/Study Side (Patreon)

Pictured: me filming a video, I think "Snorri vs. Snorri."

I've written often about how the past year and a half, especially this summer, has challenged my ability to organize my time and do everything I have in mind to do. As I claw back more of my time from a long-term collaborative project that consumed most of it for that period, I'm beginning work on my next book for Hackett, and putting more hours into serious research and prep for videos that I hope will break some new ground and give you information you can't find anywhere else (or at least, a way of looking at and mentally organizing said information that you can't find anywhere else).

I do pay attention to topics requested in our occasional Patreon polls, though it can take me a long time to get to those topics. One topic that gets requested from time to time is the "behind the scenes" of how a video gets made. I did something kind of like this once but it didn't go into as much of the process as it could have. And many people are surprised to learn that I do the whole process from beginning to end myself, including filming and editing the videos entirely on my phone!

But there's another kind of "behind the scenes" that happens when I research and organize video *topics.* Among my many mostly-fizzled "Ranch Porch" videos was one called "Being a Good Learner," where I discussed some of my philosophy on studying. One point in particular that I made there is worth repeating here: I reread the same, fundamental materials all the time.

To some people, this sounds like not getting ahead. But to me, learning is more like exercising than like collecting. If you collect seashells, any shell you add to your collection is going to sit there as long as you keep it, and you're going to want to find shells that are different from that one to keep your collection interesting. But in exercise, you can never go too long without having to do the same thing again in order to keep your gains. Now, you might focus on one area more than another (say, weightlifting rather than running), but whatever you focus on, you have to revisit and repeat the fundamentals all the time in order to keep your gains. Now, as your gains increase, you can push the envelope more, but you're going to lose those gains at the edges if you don't keep your fundamentals solid.

Often, though, I see that many people want to look at learning as a "collecting" process. I want to learn Old Norse now, with a minimum of effort--even though to read the language effectively, you have to put in at least moderate effort *all the time* and keep doing so as long as you're interested in reading the language.

My memory actually isn't particularly good (ask anyone who knows me in person). If I ever seem to have "mastered" something, it's because I've read about it again and again--I've effectively "exercised" really hard. And thanks to said "exercise," I do have gains to show in certain subjects, which allow me to think about them in more advanced ways. But I only keep those gains by revisiting the fundamentals all the time. I can only think clearly about the way the Indo-European or Germanic languages changed over time because I constantly reread books like Andrew Fortson's 'Indo-European Language and Culture' or E. V. Gordon's 'Introduction to Old Norse.' I can only draw connections between a lot of myths and feel comfortable presenting on those to you because I've read the poems of the Poetic Edda dozens to thousands of times, depending on the poem.*

When I'm getting ready to make a video about a particular topic, this deep background reading is much of what informs me. I'm not reading from scripts, though I might have notes that prompt me about what to cover. Usually I'm going to reread something very basic that's connected to what I'm talking about, or revisit an older video on a connected topic, to make sure the fundamentals are fresh. And if I'm talking about a particular text, I'll no doubt reread it in the original. Or if there is some kind of news I'm "breaking," I'm going to read everything I reasonably can about it. But I am seldom going to do some kind of extreme "immersion" reading in a subject that I haven't already done out of natural curiosity or in the process of studying for my doctorate (you can find my Ph.D. reading list here) or just from keeping up with people's publications in journals and on academia.edu. Maybe my videos suffer from that (you can certainly see how I start reaching pretty hard for examples during the Old Norse lesson videos when I haven't written out enough in my notes beforehand). But I also think that it might encourage learners to see that what I know, I do know--it's not just a script that anyone could have read--and that if I can come to know it, so can anyone. It just takes a lot of practice.

Well, those are my thoughts on this for now, which I hope contain something useful for you. Happy to take any more specific questions in the comments (I know you're probably sick of me reminding everyone, but Patreon messages really don't work and I don't get notifications for them).

All the best for now, with profound thanks for your continued support and kindness,

Jackson Crawford

*Most re-read: Hávamál (by far), then Vǫluspá, and then, this might surprise you, the Helgi poems. Least read: Grípisspá (just Volsungs spoilers), Guðrúnarkviða 3, Atlamál (I can't get over how much better the older Atlakviða is), Guðrúnarhvǫt (much prefer the older Hamðismál).