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The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)
- zh3 5y agoUnfortunately it's being killed by the obnoxious advertising, which is growing far faster than the value of the content (it's already past my personal tipping point). At some point we can hope that hosting is cheap enough we can all host our own videos, that search engines will find our content (without any favouritism) and that such an outcome will actually be legal.
- exporectomy 5y agoI use two Chrome plugins to eliminate all time-using Youtube ads: uBlock Origin SponsorBlock for YouTube. This uses crowdsourced info to skip advertising within videos as well as into/outro/subscription begging, etc. I don't think I've head a single "click subscribe and ring the bell icon" since I installed it. All that crap's a distant memory. I think there are still overlay banner ads but they can be ignored more easily.
- senectus1 5y agoFunny this link just popped up, I was just marvelling at my 13 yr old son's self taught progression at programming. He's taken about 2 years to get from batch scripts to c# and unity... mostly via youtube videos. https://cyb3rgames.itch.io/trench-warfare https://cyb3rgames.itch.io/trench-warfare < his latest efforts completed in about a week. Kids these days love to learn via self paced youtube *note, if you're going to let your kids watch youtube, either put your own anti-advert features in on your network or pay for youtube premium. You tube adverts are abhorrent on their own let alone the constant breaking up of what self paced education they might be getting from it.
- dchoi315 5y agoI definitely can relate, software engineering is one of those fields that can definitely be learned on one's own time for free, and now I'm working at an internship at a startup!
- polyterative 5y agomy story too, was able to land a good job withoud any degree
- echelon 5y agoI'm so glad to hear about this. I was beginning to think widespread use of smartphones was actually decreasing technical literacy and making it harder to learn. They're almost too easy and don't expose their inner workings as readily as desktop computers. Now that you mention it, I bet there's actually a wealth of educational content on YouTube and TikTok that serves to counter this. Technical insights for any interest.
- jhickok 5y agoMy son is getting interested in programming-- any resources that you found helpful? Also, that game is super cool! Pass on my compliments!
- senectus1 5y agohere is a handful from his history: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL7FCx3MrwKGYFEs91Lz0yg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL7FCx3MrwKGYFEs91Lz0yg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYuQIa9lgjvDiZryUVtFGw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYuQIa9lgjvDiZryUVtFGw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYbK_tjZ2OrIZFBvU6CCMiA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYbK_tjZ2OrIZFBvU6CCMiA < very popular https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIWlCE2kt0RXCJLRp8HjhiQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIWlCE2kt0RXCJLRp8HjhiQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLyVUwlB_Hahir_VsKkGPIA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLyVUwlB_Hahir_VsKkGPIA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk_n3tLHEeCW3oYwea7-8dg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk_n3tLHEeCW3oYwea7-8dg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG08EqOAXJk_YXPDsAvReSg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG08EqOAXJk_YXPDsAvReSg
- jhickok 5y agoThank you so much!
- inglor_cz 5y agoWell, I had a toilet problem a week ago. Looking it up on YouTube, I found a plumber who demonstrated a solution. Five minutes of work and the problem was resolved. IDK how much I saved, but at least 2000 CZK (approx. 80 dollars). Not to mention that I didn't have to wait for the plumber to arrive, which would take a few days, probably.
- amelius 5y agoThis kind of thing should be on Wikipedia. Too bad they don't really host videos.
- alex_anglin 5y agoI've had WikiHow help me out in similar ways to GP a couple of times. Wasn't watching videos though.
- aantix 5y agoDoes Wikipedia allow for the embedding of Youtube videos? It'd be nice to embrace an existing library of video content. The reverse relationship exists - Google readily displays Wikipedia content for specific searches.
- amelius 5y agoGoogle is acting as a silo, and imho not an example of good stewardship wrt the organization of the world's data.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI do not see anyone else willing to pony up the money to be a “good steward”. Who wants to take on all the responsibility and liabilities that come with hosting other people’s content? Better solution here would be ipv6 and fiber connections to each home so people do not have to rely on uploading to one company to be able to distribute their video.
- emodendroket 5y agoI have to admit that I've found video fat more effective for learning unfamiliar recipes than written recipes. Just so much easier to see someone do it. Not my first choice for everything I want to learn, but it is a good resource for many.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoI think it also has a huge effect on sports. Especially the ones that aren’t on TV. When I did martial arts in the 90s it was super hard to find recordings of good Muay Thai or kickboxing fights. So you had to figure out things for yourself very slowly instead of seeing how the world class guys do it. Today’s youth can watch the best in the sport from all history and learn things way faster. So I expect the next generations of athletes to have way better knowledge of the sport and just be way better. Same in music. I had a drummer friend who had one tape of Neil Peart of Rush. He studied this in and out. Today you can find recordings of all the greats easily and see how they do it. This will take off years of the learning curve.
- XCSme 5y agoNot only that, but for example for table tennis there are hundreds of high-quality teachers showing you the basics of the sport, sharing tips on how to get better, giving you professional advice on how to train and much more. It is a lot easier nowadays to go from completely new to decent or even "good" in a specific domain by following some simple visual instructions.
- xNeil 5y agoAny channels you might recommend?
- XCSme 5y agoFor table tennis? There's so many: PingSkills: https://www.youtube.com/user/pingskills https://www.youtube.com/user/pingskills Tom Lodziak: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHc12tVGhzBtlMUq7MR7wA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHc12tVGhzBtlMUq7MR7wA PingSunday: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnSKFBegbrmsimjnC9p-GBSu3mba6zw9F https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnSKFBegbrmsimjnC9p-G... Coach Lin: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChW6mCKAPsYIEYnH5jnkCyw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChW6mCKAPsYIEYnH5jnkCyw And many more that them have very good and useful content.
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- kiba 5y agoThere are all sort of wonderful educational videos on youtube, but it's like leading a horse to water. The hard part is now getting them to drink. That said, I do credit part of my education to Youtube University. I learned more about virology in details that I never thought about before. Still, I haven't yet complete the virology lectures.
- bluGill 5y agoBut is what you learned correct? Anyone can claim to be an expert and put together a lecture. That doesn't mean what they are teaching is correct.
- scrollaway 5y agoWhat you are saying applies to current school systems too. So many of my teachers were full of shit...
- snek_case 5y agoThere are many lectures and conference talks from university professors who are at the top of their field on YouTube. You might be able to find better content than what's available in your local university class. For example, Robert Sapolsky's lecture series on Human Behavioral Biology at Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnIGh9g6fA&list=PL848F2368C90DDC3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnIGh9g6fA&list=PL848F2368C... Stanford and MIT both have lots of lectures on YouTube.
- bluGill 5y agoOh I know, but there are also a lot of people making claims to expertise they don't have and spreading lies. Some of them are real experts in other fields and so have respect there.
- FlyMoreRockets 5y agoIt's generally pretty easy to spot the fakes if you have a basic understanding of the field and are just researching for specific details. Frankly, for the stuff I typically look for, there are surprisingly few fakes to be found. This may change with YT deprecating the down-vote arrow.
- polygotdomain 5y agoI think the article is overthinking it a little bit, and I think it comes down to accessibility, enthusiasm, and to a certain degree a rapid pace in terms of content. There's no doubt that YouTube has made a number of these topics far more accessible. The inclusion of videos along side typical text searches means that it's just as easy to click on an article as it is one of those videos. There's also typically a multitude of options that each might cover the same topic from certain angles and varying degrees of overlap. These videos are typically uploaded by creators who are passionate and incredibly enthusiastic to share a key aspect of their lives. Many of the popular educational channels have a passionate creator behind them, rather than a flatter more lecture based approach like you might get in typical coursework (which is also on YouTube, but isn't nearly as widely consumed). Lastly, I can find a 5, 10, or 20 minute video that's focused on a specific subject or topic on YouTube as opposed to going through 60 or 90 minutes of coursework/lectures that are predefined. I can jump from video to video, carving out my own path to learn what I want, rather than sit through a lecture that may not be discussing something particularly of interest. The Tacit knowledge that's referenced in the article is certainly there in many of the videos on YouTube, but is not the main driver behind this "revolution". It's the ability for anyone in the world to dive nearly as deep as they want, lead by content creators that are genuine passionate about the subjects they cover.
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoYoutube deserves no credit: they do nothing to make educational videos more discoverable, they cannot even categorise them properly! My 'feed' is filled with videos I already watched and typically the only way I discover new content is linked from HN or other sites. Neither does Youtube treat their educational creators well - as far ad they are concerned, 'influencer' reviewing funny viseos has more value than educational content.
- scrollaway 5y agoYou're using YouTube wrong. I dunno. For me, YouTube serves me up so much educational content i want to watch that there is over 100 hours of content in my Watch Later. And i do very often go through the videos it gives me but it never ends. YouTube is a tool, you have to do a bit of curation so it learns what you like and dislike, and then it just delivers an unending firehose of content matching that. And if what you like is educational content, boy is there a lot of it available.
- INTPenis 5y agoI just thought the other day that we won't need schools as much in the future. Teachers could just record material, or use pre-recorded material, to teach students online. And then young people could take jobs earlier, in their teens, and learn about the world and find out what their interests are instead of regurgitating the same answers for the same old assignments over and over. Find an interest, turn it into a job, be a bit happier. Or just study and settle for something, either way I think there should be more freedom for young adults now with the internet.
- bluGill 5y agoWho dreams of being a trash collector? Taking trash to the landfill. That is why your dreams will fail: there are unexciting things that need to be done for society to function.
- zpeti 5y agoIf you’re the only person willing to collect trash, people will pay you a lot of money to do it, and you’ll have a much nicer house, car, holiday, or whatever you want to spend it on. Markets are great. Felix Dennis: one of the richest people in the Uk got rich by digging holes and putting waste in it. And selling the dirt.
- LeonB 5y agoReally? I know of him as… Oz Trials, hobbyist computer magazines, publishing, lots of publishing, but digging holes and putting waste in it?
- samtho 5y agoNot everyone has specific dreams, rather their dream may be being in an essential role, part of a good team, etc. Anecdotally, I've met a number of people working in solid waste and every single one of them loved their job with one citing specifically that they are done before 1pm every day and have an entire afternoon to spend with their family or with their hobbies.
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- strife25 5y agoHome Improvement YouTube is amazing. There's a reason we don't see modern Bob Vila-personalities on TV as much these days.
- obloid 5y agoIt really is a gold mine. Things I've successfully tackled with the help of YouTube:small engine repair, appliance repair, knife making, woodworking, electronics, sailing, auto repair. And the list goes on. Yes there is a lot of garbage, but also some really useful content.
- zerop 5y agoI think this revolution needs to be taken further to masses at grass roots through remote learning model. Folks can take the courses from institutions across world via Youtube (or similar platform) for free and participate in an online certification for the course and get certified. I find that many talented and bright students can't financially afford degrees institutions
- mikewarot 5y agoHe listed 4 things that happened together Quality affordable digital cameras Internet for everyone Search Engines Portable screens I think he missed one, the channel/subscription model that YouTube still supports, where you can push content about a very narrow subject, and a large enough audience to make it worth everyone's effort, can meet.
- Workaccount2 5y agoI am essentially a self-taught EE thanks to the internet. There is no shortage of engineers posting educational content, and no shortage of extremely knowledgeable engineers willing to directly help you with problems. I've done dozens of projects and even brought one to market. I guess the flipside, in my experience it doesn't count as anything in the professional world. Since I back doored engineering, I am currently the technical lead on two projects at my job, both of which have vacant engineering lead positions - making me the defacto engineering lead. So I do the engineers work for technicians pay ($19/hr). I am also the only technician in the engineering dept. as opposed to the lab. I should have just stuck with programming 20 years ago. Sorry this is a bit of a rambling tangent I went on. Maybe a warning to others that a degree is often more important than the knowledge the degree brings.
- solarengineer 5y agoHave you considered taking up programming now? In many ways, age is just a number.
- Workaccount2 5y agoYeah, I have. The problem is that I really do love electronics. I am a decent C programmer, for embedded applications at least. I have never written an actual PC program though besides tutorial stuff. A friend of my did a crash course boot camp for js, and did eventually get a good job out of it. Maybe I should think about doing the same.
- weaksauce 5y agoyou might want to check out the odin project... seems fairly high quality. or if that's not your jam i'm sure you could find a book or a course on something like coursera or udemy with varying success.... https://www.theodinproject.com/ https://www.theodinproject.com/
- Workaccount2 5y ago
- danbruc 5y agoI just tried to figure out what people actually watch on YouTube a couple of days ago without much luck. I came across some numbers but they only divided the videos into very broad categories like music, entertainment, education, and others or something like that. Is anybody aware of a more detailed look at this?
- FlyMoreRockets 5y agoYeah, you're right. Wikipedia lists the most popular channels, and they're pretty much just entertainment and music. Then again, as near as I can tell, that's exactly what they are. Even the one listed as education is just music/entertainment for children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-subscribed_YouTube_channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-subscribed_YouTub...
- exporectomy 5y agoI suspect it's divided into such fine-grained niches that most of what people watch isn't popular. Almost anything popular labelled "education" is likely TV-level education, and really mostly just entertainment with the pleasant feeling of getting a bit of shallow learning on the way.
- BugWatch 5y agoSounds like every Discovery and National Geographic "documentary" ever.
- grouphugs 5y agothis is not attributal to yt, people don't even know the history of the past two decades
- uniqueid 5y agoIt's a shame that nobody but Youtube can afford to host videos at a loss year after year. I could vent for an hour about why I dislike the company: they are a privacy abomination; their moderation is incompetent; the way they monetize is unethical. If there were a worse steward than Youtube to store the bulk of humanity's video, I can't think of who it would possibly be.
- jimbob45 5y agoAt some point in the future, YouTube competitors will probably become cost effective - probably 30-50 years in the future. If you've ever imagined someone coming from the future with futuristic technology, it would probably look something like YouTube. It's a piece of technology we effectively can't replicate that we're entirely beholden to because removing our dependence on it would set us back decades socially, technologically, and functionally.
- swiley 5y agoAre they so expensive to host yourself? Sure the picture quality won't be as great but with modern codecs it doesn't seem like it would be much worse than the average web page.
- ben_w 5y agoIt’s not impossible, but I think it’s about 128 minute-views per GB and $0.01/GB? Which would make hosting e.g. Issac Arthur’s YouTube channel cost in the order of $200-$300 per video uploaded, which I would hope is small for him given how many volunteers he gets and the sponsor messages, but might discourage future versions of him from getting started. Scott Manley’s channel looks like typically more views and shorter videos, so would probably be similar hosting costs. Would he still be able to do his thing without YouTube? Or Robert Miles (the AI researcher, not the famous one I’ve never heard of before updating this comment because I’m not into music)?
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- Barrin92 5y agoWhile visual learning through YouTube is a step up in terms of tacit knowledge transmission I think the example of becoming a world class athlete by watching YouTube videos is probably really an exception and mentorship and a comprehensive environment to learn in are very important. Samo also lists (heart) surgery as an example and I think it would be very hard to learn this at any level of excellence from footage alone. (obviously also hard to test given the lack of volunteers I imagine). But there's a huge tactile component that just gets absorbed by osmosis in a real world setting and that's hard to replicate from a screen. Same with woodworking and some of the other examples given. Even labwork in fields such as chemistry has a surprising amount of 'art' to it that one wouldn't expect just from observing.
- deregulateMed 5y agoAhh the good ol "medicine is Art and science" keeping the physician cartel alive and well, with no competitive risk from scientists and AI. I know my son was at risk of worse outcomes if not for me researching the relevant scientific papers online. (Tongue Tie, surgery vs laser, physician recommended surgery because it's done by a surgeon not a dentist. Outcomes are worse with surgery) It's about time we move to evidence based medicine and revoke licenses from traditionalists.
- Barrin92 5y agois the entire point of your account to advocate for deregulating medicine or why are you barking up the wrong tree here? I didn't argue for or against licenses. In any field with tacit knowledge expertise will persist regardless. Even in a world with zero licenses people will probably not have their kids operated on by someone who studied surgery on YouTube. Both the dentist as well as the physician in your example are trained professionals. As are the scientists whose studies you trusted when you came to the conclusion that someone gave you bad advice. Institutionalized and tacit knowledge in science is just as present as it is in medicine. Licenses are just a way to make that knowledge acquisition explicit and verifiable.
- deregulateMed 5y ago
- topkai22 5y agoYouTube is amazing for the sort of tacit knowledge the author is talking about, as well as things that actually transfer pretty well in well written manuals, like auto repair. I use YouTube to find tacit information on household/auto repairs, how to enhance my 3d printer, etc... all the time. It really is a new repository of knowledge for humankind. It is amazing, and boon for me and my life. However, much of my ability to enjoy and use that tacit knowledge is predicated on having other basic skills. I know my way around tools and a shop both because my dad taught me and because I took courses in school. YouTube (and much of online learning generally) is fantastic to for learning specific, point in time skills that you need to use right away. This is incredibly important and incredibly useful. It is less good at ensuring the people learn the fundamental skills they need to make these sorts of point in time learnings accessible. After all, while I didn't learn how to replace the trunk lock assembly on a 2010 Toyota Highlander in school, but I did build enough things in Junior High shop class that I knew what a socket wrench was and that it was possible to fix things. These technologies and systems serve different needs, I think its important to recognize that.
- grawprog 5y agoMaybe I'm just one of those odd ones, as much as I love all the knowledge and learning videos on youtube and I can't deny I've learned a lot from them. But, they seem to have replaced the written tutorial or instructions for a lot of things. I'm one of those people, I learn better through reading. I learn alright through youtube videos, but I find I retain knowledge better through written descriptions and pictures. I've found since youtube tutorials and knowledge videos really exploded in popularity, finding highquality written tutorials or instructions has become more difficult. Even a lot of programming stuff is moving into video format, which honestly, I can't learn anything from those. I need to be able to work through something like that at my own pace, possibly work through different sections, maybe experiment to fully understand. Doing that with a video is much more difficult than something written. Lately, i've been looking into stuff about blender, trying to find anything up to date in a non-video format is almost impossible. There's some great high quality written stuff for blender out there, but it's several years out of date and everything that's replaced it is in video format. This all being said, I am still glad this all exists and there's so much information so easily available.
- dfxm12 5y agoI don't think you're an odd one. YT has many disadvantages compared to written instructions, especially when it comes to coding. Just off the top of my head, YT has uneven video quality & when you pause videos, there's a bunch of stuff that obscures the video. So, it's hard to read text from a video, or even see something really specific (and maybe tacit) at times. YT also doesn't allow for notes, no way to easy make an "offline" version, no way to compile its contents into your own knowledgebase, etc. You can also read text at your own pace, which is really useful for learning things in steps, while videos go at their own.
- bittercynic 5y agoIt looks like youtube doesn't do that pause overlay at the moment. I tried just now in Chrome and Firefox with extensions disabled, and nothing got in the way of the paused video. I used to have .ytp-pause-overlay in my ublock-origin filters, but it appears it's no longer needed.
- PicassoCTs 5y agoIts great at answering the How-To-Questions in small snippets. But when it comes to the in depth questions, the Why Questions, you still have to return to university-lectures, although those are hosted on the platform. Education and Instruction still have the vast time difference in dimension. And its hard to push yourselves through the desert of ignorance to in depth knowledge-which is why online univerty-courses have such a low completion ratio, compared to the traditional "forced to be there"-lectures and tutorials.
- exporectomy 5y agoI agree for university type education. I've tried to slog through that stuff but could never get far due to lack of motivation. But for DIY and hobbies, it's really demolished barriers to entry. I learnt how to cut down trees from the many tree-cutting YouTube channels, how to build a retaining wall, how to plaster your walls, all sorts of little individual skills that are otherwise hard to pick up without making a career out of it or having the right friends.
- shireboy 5y agoThis has been evident to me personally in two areas especially: car repair and gardening. I routinely look up repairs for my vehicles on YT and often find they are more approachable than if I’d just relied on a chiltons guide. The “tacit knowledge” of things like “you got to reach around from this angle to access the oil filter” or “when it makes this sound, it’s often this part” is incredible. And it’s struck me before that it really is a new phenomenon that all this detailed knowledge video is available instantly. Gardening reveals a gotcha that I’ve thought I’d like to solve with my own content though. Often content is presented with no followup. Ie “top 10 ways to get rid of squash vine borers” regurgitates the same things as lists online, with very little I’ve seen saying “these worked, these didn’t”. Since it’s often a longer term endeavor with lots of variables, there’s little content that follows gardening techniques through. I’ve thought if I started a garden channel, I’d like to do time lapse videos following real random controlled trials with various techniques to see and demonstrate what works. Maybe a way to have a very boring channel, but it’s what I’d like to see.
- ajot 5y agoI liked Cedric Chin's related/citing post (and series about tacit learning) found here: https://commoncog.com/blog/youtube-learn-tacit-knowledge/ https://commoncog.com/blog/youtube-learn-tacit-knowledge/
- hichamino 5y agoAny youtube channels for home exersices . The biggest downside of youtube is the vast number of contenent. Any suggestions ?
- scrollaway 5y agoFitness Blender is pretty nice. They have a website as well which lets you filter their videos.
- hichamino 5y agoThank you brother
- betwixthewires 5y agoI generally give YouTube the company a lot of grief when I talk about them but this article is true, the availability of information on YouTube (and the internet in general) is outstanding. I have learned most of what I know using the internet, much of it on YouTube. I mostly learn through reading but tons of things like gardening or working on my car I could not have easily learned without YouTube > Because of this intensely local nature, it presents a uniquely strong succession problem: if a master woodworker fails to transmit his tacit knowledge to the few apprentices in his shop, the knowledge is lost forever, even if he’s written books about it. There was an article I saw on HN the other day about organizational decay on the internet, in particular, dead hypertext links, and a big example given was a significant number of citations in court rulings go nowhere. With this in mind, I don't believe the problem of losing this knowledge is solved, unless you trust that YouTube won't purge data ever or won't ever cease to exist.
- hyperpallium2 5y agoThe key thing is the youtuber being expert. The highest ranked videos are rarely best. It's the same SEO subversion as everywhere else. "Expert search" startup opportunity?
- hyperpallium2 5y agoA way to preserve human languages - apparently they are being lost at a very high rate, as the last speakers age and die, and the youth learn trade languages like English, which are more valuable due to network effects.