LLMs can help people learn certain subjects more efficiently by providing simplified examples, interactive practice, and immediate feedback. For example, according to Elliot, a good way to learn economics is to learn economic logic. In an open discussion thread about economics, Elliot taught someone about minimum wage by using a simplified example and asking questions (https://curi.us/2145-open-discussion-economics). LLMs can do something similar. They can create simplified examples of a local economy and can ask you questions about it. Then you can explore things like price caps, rent control, tariffs, etc. They can also gradually introduce new factors, allowing you to explore increasingly complex economic scenarios.
Logic is another subject LLMs can help you learn more efficiently. In another forum thread, a member struggled to understand the concept of contradiction. Elliot walked the person through what contradiction is step by step (https://curi.us/2319-discussion-analyzing-a-claimed-contradiction). LLMs can do a similar thing. They can present sets of statements and ask you to identify whether they contain a contradiction. They can increase the difficulty of the questions they asks as you go along, and you can challenge their answers, ask for explanations and discuss potential errors.
Before LLMs came around, certain kinds of interactive learning and practice generally required more time and effort, which could make automatizing certain skills and knowledge more difficult. For example, if you wanted to learn and practice economic logic, you might have to do a Google search and hope to find the right resources. Or you may have to find the right textbooks. Then if you wanted to discuss and practice what you learned, you would have to find the right forum. The discussion would be slower because you would have to wait for the other person to respond and that could take minutes, hours, days, weeks…or maybe they stop responding altogether. Brainstorming simplified economic scenarios would take longer as well.
LLMs can only do so much, and my guess is there are topics they wouldn’t be good at teaching you if you are working your way through Elliot’s organized plan for learning philosophy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XZxgntNGf8). But whenever LLMs are good enough, I think it’s smart to use them. Just make sure you’re using them in the right ways.