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Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

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Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#221

Post by LocalH »

Cathode Ray Dude, for fans of channels like Techmoan or Technology Connections

CarlSagan42, watching him play intricate "troll" levels on Mario Maker 2 is hilarious

8-Bit Show and Tell, who does some deep dives into mostly Commodore-related things

Michael MJD, who explores various older Windows and PC-related things

Modern Vintage Gamer, who has documented some of the piracy and emulation scenes (especially watch his "Mistakes Were Made" series on console security)

guitarheroROXS, a top Guitar Hero console player who also does some deep dives into more obscure GH-related sub-topics

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#222

Post by tpush »

obscurette wrote: post #177
foerbert wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Familiar to a greater or lesser degree with most, but not all of those. I'd take exception to a couple inclusions. - Undecided w/Matt Ferrel This one is probably the most questionable. I was always a bit leery due to the titles being a bit too accepting of anything you might find on r/Futurology, and then happened on a Thunderf00t Busted (not a regular viewer there either) about some of his videos and yeah. I think i…

About Veritasium. These good stories with dubious claims and with "but I wasn't wrong!" and "at least I made you think" reactions is considered OK by most in the US for example. But in eastern parts of the world it is treated as a pure smartass behavior.

If you're talking about the electricity video, that one was not wrong at all.

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#224

Post by hansword »

bil7 wrote: post #199
hansword wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to very much second excluding Veritasium. Whenever he talked about something I was knowledgeable in, he made mistakes. This combined with branding himself as 'the element of truth' and the increasing over-clickbaity titles and thumbs made me stop watching him. It's an entertainment channel, and if you want light science entertainment, and expect to forget everything within a few hours, it's a good channel. If…

>the increasing over-clickbaity titles and thumbs an unfortunate appeal to the recommendation algorithm that is now a must. You are leaving views on the table without employing these clickbait methods. One solution that many channels use including Veritasium is trying out various clickbait packaging for the first 24-48h, then swapping to something more descriptive. When these videos represent not only one person's li…

You are right. And I do understand why he does it. I can see his side.

But I sit on the other side. I hate it and will tell everyone how much I hate it.

--- Edit:

Or, if you prefer, in market terms: Because I am not alone, there is a market for non-clickbaity titles, non-exaggerated thumbs, and there are channels that cater to this market.

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#225

Post by myself248 »

O__________O wrote: post #219
netcraft wrote: post #208

OT, but I sorely wish there was a way to whitelist channels or playlists in the youtube app and have it show only this content. better yet, be able to subscribe to a curated list of channels and playlists. Id love to give my kids free reign to watch any of this stuff, but there is far too much other stuff that gets pushed on them too fast.

One solution is to: (1) make a list of channels; (2) learn to use YouTube-DL: https://youtube-dl.org/ (3) have a script that auto-runs the YouTube-DL script (4) then drop videos watched input a watched folder; generate a spreadsheet and columns to note who has watched watch and filepath; create a basic website; etc. — easy to do, used to do it when I knew I would have no or bad internet.

Out of curiosity, do creators get a view-count increment from youtube-dl? (or its superior successor, yt-dlp?)

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#226

Post by synu »

Hey, it's my time to shine! I love these kinds of channels and am always on the look out for more.

- 4K Urban Life (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-JKqNo_T0yoeDZff1y7Kw) is slow walks around different cities in the world. It helped me make it through not being able to travel during COVID. I think that seeing different places and people helps enrich your worldview.

- AlphaPheonix (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCWeRTgd79JL0ilH0ZywSJA) reminds me a bit of Vertiasium, but is not quite as (over)produced. Atomic Frontier (https://www.youtube.com/c/AtomicFrontier) is kind of similar.

- Ant Lab (https://www.youtube.com/c/AntLab) has slow motion videos and information about insects.

- Ben Eater (https://www.youtube.com/c/beneater) hasn't made any videos in a bit, but his playlists will teach you about how electronics become computers.

- Chessnetwork (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCDOQrpqLqKVcTCKzqarxLg) has great entertaining chess games and I learn a lot watching them.

- Driving 4 Answers (https://www.youtube.com/c/mr2mk1hero/videos) has a lot of great videos talking about mostly car-related engineering.

- Exurb1a (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimiUgDLbi6P17BdaCZpVbg) is a channel about philosophy basically.

- Great Art Explained (https://www.youtube.com/c/greatartexplained) goes into the stories and thinking behind a lot of great art.

- Historic Italian Cooking (https://www.youtube.com/c/HistoricalItalianCooking) shows and prepares ancient Roman recipes. Very relaxing. Tasting History (https://www.youtube.com/c/tastinghistory) is kind of similar, but includes all of history and is more lively in comparison.

- Hochelaga (https://www.youtube.com/c/hochelaga) is kind of biblical philosophy and adjacent areas. Really interesting offbeat channel.

- Journey to the Microcosmos (https://www.youtube.com/c/microcosmos) shows video of microscopic creatures with mellow explanations over the top.

- Lindybeige (https://www.youtube.com/user/lindybeige) has interesting diatribes (for lack of a better word) on English history, and assorted other offbeat topics.

- Mustard (https://www.youtube.com/c/MustardChannel/featured) has videos on the history of engineering and science.

- Neo (https://www.youtube.com/c/neoyoutube) is a kind of modern history channel.

- Ninja Nerd Science (https://www.youtube.com/c/ninjanerdscience) is an amazing channel where you can watch medical lectures presented in a really engaging way. You can learn a lot even if you aren't actually in med school.

- Not Exactly Normal (https://www.youtube.com/c/NotExactlyNormal) has social/cultural mini-documentaries. Paragraphic (https://www.youtube.com/c/PARAGRAPHIC) is kind of similar.

- Real Science (https://www.youtube.com/c/realscience) has mostly information about animals.

- Told in Stone (https://www.youtube.com/c/toldinstone) has great videos about Roman history.

- Wristwatch Revival (https://www.youtube.com/c/wristwatchrevival) takes apart and repairs mechanical watches, which is really interesting.

- The Ulengovs (https://www.youtube.com/c/onedayincountryside) is not strictly educational but they show how people live in rural (very, very rural) parts of Russia and it's super interesting.

- Strange Parts (https://www.youtube.com/c/StrangeParts/featured) hasn't been making videos recently due to an injury, but they spent a lot of time in Shenzhen and there are amazing videos about electronics in the back catalog.

- PBS also has a whole collection of channels that are pretty good. Space Time (https://www.youtube.com/c/pbsspacetime) and Eons (https://www.youtube.com/c/eons) are probably the highlights for me. Moth Light Media (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOh5Ht3eB4914hMUfJkKa9g) is another channel that's kind of like Eons.

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#227

Post by phantomathkg »

Adding those not mentioned yet.

Animal Logic - https://www.youtube.com/c/animalogic

NHK World - https://www.youtube.com/c/NHKWORLDJAPAN

Asu (Bonsai with water features, if you want to calm yourself down.) - https://www.youtube.com/c/AsuGreen11

Goto Conferences - https://www.youtube.com/c/GotoConferences

Simple History - https://www.youtube.com/c/Simplehistory

TED - https://www.youtube.com/c/TED

TED Ed - https://www.youtube.com/teded

Economist - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheEconomist

The First Take (Japanese Music done in one shot) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9zY_E8mcAo_Oq772LEZq8Q

Vice Asia - https://www.youtube.com/c/VICEAsia

Wired - https://www.youtube.com/c/WIRED

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#228

Post by prirun »

Health:

- Dr. Ekberg: https://www.youtube.com/c/drekberg (2M subs)

- Dr. Berg: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrEricBergDC (8M subs)

Car repair & detailing:

- Chris Fixx: https://www.youtube.com/c/chrisfix (9M subs)

Piano:

https://www.youtube.com/user/cedarvillemusic

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3vYz1SAtcbRhsatydObGQw

https://www.youtube.com/user/PianistMagazine (Graham Fitch)

https://www.youtube.com/user/SteveMass1101

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0BMA5yu3AS0alkR7kYwEQ

https://www.youtube.com/user/aw4piano

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLsMRd097KLJMvkNzC4rYAA

https://www.youtube.com/c/DanielBarenboim/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tpkZhNpJiTnlUgoiUe9QQ

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#229

Post by periphrasis »

I’m of the belief that social media use ravages the attention span and imposes a high passive opportunity cost on your time (consider how often you absentmindedly open your phone to scroll a feed without looking for anything in particular only to suddenly realize 20 minutes has passed with nothing to show for it). While there is a great deal of informative content on YouTube, personally I find the cognitive trade offs of being a YouTube user far too great for it to be a tool of intellectual development. I’m just a random asshole on the internet though, so credit my opinion accordingly.

Re: Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

#230

Post by philwelch »

synu wrote: post #226

Hey, it's my time to shine! I love these kinds of channels and am always on the look out for more. - 4K Urban Life ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-JKqNo_T0yoeDZff1y7Kw ) is slow walks around different cities in the world. It helped me make it through not being able to travel during COVID. I think that seeing different places and people helps enrich your worldview. - AlphaPheonix ( https://www.youtube.com/channe…

FWIW Lindybeige is very entertaining but not particularly credible. One sign of this is probably his back-and-forth with Military History Visualized on the debate between the Bren and MG34/MG42 machine guns.
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