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0 pointsfalcolas5y ago0 comments

So, I think there's one (or two) easily carved exceptions to your "YouTube doesn't actually help you" statement.

One, Veritasium. Content like this didn't (perhaps even couldn't) exist before YouTube. The science TV shows and even many books don't go into as much user-friendly depth as this does. You'd have to go to college and pay to get content even remotely close (and still, based on prior experience, not as good).

Two, any one of many How To DIY channels. They show you how to do things you're unlikely to find elsewhere. Where else will you find someone willing to tell you how to change your oil and filter on a [random year & model] car for free? How to wire up a light switch to code? How to clean your sink drain? Certainly not the paid professionals.

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geerlingguy5y ago

On that note, channels like AvE and Real Engineering come from two different ends of the spectrum in terms of production quality but have a similar feel in terms of how much I learn per minute of content.

There are also channels like the Sampson Boat Company that take a project that would've just ended up turning an old boat into scrap after a while into one of my favorite carpentry/woodworking things to watch, better even than old episodes of the Woodwright's shop or This Old House.

dharmab5y ago

This Old House also has a great YouTube channel with excerpts for lots of home improvement tasks.

scoutt5y ago

Note that much of this content is there in the form of "entertainment". Like Veritasium, extremely well made videos with the "feel smart for some minutes" format that others use too, like smartereveryday. It's just that, entertainment. It's not a public service trying to help you. It's not even you trying to help yourself (I don't mean specifically you).

> for free?

It's not really for free. People making these videos are getting paid.

> go to college

One thing I do appreciate is universities streaming their classes, on Youtube or other means. Of course, it's not that I will become an astrophysicist by just watching videos.

numpad05y ago

I think there is something to be said about connection to the real world economy and hard currency, and values that contents on the Internet offer are surprisingly lean on that front.

falcolasOP5y ago

The value of the physical does not imply a lack of value in the digital.

The value of the digital equally does not imply a lack of value in the physical.

And, I will assert until I’m dead, the internet has done nothing but broaden my horizons - for the internet is full of quality information and entertainment, beyond what I could ever find in the physical world, if only because without a free or cheap publishing method the information and entertainment would not exist.

Some things are simply not possible with only a “physical economy,” because t physical economy is about things, not ideas.

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