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How I spend less time on YouTube
111–120 of 220 posts
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#112> 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…
What's annoying are those tutorials like on OpenCV that just repeat the steps outlined in the manual.
We're going to apply a mask to find the red cup, ball, etc...
I made a personal chrome extension that hides the YT content you first see to stop hijacking my original intent of coming to YT.
I still like YT though, watching Ben Heck's videos or random Japanese fishing/cooking shows.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#113I think I'm inadvertently escaping this by viewing all videos in theatre mode! I find it hard to keep my focus on video and instead look for long texts that explain them. But nothing beats well produced videos. Its the same as well explained topics in text with good diagrams.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#114> 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 cont…
Agree. If a video on how to tighten a bolt or change gas in a mower is 36 mins long then that's a total waste. I don't want to hear somebody's rambling life story if I'm trying to directly find info. Short and sharp videos get more view from me. I agree also that Twitch is a waste of time. Never understood the utility of watching somebody doing some task.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#115> 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…
Gen Z programmer here. Can confirm that video content is by far the best way I learn new information and skills. I think having grown up with the modern internet has shaped my brain in a way that makes it so video feels more natural than it might for folks even 10 years older than me. It's definitely fascinating to look at the effects the internet is having on society over longer time periods.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
People learn in different ways.
This has been shown to be not true many times over. Different subjects need to be taught in different ways, but there are optimal ways to present information that works for everyone. No one is a "visual learner", there are topics that are best presented in a visual format.
Anecdotal counterargument: I am a visual learner. For almost all topics I learn about, watching a video is by far the most effective, fastest, and most impactful way for me to grasp and remember new concepts. A very large part of my education in math, science, machine learning, music theory, filmmaking, screenwriting, visual effects, history, and chemistry was video lectures/essays/content.
I agree that the famous "three/four types of learners, everyone belongs to one of them" factoid isn't true, but disagree that "No one is a 'visual learner.'" I am a visual learner.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#117> 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…
24 years old here, I think videos are great for an overview of a topic, but that's it. Most of the time when I'm relatively comfortable with a subject I want either an "how to" or a "reference", and for these I think written content is way better.
> For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable, unskimmable. I cannot easily go back to more difficult parts and reread (watch) them at my own pace. I cannot use them as a quick reference. Even my photographic memory doesn't work with videos, there's just something more powerful with black on white words and formulas.
You also can't copy/paste code, and if your vision isn't perfect/the code isn't zoomed enough, you have to use a whole screen for the video.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#118> 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…
It's not only you. I feel the same. Whenever I stumble upon a video for a programming related tutorial ( mostly AWS ), I want a text copy by the side so that I can get what I want and move on.
Maybe Youtube should give ability to "seek to" on its autogenerated subtitles in the sidebar. I would find it useful at least.
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#119The best way I’ve found to spend less time on YouTube is realizing that the vast majority of content is pure garbage and just stay the hell away from it. These days I only visit it when I need something specific (a tutorial on how to do a particular thing, a video the kid wants to watch, etc). And of course uBlock origin is enabled to spare me from the “unskippable ads that are longer than the video itself” experienc…
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…
I'd also add:
Tom Scott (basically the human version of Atlas Obscura)
SmarterEveryDay (Former missile flight test engineer who does deep dives into science topics he's curious about)
ThinMatrix (indie game developer who's building a custom game engine and game from the ground up)
Adam Neely (music theory)
Jan Misali (linguistics and obscura)
Numberphile (math)
PBS SpaceTime (physics)
Simone Giertz (engineering)
Journey to the Microcosmos (microbiology)
Cody's Lab (all sorts of stuff, but he's currently in the multi-year process of building his own freaking Mars habitat)
Ian Hubert (indie filmmaker who creates better work than most of hollywood, including absolutely massive CGI projects)
Re: How I spend less time on YouTube
#120> 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 feel the same logically. I’ll be 35 in a couple weeks and I’m also an avid text fan, but lately I’ve noticed that I shift to video searches for things a lot faster. I thought about it a little, and I think that maybe I’ve started doing that because text search is a mess today. SEO has won on text search, but it takes a lot of effort to produce a good video. I can often find a good video for some things faster than I can hunt down a good text overview or tutorial. Then of course, I’m often more interested in the text included in the description because it will point to what I need in more detail.