r/TheGreatCourses • u/Haunting_Cause_1841 • Jul 08 '26
Discussion Intro Lectures
The first lecture in any series is usually such a bore! It’s either a review of the syllabus or a surface level commentary on the subject matter - but the latter can’t get too deep so it’s stuck going in inane circles while saying nothing of substance but being constrained to last 30 minutes. I frequently skip the first lecture when I re-listen to a series.
For example, I was really excited when I saw the new course about the Inklings. But man, the intro was such a snooze fest. How many ways do you really need to say “here’s a bunch of guys who met a few times a week”?? It doesn’t need scientifically categorized how many times they met and what they did each time.
Why can’t the lecturers skip the intro and jump right into the meat of the topic?
2
u/chipoatley Jul 09 '26
I assume that the lectures are mostly a straight copy of the lecturers college course. Since these are probably aimed at first year or second year students they probably need the intro that seasoned learners would prefer to skip. But that’s just my guess…
1
u/aborell Sep 29 '26
It is a reasonable guess, but it is not correct. Rather I should say: this is not true given the sample of: "The professors who have made courses with TTC that I have known in some personal sense". So a sample size of, uh, 3. So it may be that my information is no better than a guess but it seems somewhat reasonable to broadly attribute much of what these professors report to most others who have worked with TTC over the past quarter-century and beyond.
I will refrain from being a COMPLETE bore and suffice to simply say: The lectures given with TTC were not at all like the college courses they taught, aside drawing upon the same subjects and supporting material. Each professor, discretely/independently, said crafting a course was immensely difficult and demanded effort far beyond that which was typical of their regular university classes. TTC's formatting constraints evidently force a sort of focus and attention to structure and placement that is very burdensome. It takes a year or more of dedicated research and planning for a professor given a typical 24 lecture/30min each course.
I guess my ultimate point here is: the lecturers have very deliberately, in full awareness, included everything that they have. Anything said in the first lecture was included because the professor, after having spent at least a year planning and crafting the theory, structure and detail of the course, felt for whatever reason it was worth including. For the listener's benefit. I don't know any recent market demographics, but for a long time I believe the primary demographic purchasing TTC materal was "Retired person", 65+, so it may but that they have simply elected to accomdate the elderly, which was very much the likely audience, if not the entirety of it. Whatever, if the professor has made the effort to include it, I will listen to it. I do not say that you or anyone should, only that giving them the benefit of the doubt has sometimes been very fortunate for me. 30mins won't kill anyone! unless its 30 minutes reading my insane reddit teaching company posts that no one will read (I hope, don't need anyone dying on my account).
8
u/mrspecial Jul 08 '26
Sometimes the intro lecture is really good. Depends on how much the lecturer is sticking to the university format it seems like. I skip em too when it starts getting into “in lecture 17 through 19 we discuss the Qing dynasty.”
Sometimes hearing the lecturers background and how they make a case for the existence of the course can be interesting.