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Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

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Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but that's at another level entirely. Dealing with two types of variable width is double difficult.

I disagree, if you are correctly handling Unicode you already are going through some "decode" function which parses a 32 bit quantity from utf-8 or utf-16. From there you need to handle multiple codepoints together sometimes, like for non-composed diacritics, han unification, and some emojis. This is complex regardless of whether or not you use utf-8 or utf-16, in fact I'd say it's more difficult to handle than those…

We're not talking about fully correctly handling Unicode, we're talking about teaching someone the basics of an encoding. Context is critical here.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, if you are correctly handling Unicode you already are going through some "decode" function which parses a 32 bit quantity from utf-8 or utf-16. From there you need to handle multiple codepoints together sometimes, like for non-composed diacritics, han unification, and some emojis. This is complex regardless of whether or not you use utf-8 or utf-16, in fact I'd say it's more difficult to handle than those…

We're not talking about fully correctly handling Unicode, we're talking about teaching someone the basics of an encoding. Context is critical here.

If you want to teach someone how an encoding works, why would you not tell them that a single symbol can take multiple codepoints?

It seems like you're advocating people learning incorrect information and forming their impressions of it on falsehood. Which is probably why people think utf-32 frees you from variable-length encoding.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not talking about fully correctly handling Unicode, we're talking about teaching someone the basics of an encoding. Context is critical here.

If you want to teach someone how an encoding works, why would you not tell them that a single symbol can take multiple codepoints? It seems like you're advocating people learning incorrect information and forming their impressions of it on falsehood. Which is probably why people think utf-32 frees you from variable-length encoding.

You should tell them, yes. And talk about it more at some point. But you don't have to go into much detail when today's lesson is specifically teaching UTF-8 or UTF-32. I don't know about you, but I think I could teach the latter about ten times faster.

As part of a comprehensive dive into Unicode it's a minor part, but for teaching an encoding it's a significant difference.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to teach someone how an encoding works, why would you not tell them that a single symbol can take multiple codepoints? It seems like you're advocating people learning incorrect information and forming their impressions of it on falsehood. Which is probably why people think utf-32 frees you from variable-length encoding.

You should tell them, yes. And talk about it more at some point. But you don't have to go into much detail when today's lesson is specifically teaching UTF-8 or UTF-32. I don't know about you, but I think I could teach the latter about ten times faster. As part of a comprehensive dive into Unicode it's a minor part, but for teaching an encoding it's a significant difference.

> I think I could teach the latter about ten times faster.

I've lectured computer science at the university level, and I think you could introduce all this information to a CS undergrad pretty coherently and design a lab or small assignment on it no problem. Maybe you could ask them to parse some emojis that require multiple 32-bit codepoints.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should tell them, yes. And talk about it more at some point. But you don't have to go into much detail when today's lesson is specifically teaching UTF-8 or UTF-32. I don't know about you, but I think I could teach the latter about ten times faster. As part of a comprehensive dive into Unicode it's a minor part, but for teaching an encoding it's a significant difference.

> I think I could teach the latter about ten times faster. I've lectured computer science at the university level, and I think you could introduce all this information to a CS undergrad pretty coherently and design a lab or small assignment on it no problem. Maybe you could ask them to parse some emojis that require multiple 32-bit codepoints.

That sounds entirely reasonable, but you have to deal with a lot less engagement when you're teaching via blog post or similar.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#246
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great list and the majority I watch also. But you are missing Technology Connections. You'll probably find them interesting. https://www.youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections/videos

Hehehe. This channel is full of videos about "boring" topics and still you play them and bam, you are sucked into 15 min of nerdy details about a 90’s microwave that doesn’t even exists anymore and now you are wondering why you can’t have it. Amazing channel.

Steve Mould (himself a good science educator on YouTube) said that Technology Connections makes videos about things you didn't know you wanted to watch until you watched them.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Camden Bowen (dude is making a 3D printed internal combustion engine) AustinMcConnell (random shit) Two Minute Papers (ML paper review) Plainly Difficult (industrial accidents/disasters) Perun (military science) EEVBlog (electronics engineering) Summoning Salt (speedruns) High Performance Academy (cars/tuning) Ordinary Things (random shit) Grind Hard Plumbing Co (cars/fabrication) Engineering Explained (cars/explanat…

On the food topic, Tasting History with Max Miller is a favorite - it's interesting seeing him try to recreate recipes from historical primary sources and provide historical context. Also, Adam Ragusea has some good content on food science, among his regular cooking videos.

Also on the food topic: How to Cook that with Ann Reardon is one that I like, aside from her more useful cake-related videos, she has a great series on historical recipes as well as amusing food hack debunkings.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#248

What struck me was “it’s either keep growing and become a manager or stop and do smaller projects” As someone who many years back looked at a team of 40 developers I was leading and went “nah, I want to be an IC again” that resonates

I joined a company in 2021 as a tech lead after working as a IC for almost a decade. I thought it was going to be a technical role but it slowly turned into a more engineering management one. The were aspects about it that I liked and actually good at. But I really missed programming and building things on my own. Plus the stress was bad. Few months ago, I went back to an engineering job.

Re: Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

#249
post #73

I always appreciate when authors of successful projects decide to stop after they've figured out the formula for success. Whether these are films without sequels, TV shows without dozens of seasons, or video content creators who are not compelled to keep uploading in perpetuity. It shows true care and dedication to their craft, and a desire to keep innovating in perhaps other areas of their career. It also avoids the…

> I'm sure Tom Scott used the "Seinfeld strategy" for this, which goes to show that great minds think alike, considering Seinfeld is one of the shows that ended at the peak of its success.

Jerry Seinfeld himself didn't use the calendar habit technique attributed to him. Of it, he said:

> This is hilarious to me, that somehow I am getting credit for making an X on a calendar with the Seinfeld productivity program. It's the dumbest non-idea that was not mine, but somehow I'm getting credit for it. -- https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/comment/ceiugt...

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