I use YouTube for entertainment and personalities. It puzzles me when people use YouTube for learning. I'm not saying that high-quality educational content doesn't exists on YouTube, but in my experience, it's rare to find a video that explains a concept better than a book or docs. Most videos tend to be padded with irrelevant information, which often leaves me feeling like I've wasted 15-20 minutes for minimal substance. However, once I started viewing YouTube as an entertainment platform rather than a learning resource, I stopped feeling frustrated about wasted time and began enjoying the content for what it is. For any real learning use books and other reference materials.
> It puzzles me when people use YouTube for learning. I'm not saying that high-quality educational content doesn't exists on YouTube, but in my experience, it's rare to find a video that explains a concept better than a book or docs.
Tell me you've never watched "DIY/home improvement/construction/car repair/any other repair YouTube" without telling me you've never watched "DIY/home improvement/construction/car repair/any other repair YouTube".
I shouldn't be snarky but the value of seeing someone fixing or making something on video far outweighs that gained by reading about it in a book or looking at static pictures. You can see more easily how everything fits together, how much force you have to put on a bolt to loosen it, or whatever. The information density of a well-made video on such a topic is far higher than you'd get from a book simply because you can see exactly what's happening.
I think your snark is understandable in this case. It’s a really solid life skill to be able to frame your own experience as not being the norm. It’s relatively easy to fall into the trap of thinking that how you use a tool is the only way folks should or do use it. Khan Academy is an easy example that shows YouTube can and has been used for education beyond entertainment.
> For any real learning use books and other reference materials.
Different people at different times and under different circumstances; and different teachers with different methods can all impact the best medium to engage with content or learn things.
I'm happy you've found what works for you. At the same time, I'll continue to consider YouTube a viable source of educational content when I find it the appropriate medium for such, which is often.
Honestly, the real loss to educational content has been the loss of dislike metrics, which can very effectively tell you if content is valuable or not in the education space. At least it's been partly replaced by a "users viewed here" histogram, which can be a true help.
> it's rare to find a video that explains a concept better than a book or docs.
Wow that’s not been my experience at all - with regard to anything science or math related, I’ve found YouTube a massive help over any other medium.
Software engineering, not as much with a few exceptions (algorithms, cryptography).
> leaves me feeling like I’ve wasted 15-20mins
This is how I feel about most books! I do hours of reading for something that could have been a few bullet points or a short video. Often finding the right book for your level is a challenge in itself
A book will probably explain a concept better than a YT video but the former will probably require many hours of reading and the latter just a couple minutes or an hour at most. Only "better" if time and effort aren't taken into account.
It depends. Imagine you want to learn how to tie your shoes for the first time in your life. Learning from a video would be much faster than from a textual guide.
Strong disagree. 3blue1brown has shed a new light and understanding on many mathematical concepts I already knew (and sometimes didn't) in ways that would have been impossible without video.
