5 ms·

I see a lot of similar stuff on Youtube these days. A recent Economics Explained walked through wealth inequality in some Scandinavian countries (TL;DR: it's h

by wegs 6y ago

I see a lot of similar stuff on Youtube these days. A recent Economics Explained walked through wealth inequality in some Scandinavian countries (TL;DR: it's high). This is different from income inequality, which is quite low. It walked through the wealth of Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, who has a net worth of $13B, by virtue of having inherited Heineken. Her family bought (not founded) Heineken 200 years ago, and the family fortune dates back a half-millennium. There are really neat documentary channels like that. I'm not downplaying Burke, who was brilliant, but two bits of progress: - In 1978, he didn't have the Internet. Research is much easier today. - In 2020, anyone can produce high-quality documentaries. In 1978, you needed a massive investment. I'm not trying to imply it's easy, but we've gone from where you need a video editing studies, reels of film, and a research team, to where you just need to spend a few years as a super-nerd to pick up the requisite skills, and drop perhaps $2000 on cameras and microphones. Indeed, if you're scrappy, you can do pro-quality with just a better cell phone and computer, with a lot more work. I'd guess a lot of channels were inspired by Connections. I know Mechanical Universe inspired a lot of (now better) Youtube channels, like 3Blue1Brown. So these early documentaries were pivotal, but we've also come a long ways from there.

kderbyma 6y ago
It's like his claim continues to ring true even through his own works.
lqet 6y ago
If I am not mistaken, you are saying that technical entry barriers into documentary filmmaking are much, much lower today than in 1978, and therefore it is much easier to create such a series today. The former is definitely true, but consider the following: - "Connections" used a substantial amount of acted historical scenes. Creating them in such a quality (and not some sketchy animation or a re-cut of existing work) is still a challenge today. You need half-decent actors. - Technical quality is secondary to content. "Connections" is not just a collection of interesting and well-made bits about how technology evolved, there is an entire and compelling theory behind it, which Burke tries to bring accross. Such aspirations, executed with such intellectual and inspirational confidence, need something more than just technical ability and financial resources. Just because paper and ink got much cheaper since the 16th century, we didn't suddenly produce a Shakespeare every 2 years. So far, I haven't seen any historical documentation on YouTube which even compares to the depth and width of "Connections".
- ghaff 6y ago
  You also, as I recall, had a fair bit of location shooting including places like Navy ships that probably took some producer a bunch of time to arrange. The technical barriers are certainly much much lower--younger interested in film me would have killed for an iPhone much less even a $500-ish videocam--but it still takes a lot of work to film a professional looking documentary.
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  Connections was savvy in finding faires, working museaums, and access to the BBC's film vaults for providing much (though not all) such footage. Burke describes going to reenactment festivals to film many of the medieval life scenes. And his journalist background and connections enabled him to have the access necessary to shoot single-take sequences such as this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ (Hardly the only impressive on-location scene in his work.) Agreed with your comments on the primary importance of writing and research. I'd argue that Chris & Evan Hadfield's "Rare Earth" is getting close, Tom Scott is doing quite well, and Derrek Muller's "Veritasium" and Destin Sandlin's "Smarter Every Day" have promise. Several YouTubers have been picked up by traditional broadcasters/production organisations, notably Hank Green ("Crash Course"), with PBS, and Emily Graslie ("Prehistoric Road Trip"), with the Chicago Field Museum. YouTube as a training and recruiting ground has merits. One reason Connections is so hard to compare to is that it's pretty incomparable: forty years on we're still discussing it in glowing terms. It was produced by someone well-established and experienced at least within the BBC, and backed by the organisation. Notably, little from either national/public broadcasting or commercial production has even approached it. My short list includes Sagan's Cosmos, Burke's own The Day the Universe Changed, Ken Burns. Daniel Yergin's The Prize. And of course Kenneth Clarke's Civilisation and Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, which had paved the way for Burke himself. I might include Adam Curtis's works. The role of the author or creative voice --- a Burke, Sagan, Burns, Bronowski, Clark, Curtis --- cannot be overstated. That talent seems rare, perhaps also the ability to simply get out of its way. Also realising when it's circled too hard back in on itself --- Burke had 2--3 good series in him, but he hasn't matched himself in at least three decades. Related HN thread with additional recommendations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2698026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2698026 Part of that is a more crowded field: there's more produced, it's harder to get noticed. Part my own near-total avoidance of broadcast television. But I don't think that's all of it. And yes my HN history shows I'm quite the fan of Burke: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adredmorbius%20connections%20burke%20&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
TT3351 6y ago
The quality is not necessarily there. Anyone can put their handheld Egyptian travel footage up on Amazon and call it a documentary.
bordercases 6y ago
> In 1978, he didn't have the Internet. Research is much easier today. Lowering the barrier to entry to anything just makes it easier to create crap. Even when not taken on its own terms, Connections is still a massive achievement given this lack of ease. If you look at the book supplement to the series you can see the depth of research that went into the show. The Internet making research "easier" is false economy since it's cluttered with misinformation and even more crap. To get good information on the Internet requires more effort that you give it credit for (see the practice of OSINT).
- wegs 6y ago
  With millions of videos on Youtube, it's sometimes hard to find the top 99.99th percentile, but it's there. I've posted references in other posts.
  - bordercases 6y ago
    The better question is if the 99.99th percentile on Youtube maps over, in quantity or quality, the 99.99th percentile of old TV documentaries.
russellbeattie 6y ago
Mechanical Universe is so awesome! It's one of the best series to watch to get an broad understanding of the history of science and science itself. I've watched and rewatched them since college in the 90s. All of the videos are on YouTube and they're still incredible. Though Connections is entertaining, an afternoon down the Wikipedia rabbit hole on any topic will give you sooo much more information and context than Burke could have dreamed of in 1978. My issue with many of those YouTube channels you're talking about is they do little but read for the viewer (NOT 3Blue1Brown, his work is the gold standard of course). This isn't a horrible thing, but it would be nice if those channels put a bit more work into synthesizing their content, rather than just regurgitating Wikipedia for views.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  MU is presented by my Caltech physics professor!
  - selimthegrim 6y ago
    Poor Goodstein was never the same after the stroke. Incidentally, I have to wonder if he and Jearl Walker ever had a personal rivalry.
    - WalterBright 6y ago
      Oh, I am so sorry to hear that happened to him. My favorite physics co-professor of Goodstein's was Prof Ricardo Gomez, who pretty much single-handedly saved me from flunking out. Prof Gomez was one of those people who made Caltech a special place.
WalterBright 6y ago
The Western Tradition by Weber is another great series giving an overview of world history (but not from a technological point of view).

by wegs 6y ago

kderbyma 6y ago

It's like his claim continues to ring true even through his own works.

lqet 6y ago

If I am not mistaken, you are saying that technical entry barriers into documentary filmmaking are much, much lower today than in 1978, and therefore it is much easier to create such a series today. The former is definitely true, but consider the following: - "Connections" used a substantial amount of acted historical scenes. Creating them in such a quality (and not some sketchy animation or a re-cut of existing work) is still a challenge today. You need half-decent actors. - Technical quality is secondary to content. "Connections" is not just a collection of interesting and well-made bits about how technology evolved, there is an entire and compelling theory behind it, which Burke tries to bring accross. Such aspirations, executed with such intellectual and inspirational confidence, need something more than just technical ability and financial resources. Just because paper and ink got much cheaper since the 16th century, we didn't suddenly produce a Shakespeare every 2 years. So far, I haven't seen any historical documentation on YouTube which even compares to the depth and width of "Connections".

ghaff 6y ago
You also, as I recall, had a fair bit of location shooting including places like Navy ships that probably took some producer a bunch of time to arrange. The technical barriers are certainly much much lower--younger interested in film me would have killed for an iPhone much less even a $500-ish videocam--but it still takes a lot of work to film a professional looking documentary.
dredmorbius 6y ago
Connections was savvy in finding faires, working museaums, and access to the BBC's film vaults for providing much (though not all) such footage. Burke describes going to reenactment festivals to film many of the medieval life scenes. And his journalist background and connections enabled him to have the access necessary to shoot single-take sequences such as this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ (Hardly the only impressive on-location scene in his work.) Agreed with your comments on the primary importance of writing and research. I'd argue that Chris & Evan Hadfield's "Rare Earth" is getting close, Tom Scott is doing quite well, and Derrek Muller's "Veritasium" and Destin Sandlin's "Smarter Every Day" have promise. Several YouTubers have been picked up by traditional broadcasters/production organisations, notably Hank Green ("Crash Course"), with PBS, and Emily Graslie ("Prehistoric Road Trip"), with the Chicago Field Museum. YouTube as a training and recruiting ground has merits. One reason Connections is so hard to compare to is that it's pretty incomparable: forty years on we're still discussing it in glowing terms. It was produced by someone well-established and experienced at least within the BBC, and backed by the organisation. Notably, little from either national/public broadcasting or commercial production has even approached it. My short list includes Sagan's Cosmos, Burke's own The Day the Universe Changed, Ken Burns. Daniel Yergin's The Prize. And of course Kenneth Clarke's Civilisation and Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, which had paved the way for Burke himself. I might include Adam Curtis's works. The role of the author or creative voice --- a Burke, Sagan, Burns, Bronowski, Clark, Curtis --- cannot be overstated. That talent seems rare, perhaps also the ability to simply get out of its way. Also realising when it's circled too hard back in on itself --- Burke had 2--3 good series in him, but he hasn't matched himself in at least three decades. Related HN thread with additional recommendations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2698026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2698026 Part of that is a more crowded field: there's more produced, it's harder to get noticed. Part my own near-total avoidance of broadcast television. But I don't think that's all of it. And yes my HN history shows I'm quite the fan of Burke: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adredmorbius%20connections%20burke%20&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

TT3351 6y ago

The quality is not necessarily there. Anyone can put their handheld Egyptian travel footage up on Amazon and call it a documentary.

bordercases 6y ago

> In 1978, he didn't have the Internet. Research is much easier today. Lowering the barrier to entry to anything just makes it easier to create crap. Even when not taken on its own terms, Connections is still a massive achievement given this lack of ease. If you look at the book supplement to the series you can see the depth of research that went into the show. The Internet making research "easier" is false economy since it's cluttered with misinformation and even more crap. To get good information on the Internet requires more effort that you give it credit for (see the practice of OSINT).

wegs 6y ago
With millions of videos on Youtube, it's sometimes hard to find the top 99.99th percentile, but it's there. I've posted references in other posts.
- bordercases 6y ago
  The better question is if the 99.99th percentile on Youtube maps over, in quantity or quality, the 99.99th percentile of old TV documentaries.

russellbeattie 6y ago

Mechanical Universe is so awesome! It's one of the best series to watch to get an broad understanding of the history of science and science itself. I've watched and rewatched them since college in the 90s. All of the videos are on YouTube and they're still incredible. Though Connections is entertaining, an afternoon down the Wikipedia rabbit hole on any topic will give you sooo much more information and context than Burke could have dreamed of in 1978. My issue with many of those YouTube channels you're talking about is they do little but read for the viewer (NOT 3Blue1Brown, his work is the gold standard of course). This isn't a horrible thing, but it would be nice if those channels put a bit more work into synthesizing their content, rather than just regurgitating Wikipedia for views.

WalterBright 6y ago
MU is presented by my Caltech physics professor!
- selimthegrim 6y ago
  Poor Goodstein was never the same after the stroke. Incidentally, I have to wonder if he and Jearl Walker ever had a personal rivalry.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    Oh, I am so sorry to hear that happened to him. My favorite physics co-professor of Goodstein's was Prof Ricardo Gomez, who pretty much single-handedly saved me from flunking out. Prof Gomez was one of those people who made Caltech a special place.

WalterBright 6y ago

The Western Tradition by Weber is another great series giving an overview of world history (but not from a technological point of view).