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The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

samoburja.com

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Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#2
Funny this link just popped up, I was just marvelling at my 13 yr old son's self taught progression at programming. He's taken about 2 years to get from batch scripts to c# and unity... mostly via youtube videos. https://cyb3rgames.itch.io/trench-warfare Kids these days love to learn via self paced youtube

*note, if you're going to let your kids watch youtube, either put your own anti-advert features in on your network or pay for youtube premium. You tube adverts are abhorrent on their own let alone the constant breaking up of what self paced education they might be getting from it.

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#3
Well, I had a toilet problem a week ago. Looking it up on YouTube, I found a plumber who demonstrated a solution. Five minutes of work and the problem was resolved.

IDK how much I saved, but at least 2000 CZK (approx. 80 dollars). Not to mention that I didn't have to wait for the plumber to arrive, which would take a few days, probably.

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#5
I think it also has a huge effect on sports. Especially the ones that aren’t on TV. When I did martial arts in the 90s it was super hard to find recordings of good Muay Thai or kickboxing fights. So you had to figure out things for yourself very slowly instead of seeing how the world class guys do it. Today’s youth can watch the best in the sport from all history and learn things way faster.

So I expect the next generations of athletes to have way better knowledge of the sport and just be way better.

Same in music. I had a drummer friend who had one tape of Neil Peart of Rush. He studied this in and out. Today you can find recordings of all the greats easily and see how they do it. This will take off years of the learning curve.

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#6

Well, I had a toilet problem a week ago. Looking it up on YouTube, I found a plumber who demonstrated a solution. Five minutes of work and the problem was resolved. IDK how much I saved, but at least 2000 CZK (approx. 80 dollars). Not to mention that I didn't have to wait for the plumber to arrive, which would take a few days, probably.

My YT fix tale: friend was throwing out an LCD TV because of weird colours, like solarization. I asked him for it, spent an hour searching youtube and found a TV engineer video with a likely solution: unplug the data cable where it feeds into the screen and scrape it clean.

7 years later and the TV is doing daily duty as a monitor for watching streamed content. I clean the cable once or twice a year, and one time had to source a replacement capacitor from a roadside discarded TV to bring it back to life (again, thanks to YT info.)

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#7

Well, I had a toilet problem a week ago. Looking it up on YouTube, I found a plumber who demonstrated a solution. Five minutes of work and the problem was resolved. IDK how much I saved, but at least 2000 CZK (approx. 80 dollars). Not to mention that I didn't have to wait for the plumber to arrive, which would take a few days, probably.

This kind of thing should be on Wikipedia. Too bad they don't really host videos.

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#8

Funny this link just popped up, I was just marvelling at my 13 yr old son's self taught progression at programming. He's taken about 2 years to get from batch scripts to c# and unity... mostly via youtube videos. https://cyb3rgames.itch.io/trench-warfare Kids these days love to learn via self paced youtube *note, if you're going to let your kids watch youtube, either put your own anti-advert features in on your netwo…

I definitely can relate, software engineering is one of those fields that can definitely be learned on one's own time for free, and now I'm working at an internship at a startup!

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#9
There are all sort of wonderful educational videos on youtube, but it's like leading a horse to water. The hard part is now getting them to drink.

That said, I do credit part of my education to Youtube University. I learned more about virology in details that I never thought about before. Still, I haven't yet complete the virology lectures.

Re: The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)

#10
I think the article is overthinking it a little bit, and I think it comes down to accessibility, enthusiasm, and to a certain degree a rapid pace in terms of content.

There's no doubt that YouTube has made a number of these topics far more accessible. The inclusion of videos along side typical text searches means that it's just as easy to click on an article as it is one of those videos. There's also typically a multitude of options that each might cover the same topic from certain angles and varying degrees of overlap.

These videos are typically uploaded by creators who are passionate and incredibly enthusiastic to share a key aspect of their lives. Many of the popular educational channels have a passionate creator behind them, rather than a flatter more lecture based approach like you might get in typical coursework (which is also on YouTube, but isn't nearly as widely consumed).

Lastly, I can find a 5, 10, or 20 minute video that's focused on a specific subject or topic on YouTube as opposed to going through 60 or 90 minutes of coursework/lectures that are predefined. I can jump from video to video, carving out my own path to learn what I want, rather than sit through a lecture that may not be discussing something particularly of interest.

The Tacit knowledge that's referenced in the article is certainly there in many of the videos on YouTube, but is not the main driver behind this "revolution". It's the ability for anyone in the world to dive nearly as deep as they want, lead by content creators that are genuine passionate about the subjects they cover.

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