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Ask HN: Would you prefer reading or watching a video about any subject/topic?
- Trias11 7y agoReading. Nothing irritates me more than google pimping me spammy videos as an answers on simple questions. Videos forces you to consume information slowly in a sync manner. Videos are good for sense-rich entertainment. Information is perfectly and efficently can be (and always were) delivered at text.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- leenasoni99 7y agoSame. I'll be surprised if more people prefer video form of content.
- Trias11 7y agoSpecific educational videos and video courses are excluded. These works well to. That said if same material is available in text format - it would be preferred.
- ScottFree 7y ago> I'll be surprised if more people prefer video form of content. Not so much video as audio. I work for a company that provides digital lending services for libraries. Guess what type of content is by far the most popular? Audiobooks. It's not even close. Most of the "videoification" of blog posts I see on youtube are basically just podcasts with somebody talking into a video camera instead of a microphone.
- Trias11 7y agoI saw Youtube "educational" video from a low life marketing guy recorded himself speaking to camera and teaching others how to record videos of them scrolling PPT slides with affiliate links and make money out of it
- caryd 7y agoI would never want to be exclusive to one or the other. It completely depends on the topic and my current understanding of it. Videos are great for soft skills or crash courses, but reading is necessary for the fine details.
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- leenasoni99 7y agoNot courses only (or learning purpose), but generally. Say would you prefer consuming content in the form of reading or prefer watching something online?
- rolph 7y agoI prefer annotated diagrams ["cartoons"] and blowup/cutaway illustrations i like to include animated gifs where time permits.
- jimmyvalmer 7y agoFor tying knots, video. For everything else, reading.
- Rannath 7y agoMy favourite is a combination. Text for most things and images, or short videos to demonstrate topics that are hard to describe.
- CM30 7y agoProbably a combination of all three. Maybe with a video guide and text guide on the same page, with the latter also using images and short video clips to illustrate points too. Video on its own is too slow, and often annoying to wade through if I need to find a particular point. Text on its own can be too vague, and can make it difficult to understand lengthy series of instructions if pictures and videos aren't included (a common problem with text based video game walkthroughs).
- digital_voodoo 7y agoReading, by far. I'm getting sick of every single thing being videofied. It seems like an "attention hack". Wife has been feeling the same too.
- leenasoni99 7y agoSame! Thanks for sharing what your wife feels. I don't know if it'll be weird to say, but this is my favorite part of the thread :p
- digital_voodoo 7y agoIt isn't weird;) Wife and I have many conversations about how knowledge absorption is becoming bare media consumption. Listening at her, not as geeky as me, raising her concerns about it, was truly delightful:)
- clinta 7y agoVideo is good for concepts that need visualizations, though a good blog post with animations or illustrations can work too. Video is required hands on demonstrations, like how to fix something on a car. But videos showing somebody write code or commands is infuriating. There's no need for that. A blog post with code examples would be much better.
- ScottFree 7y agoI'll second this. The trend of recording videos or podcasts instead of writing blogs and/or articles is both infuriating and concerning. Videos, podcasts and audiobooks have attracted a much larger viewership than anybody anticipated. Reading and reading comprehension are on the wane. More and more, I see the label "post-literate" applied to Gen Z and it worries me.
- valand 7y agoAgreed. Other things about people coding, though, in tech talks and conference, I actually enjoy seeing the psychological and social impact of the talk as much as the concept being talked about. They're fun.
- nb41org 7y agoReading is usually more attractive in my opinion.
- JohnFen 7y agoReading, easily. The way my mind works, when I'm learning something, nothing beats reading about it. Audio and video alone is almost totally worthless to me.
- leenasoni99 7y agoSame. If you're not learning, say a story. Would you prefer a documentary about it or reading it?
- JohnFen 7y agoReading it, by a longshot.
- aashishkoirala 7y agoReading. No patience for videos, even at 2x speed.
- shrthnd 7y agoReading, please.
- srijanshetty 7y agoFor most CS related content I prefer reading up, but there are particular domains which can't be captured by reading for example - fitness, analysis of movies, learning to play an instrument.
- Vaskivo 7y agoFor complex subjects I prefer reading. I find that programming made me absorb and create content non-linearly. I write a bit of code here, and then there, and then change a little thing in the first bit... I read like that. I read the book from start to end but I'm constantly going back to back material. (Or sometimes googling stuff.) In a video, the "pause-rewind" loop is not so easy. Also, I can't skim a video.
- valand 7y agoReading, unless the video enhance the knowledge transfer. Videos can help us understand about complex concept like quantum computing, 3D graphics, the social impacts of a tech talk. Most of the time videos are only people typing on their screen. Reading is more effective in this case, since it is faster and less opiniated.
- buboard 7y agoReading, any time. I 'll watch an interview. but i m struggling not to doze off watching a lecture on something.