want-from-teachers.md (1358B)
1 # What This Millenial Wants From Instructors 2 3 In a word: Context. 4 5 I distrust textbooks (they're outdated before they're published), 6 and wikis don't fare much better. 7 Primary literature and review literature 8 are wonderful, but have their own drawbacks. 9 10 A brief word on each of these resources follows, 11 then why I need an instructor to help me put it all together. 12 13 Textbooks are meant to give context, 14 either for an entire field 15 or for a subfield. 16 Some textbooks age well, while others do not. 17 For myself as a trainee, the problem is that I do not know 18 exactly which parts have aged well, 19 and which should be updated. 20 When I pick up a textbook myself, 21 I hope the parts I read will 22 be both accurate and up-to-date, 23 but digging through the new primary literature 24 to verify every piece would be a herculean task. 25 26 UpToDate is a great wiki-style tool, 27 with good tracing of provenance and upfront reporting of recency, 28 and it comes in bite-sized chunks that are easy to use in a busy clinical context - 29 but it also comes in bite-sized chunks, 30 and in a busy clinical context clicking through the hyperlinked rabbit holes 31 that would give me the rest of what I need to know is unlikely, and error-prone. 32 Primary literature takes me right to the bottom of the rabbit hole, 33 and as a physician-scientist, 34 primary sources make me happy and comfortable - 35 but it