5 ms·

Also let me know when I can "skim" a video.. whatever that would mean?

kpil 10y ago
Skimming a text seems to be a skill that is on the decline. I thought that videos presenting a tool or library was a fad, but now I suspect that watching a video is actually faster and more convenient than reading a text, for a lot of young people. This concerns me a bit, since it is very time inefficient. I can skim a whole book in a minute. Webpages are harder, but still much quicker than waiting for some schmuck droning on and on in a video.
- zig 10y ago
  Do you know of any resources or tips to improve skimming skills? I am impressed that you can skim a book in a minute (even skimming a sentence or two per chapter might take longer than that for me). I've been trying to improve my reading speed - I feel like it's actually degraded over time - but I don't know that I am making much progress.
  - kpil 10y ago
    I guess just read a lot of books, and keep doing it for several years. I learned to read when I was four, so I can't really remember, but I don't think I've gotten any faster since I was 16 or so. At that time I think I read for at least one hour, more or less every night.
- vorotato 10y ago
  The new crop of young people actually read more than previous generations. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/millennials-are-out-reading-older-generations/379934/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/millen... http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/09/10/younger-americans-and-public-libraries/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/09/10/younger-americans-and-...
developer2 10y ago
Videos will never become the majority of content I consume. My requirements to make this a reality are not going to happen any time soon. 1. Videos must contain absolutely no fluff. If the video could have been made 20 seconds long, then it must be 20 seconds long. It is unacceptable for the video to be 60 seconds long with unnecessary filler content, intros/outros, "please like and subscribe", etc. If the "moment" of your video is your child saying something funny, it had better be a 5 second video of the quote; a 5 minute video of your child playing, with something funny said at 3:45 into the video is not even remotely acceptable. 2. I only watch video if I have headphones in. I don't always have headphones in. You're going to have to invent sound isolating, in-ear implants that can be turned on and off on demand, to replace my $1500 IEMs that I have to manually insert and remove to switch between interacting with the real world vs. my device. 3. Social awkwardness. I will never be comfortable recording myself for every update, and furthermore will never have the patience to invest the time required to edit my own videos to comply with the requirements of point #1 above. tldr; "All video" is pure bullshit. I can't see myself producing video content to share, and I do not have the patience nor the time to watch other people's overly long videos.
- bwldrbst 10y ago
  Don't worry about point 3 - your role is to watch videos, not produce them.
  - developer2 10y ago
    True enough. I hadn't considered the fact that the majority of FaceBook video - at least today - is advertising (some direct, much of it advertising disguised as "content"), and a lot of cause-of-the-day spam. My initial thought went to the idea that normal users would communicate primarily via video, by posting personal videos pertaining to themselves and their relationships with others. But of course on FaceBook, the users are the product, and we are being sold to the real market which are the businesses. What a world we live in.
warmfuzzykitten 10y ago
You can speed up a video, a feature of lecture videos in the Coursera courses I've taken. With pitch adjustment, it's surprising how much better even a good lecture is when speeded up. But you can't edit out superfluous content. It seems to me that the future of online video is exemplified by the recipe videos produced by Gawker that appear in the Facebook feed under names like "Tasty". These speeded-up cooking videos allow the viewer to skim how a dish is put together, from start to finish, in about 30 seconds. (I watched one just now that took 55 seconds and I found myself impatient with its slow pace!) In their simple, junk-foodie way, these videos illustrate that the measure of quality is not just how quickly and efficiently information is transmitted to the brain, but also the degree of emotional impact.

kpil 10y ago

Skimming a text seems to be a skill that is on the decline. I thought that videos presenting a tool or library was a fad, but now I suspect that watching a video is actually faster and more convenient than reading a text, for a lot of young people. This concerns me a bit, since it is very time inefficient. I can skim a whole book in a minute. Webpages are harder, but still much quicker than waiting for some schmuck droning on and on in a video.

zig 10y ago
Do you know of any resources or tips to improve skimming skills? I am impressed that you can skim a book in a minute (even skimming a sentence or two per chapter might take longer than that for me). I've been trying to improve my reading speed - I feel like it's actually degraded over time - but I don't know that I am making much progress.
- kpil 10y ago
  I guess just read a lot of books, and keep doing it for several years. I learned to read when I was four, so I can't really remember, but I don't think I've gotten any faster since I was 16 or so. At that time I think I read for at least one hour, more or less every night.
vorotato 10y ago
The new crop of young people actually read more than previous generations. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/millennials-are-out-reading-older-generations/379934/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/millen... http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/09/10/younger-americans-and-public-libraries/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/09/10/younger-americans-and-...

developer2 10y ago

Videos will never become the majority of content I consume. My requirements to make this a reality are not going to happen any time soon. 1. Videos must contain absolutely no fluff. If the video could have been made 20 seconds long, then it must be 20 seconds long. It is unacceptable for the video to be 60 seconds long with unnecessary filler content, intros/outros, "please like and subscribe", etc. If the "moment" of your video is your child saying something funny, it had better be a 5 second video of the quote; a 5 minute video of your child playing, with something funny said at 3:45 into the video is not even remotely acceptable. 2. I only watch video if I have headphones in. I don't always have headphones in. You're going to have to invent sound isolating, in-ear implants that can be turned on and off on demand, to replace my $1500 IEMs that I have to manually insert and remove to switch between interacting with the real world vs. my device. 3. Social awkwardness. I will never be comfortable recording myself for every update, and furthermore will never have the patience to invest the time required to edit my own videos to comply with the requirements of point #1 above. tldr; "All video" is pure bullshit. I can't see myself producing video content to share, and I do not have the patience nor the time to watch other people's overly long videos.

bwldrbst 10y ago
Don't worry about point 3 - your role is to watch videos, not produce them.
- developer2 10y ago
  True enough. I hadn't considered the fact that the majority of FaceBook video - at least today - is advertising (some direct, much of it advertising disguised as "content"), and a lot of cause-of-the-day spam. My initial thought went to the idea that normal users would communicate primarily via video, by posting personal videos pertaining to themselves and their relationships with others. But of course on FaceBook, the users are the product, and we are being sold to the real market which are the businesses. What a world we live in.

warmfuzzykitten 10y ago

You can speed up a video, a feature of lecture videos in the Coursera courses I've taken. With pitch adjustment, it's surprising how much better even a good lecture is when speeded up. But you can't edit out superfluous content. It seems to me that the future of online video is exemplified by the recipe videos produced by Gawker that appear in the Facebook feed under names like "Tasty". These speeded-up cooking videos allow the viewer to skim how a dish is put together, from start to finish, in about 30 seconds. (I watched one just now that took 55 seconds and I found myself impatient with its slow pace!) In their simple, junk-foodie way, these videos illustrate that the measure of quality is not just how quickly and efficiently information is transmitted to the brain, but also the degree of emotional impact.