Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

news.ycombinator.com

131–140 of 145 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#131

Fun Fun Function, JS specific: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO1cgjhGzsSYb1rsB4bFe4Q Computerphile, general CS topics and computing history: https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile Biographics, 20-minute biographies of historical figures: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClnDI2sdehVm1zm_LmUHsjQ Intelligence Squared, long-form structured debates on current-day issues: https://www.youtube.com/user/iqsquared

MBJ <3

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#132
YouTube is so good and so unfortunate at the same time. YouTube has revolutionized educational content. And I’m not talking about cookie cutter wendover productions, thanks-to-our-sponsor-nord-vpn kind of educational channels. I’m talking about ave, thunderfoot, mikeselectricstuff, and etc. videos coming from engineers who are on the ground and who provide the most clear, unbiased and complete information on whatever they find that is relevant to their field. Thunderfoots busted videos for have been so amazingly enlightening. That’s the definition of education: sweeping away all the hearsay bullshit and throwing a light of facts and science on the topic. It’s something I couldn’t live without.

However, this changes life in a negative way. It’s not just that YouTube is pumping out more videos that you would enjoy, it’s that YouTube is now pumping out more video content than you can watch which is vitally important. You have no choice but to be watching YouTube in your free time. It makes you a slave to the video feed. Not because you’re addicted, but because it’s the most effective way to build your information web. The economics demand that you be watching all the time. It’s another step in the direction of people being hacked into the matrix hive mind all the time because without the matrix hive mind one will only be left behind.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#133
post #51

Electroboom (Electronics) https://m.youtube.com/user/msadaghd

Electroboom is very entertaining and knowledgable, but it bugs me that he purposely shocks himself almost every episode. His safety practices are terrible. I get that that's part of the joke, and as long as you know it's a joke, fine. But somebody who doesn't get the joke and tries to copy him could get hurt.

Of course this is Youtube, so anybody who blindly copies anything there is asking for trouble.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#135
post #46

Numberphile and Computerphile : maths and computer topics. I learned all about the Enigma machine on there. Standupmaths with Matt Parker, inventor of the famous "Parker Square" Ben Eater : Electronics, breadboards, computer logic. Astronogeek (in French) : astronomy. He also debunks UFO and crop circle stuff.

Numberphile is great, but Computerphile to me feels like a kinda lame rip-off with computer related topics really. It's mostly about the depth and presentation I think. Compared to Numberphile their videos are (at least for me) sort of superficial. The original problem most likely lies in topics being much more complex: It's easier to show and explain an OEIS or describe an interesting conjecture with a hand full formulas and proofs than to explain the entire concept behind e.g. machine learning or computer graphics in a ~15 minute video.

Example: There was a video about dithering not so long ago which basically boils down to "Well, if 2 of 2 pixels are black you perceive it as black, and if there is 0 of 2 black, it's white, and in between it's gray ..." The actual methods used (e.g. Floyd, Stucki etc.) and how they work? Not really.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#136
post #51

Electroboom (Electronics) https://m.youtube.com/user/msadaghd

Electroboom is very entertaining and knowledgable, but it bugs me that he purposely shocks himself almost every episode. His safety practices are terrible. I get that that's part of the joke, and as long as you know it's a joke, fine. But somebody who doesn't get the joke and tries to copy him could get hurt. Of course this is Youtube, so anybody who blindly copies anything there is asking for trouble.

My perception of Electroboom is that he makes it blindingly obvious why you shouldn't blindly copy him: as you say, he shocks himself in almost every episode. To me, at least, the message is that if you try to do what he does, you'll get shocked, and if you don't know exactly what you're doing, those shocks can kill you (surely he very carefully calculates how much he's going to injure himself?). I find that message makes me much more careful than the generic "don't try this at home unless you know what you're doing", where I don't really have a good way to assess whether I know what I'm doing.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#137

Louis Rossman https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2mFZoRqjw_ELax4Yisf6w Routinely shows bench scope detail of him doing circuit troubleshooting and replace of "no user serviceable parts" modern surface mount Apple stuff, but in the process shows good heart and entertaining moxie. EEVBlog (David L. Jones) https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog Likes to take things apart and people send him things, but he is a great teach…

I do not recommend Louis Rossman. Instead of learning, you’ll listen to endless hateful anti-Apple rants, deceitful personal attacks and unsubstantiated speculations of how terrible Apple engineers are - the whole community is cultish and they love listening to LR just about anything. I despise his channel and his popularity.

You could say similar about Dave Jones (EEVBlog) to be fair. His forum very much reflects his audience...

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#138

Louis Rossman https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2mFZoRqjw_ELax4Yisf6w Routinely shows bench scope detail of him doing circuit troubleshooting and replace of "no user serviceable parts" modern surface mount Apple stuff, but in the process shows good heart and entertaining moxie. EEVBlog (David L. Jones) https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog Likes to take things apart and people send him things, but he is a great teach…

I do not recommend Louis Rossman. Instead of learning, you’ll listen to endless hateful anti-Apple rants, deceitful personal attacks and unsubstantiated speculations of how terrible Apple engineers are - the whole community is cultish and they love listening to LR just about anything. I despise his channel and his popularity.

Rossman has earned his grumpy and acerbic attitude in an old fashioned and honest way: routinely repairing expensive devices that were not meant to be repaired. Having to salvage working components from salvaged boards because the manufacturer decided not to supply them. His board working technique is first rate and he goes to great lengths to show you every step of the process. You learn things even if you were to mute the audio and play "Endless Sax Man" instead! How many other Youtube channels would survive that treatment?

Apple engineers are first rate also, but they've been dis-incentivized to do anything that would make affordable component level repair part of the life cycle, its parts distributed widely enough to be accessible, and technicians (factory trained or otherwise) capable, Unless this corporate approach FAILS spectacularly in the end, the human race is heading into a cul de sac of evolution by having its most essential technologies hanging by tiny threads. Some day Apple will decline and their newer technology will all be in the landfill... and Rossman will still be repairing last-generation boards.

But... by failing to make things repairable and removing whole customer care layers from their business plan, Apple has managed to bring prices down! That's a joke BTW

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite YouTube channels to learn stuff?

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just mean-spirited and exaggerated. Why not just make your recommendation and move on?

It isn't mean spirited at all. It's observations based on his videos the past 1-2 years. He also has pretty blah production quality with rough edits, often terrible lighting, lots of rambling, more oft than not questionable (at best) safety practices, when he's doing chemistry he never has proper safety equipment etc. Unlike NileRed that has fantastic lighting, proper ventilation, obviously at least partially scripts…

While I agree your original post was maybe harsh, but not "mean-spirited", it drives me crazy when people use truth or objectivity as a catch-all justification for behavior or attitude. He wasn't accusing you of lying - e.g. "you're a fatass" would, in most contexts even where it is true, also be mean-spirited. Things can be both, and frequently are.
Post reply on HN