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How I spend less time on YouTube

pawelurbanek.com

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Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#81

Post by MrGilbert »

krallja wrote: post #62
scrollaway wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube has some of the best, highest quality free content available on the internet today. Stay away from the crap, remove it from your recommendations, subscribe to some good channels. It’s that simple. Don’t if that’s not your thing but you’re missing out. If you change your mind here are a few exceptional channels to get you started, they should cater well to a HN style audience: Technology Connections (misc tech…

Some of my highly recommended uncommon subscriptions: Cathode Ray Dude (really obscure 90s tech nostalgia) Techmoan (obscure old tech nostalgia) Jeremy Fielding (engineering) Hand Tool Rescue (antique restoration) Machine Thinking (history of technology/industry, especially pre-1900) Usagi Electric (vacuum tubes, minicomputers, etc.)

+1 on Techmoan and Hand Tool Rescue

I'd also like to throw

- My Mate Vince (Tries to fix electronics, older toys etc)

- Wristwatch Revival (Very long, very well narrated watch repair videos)

in the ring.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#82

Post by bigfudge »

aulin wrote: post #75
scoutt wrote: post #31

> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations? I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand. One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talk…

I believe it's a generational thing. We, in our late thirties, didn't have so much video content, we studied from books, learned from written content. Younger generations adapted to use videos as a learning aid, sometimes as the main learning platform. We won't ever be able to understand how they work. Their brain just adapted to this kind of learning medium. For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable, uns…

I have just added video tutorials to all my R workshops and have had a _huge_ boost in satisfaction among students (mostly < 30). I can't understand it — the videos are slow, inexpertly produced and have nothing that is not in the text. The students love it though and there is no way I'll be able to run the sister course next semester without also adding videos.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#83

Post by bigfudge »

mavhc wrote: post #73
KineticLensman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can actually see where the steps are performed. It's sometimes faster than reading a bullet point than finding out where on the screen it is If and only if the steps are performed in the correct order without any fluffs. In one particularly bad example that I saw someone was showing how to use an updated feature in Photoshop. The sequence went something like * the instructor showed the old way of doing things *…

The easiest form of media to create is unedited video. The hardest is edited video

This. Although I have discovered why the jump cut is so popular! Actually, even inexpert jump-cutting does improve things though, so worth doing.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#84

Post by rjsw »

titzer wrote: post #71
scoutt wrote: post #31

> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations? I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand. One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talk…

This is true for certain kinds of tasks, particularly programming or anything very instruction-oriented. However, for practical tasks, like installing a bathroom faucet, a short and succint video is gold. Now that YouTube has chapter labels, it's even better. That said, YouTube is clearly going downhill for a host of other reasons, but hands-on tutorials remain one of its best forms of content.

I recently watched some good videos on making sushi, wouldn't watch any programming ones though.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#85

Post by fartcannon »

aulin wrote: post #75
scoutt wrote: post #31

> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations? I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand. One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talk…

I believe it's a generational thing. We, in our late thirties, didn't have so much video content, we studied from books, learned from written content. Younger generations adapted to use videos as a learning aid, sometimes as the main learning platform. We won't ever be able to understand how they work. Their brain just adapted to this kind of learning medium. For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable, uns…

I'm also middle aged and I've started to kind of like video tutorials for totally new subjects. There's often little things that the web tutorials miss that I catch when watching. That said having both is optimal, in my opinion.

For things I'm already familiar with, usually calling the man page is enough.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#86

Post by gpvos »

I've found that recently, when I disable search customization and video history, Youtube indeed appears to not remember previous videos I've seen and to recommend only videos related to the one that just ended, and I'm fine with that.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#87

Post by abacadaba »

scoutt wrote: post #31

> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations? I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand. One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talk…

really annoying, pretty sure because they incentivize watch time

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#88

Post by allenu »

scoutt wrote: post #31

> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations? I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand. One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talk…

I’m old too (43) and I enjoy short videos that get to the point as well. If a video is too long or takes too long I’ll just skip ahead and until I hear them talking about specifics.

There was a point a few years ago where there was this sudden shift to longer videos on YouTube. I think part of it was greater engagement is seen on such videos, leading to more ad time. As a result though, the actual quality of the content is down but I would say the “showmanship” is up. In a longer video, you have to be good at delivery and keeping people interested, so it starts to favor entertaining speakers. So now people watch videos for a large part because they want to “hang out” with the presenter. Also, Twitch is essentially just hanging out with someone. Anyway, now I’m just rambling like an old man.

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#89

Post by gpvos »

mediocregopher wrote: post #77

PSA for all, you can go into your YouTube settings and disable Search History (and a bunch of other things? It's been a while), and surprisingly the algorithm more or less respects that. It completely neuters the algorithm, it won't target you worth a damn, and YouTube becomes a lot less engaging overall. Highly recommend for everyone.

I only get the option to disable that when I've completely deleted my (Youtube/Google) cookies. If later I go to the Settings, it wants me to log in (which I am not going to do). Does anyone here known which button lets me revisit these settings without logging in?

Re: How I spend less time on YouTube

#90

Post by kgwxd »

scoutt wrote: post #31

> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations? I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand. One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talk…

There's definitely a ton of low quality videos doing things that might be better presented in text, the worst examples being videos of text. They're easy to make and YT makes it easy to monetize them so people make them without caring how practical it is, and people watch them for various reason.

I've utilized a few myself (42, I think), and it's usually because it's the first thing I found and I'm a complete beginner, so anything will help point me in some reasonable direction. I've even specifically watch "programming a microcontroller" and "making a gradient in Gimp" videos. I have very little experience in those things and, even if the presenter is just going through the steps, there's visual hints that help me navigate the intimidating interfaces those things come with. If I need text for future reference, I can usually find it in a matter of seconds. Maybe even easier than before if I've learned a few new keywords from the video.

As far as the "more authoritative" thing, that can only be solved in the viewers mind. Learning to control that bias is good for life in general anyway.

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