5 ms·

I'd imagine the vast majority of most people on HN already watch Mark Rober, never the less- in case you missed it, he did a fun video on bed bugs last month:

by neom 4y ago

I'd imagine the vast majority of most people on HN already watch Mark Rober, never the less- in case you missed it, he did a fun video on bed bugs last month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JAOTJxYqh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JAOTJxYqh8

doubleg72 4y ago
Maybe I'm not in the vast majority of readers here, but I absolutely cannot stand YouTube videos where the creator goes out of their way to be extra corny and silly. Just make the damn video without trying to be funny. Interesting topic, but I couldn't make it more than a minute in the video without being annoyed. Id much prefer a dry scientific paper about bed bugs than sitting thru that.
- bglazer 4y ago
  Mark Rober is easily one of the most popular science/engineering channels on Youtube. I find the corniness a bit irritating and lacking in detail, but he gets tens of millions of views so he’s doing something right. I get the impression that his audience skews young, so that probably explains why it’s not as interesting to technically inclined adults. I try not to complain about the content because much of it is genuinely pretty impressive from a technical perspective. I would be unsurprised to see technical leaders ten years from now citing him as an inspiration though
  - xupybd 4y ago
    I like Mark's content but it's not going to appeal to everyone. I'm glad we live in a time when we have so many options for entertainment and can so easily pick and choose.
  - acomjean 4y ago
    >I would be unsurprised to see technical leaders ten years from now citing him as an inspiration though I think you’re on to something, MIT chose him as their commencement speaker… https://news.mit.edu/2022/mark-rober-2023-commencement-address-1208 https://news.mit.edu/2022/mark-rober-2023-commencement-addre...
  - rendall 4y ago
    I watched a video where he made a robotic football punter, which was interesting. But then he trash talked a real-life football punter, which offended me. I get that it was a joke, but I saw something there I cannot unsee and I generally skip his content. I do make time to watch his anti porch pirate videos though. Those are really interesting, despite all of the insecure shouting energy.
    - pcthrowaway 4y ago
      His Indian scam center sting videos were honestly some of the most impressive content I've seen on the platform. Definitely worth a watch if you're interested in seeing scammers who ruin people's lives getting tracked across continents for a bold counteroffensive campaign. It was like a real life version of the movie Taken, but with believable action.
      - rendall 4y ago
        That was amazing. I really did appreciate that.
      - mschuster91 4y ago
        If you like Indian scam callcenters getting busted, have a look at Scammer Payback.
  - lynx23 4y ago
    Well, quantity vs. quality I guess. "Mostpopular", "tens of millions of views", "audience skews young". Thanks for sparing me the time of trying to sub him...
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - fafqg 4y ago
    Have you looked at what's popular in general? And with that information in mind, do you think it is desirable to be popular, that something being popular is a good endorsement of it?
    - kuhewa 4y ago
      I think it is orthogonal to qualities I look for although sometimes popular=profitable=budget to spend on content quality.
  - PKop 4y ago
    Using popularity as an argument for the quality of content isn't so useful. Quantity is often antithetical to quality. Look at YouTube front page when signed out, most of it is garbage.
    - albrewer 4y ago
      The dude is genuinely smart. When it comes time to dive deeply into a technical topic, though, he never really puts in the main channel videos because he knows he's going to lose 90% of his audience at that point.
      - MichaelZuo 4y ago
        Doesn't this imply it's not a high quality channel?
        bglazer 4y ago
        No it means he knows his audience. He does broadly interesting projects, but doesn’t lose them in technical detail. For many people it’s mindless entertainment, but for some it will inspire them to look more deeply. Then, as you know, there are other info sources with more detail. There many axes to quality. Technical detail is just one.
- neom 4y ago
  Fair enough! Like the other comment said, I think his stuff is aimed at teens and kids. Personally I'm happy to look past his pop style as his content quality is usually really high.
- yummypaint 4y ago
  People under 18 and families are a big chunk of his viewership. Bill nye the science guy was oriented toward a similar audience but was even cornier
- mock-possum 4y ago
  Yep that’s exactly why I don’t follow him. Not to my taste.
- acomjean 4y ago
  I watched this one. The content seems solid and he’s clearly talking to bed bug experts. I thought it was pretty well done. I guess for my tastes not that annoying (though his videos could be a tad shorter) The fact he gets bugs hiding in his shoe soles was pretty interesting.
- baby 4y ago
  You’re criticizing one of the best youtuber. Ballsy.
- ChrisRR 4y ago
  Then he's not the channel for you. There's plenty of fun science/engineering channels, and there's plenty of dry channels. Just take your pick what you like
- kuhewa 4y ago
  Being silly is how they make a buck and are able to put time and resources into technical impressive content. They aren't being silly just to be silly
computerfriend 4y ago
Had not heard of him until just now.
- lloydatkinson 4y ago
  You're in for a treat with the squirrel Olympics and the parcel thief traps.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    If watching the parcel thief videos, start with the original, it's by far the best.
    - prewett 4y ago
      The last one where he goes to India to mess with call centers is pretty crazy, too, but not as hilarious as the first video.
  - agentwiggles 4y ago
    The package thief videos are great from the engineering perspective, but always make me feel kind of bad. One of the things I find most distressing in that series is the kids who show up in the videos, participating in theft at the behest of their parents. Some of the conversations between those kids and their parents are extremely sad. And look - steal a package off a porch, you deserve the ultimately harmless annoyance for sure. But even with that in mind, there's something kind of cruel about the level of effort that's put into the package traps. Once you've found a target that no one will defend, it's just fine to douse them in fart spray and glitter. People cheer because, well, fuck thieves, right? I get it - I really do. But ultimately, it's fun at the expense of other humans and those videos have always left me feeling a bit gross.
    - korroziya 4y ago
      [dead]
    - 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

by neom 4y ago

doubleg72 4y ago

Maybe I'm not in the vast majority of readers here, but I absolutely cannot stand YouTube videos where the creator goes out of their way to be extra corny and silly. Just make the damn video without trying to be funny. Interesting topic, but I couldn't make it more than a minute in the video without being annoyed. Id much prefer a dry scientific paper about bed bugs than sitting thru that.

bglazer 4y ago
Mark Rober is easily one of the most popular science/engineering channels on Youtube. I find the corniness a bit irritating and lacking in detail, but he gets tens of millions of views so he’s doing something right. I get the impression that his audience skews young, so that probably explains why it’s not as interesting to technically inclined adults. I try not to complain about the content because much of it is genuinely pretty impressive from a technical perspective. I would be unsurprised to see technical leaders ten years from now citing him as an inspiration though
- xupybd 4y ago
  I like Mark's content but it's not going to appeal to everyone. I'm glad we live in a time when we have so many options for entertainment and can so easily pick and choose.
- acomjean 4y ago
  >I would be unsurprised to see technical leaders ten years from now citing him as an inspiration though I think you’re on to something, MIT chose him as their commencement speaker… https://news.mit.edu/2022/mark-rober-2023-commencement-address-1208 https://news.mit.edu/2022/mark-rober-2023-commencement-addre...
- rendall 4y ago
  I watched a video where he made a robotic football punter, which was interesting. But then he trash talked a real-life football punter, which offended me. I get that it was a joke, but I saw something there I cannot unsee and I generally skip his content. I do make time to watch his anti porch pirate videos though. Those are really interesting, despite all of the insecure shouting energy.
  - pcthrowaway 4y ago
    His Indian scam center sting videos were honestly some of the most impressive content I've seen on the platform. Definitely worth a watch if you're interested in seeing scammers who ruin people's lives getting tracked across continents for a bold counteroffensive campaign. It was like a real life version of the movie Taken, but with believable action.
    - rendall 4y ago
      That was amazing. I really did appreciate that.
    - mschuster91 4y ago
      If you like Indian scam callcenters getting busted, have a look at Scammer Payback.
- lynx23 4y ago
  Well, quantity vs. quality I guess. "Mostpopular", "tens of millions of views", "audience skews young". Thanks for sparing me the time of trying to sub him...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- fafqg 4y ago
  Have you looked at what's popular in general? And with that information in mind, do you think it is desirable to be popular, that something being popular is a good endorsement of it?
  - kuhewa 4y ago
    I think it is orthogonal to qualities I look for although sometimes popular=profitable=budget to spend on content quality.
- PKop 4y ago
  Using popularity as an argument for the quality of content isn't so useful. Quantity is often antithetical to quality. Look at YouTube front page when signed out, most of it is garbage.
  - albrewer 4y ago
    The dude is genuinely smart. When it comes time to dive deeply into a technical topic, though, he never really puts in the main channel videos because he knows he's going to lose 90% of his audience at that point.
    - MichaelZuo 4y ago
      Doesn't this imply it's not a high quality channel?
      - bglazer 4y ago
        No it means he knows his audience. He does broadly interesting projects, but doesn’t lose them in technical detail. For many people it’s mindless entertainment, but for some it will inspire them to look more deeply. Then, as you know, there are other info sources with more detail. There many axes to quality. Technical detail is just one.
neom 4y ago
Fair enough! Like the other comment said, I think his stuff is aimed at teens and kids. Personally I'm happy to look past his pop style as his content quality is usually really high.
yummypaint 4y ago
People under 18 and families are a big chunk of his viewership. Bill nye the science guy was oriented toward a similar audience but was even cornier
mock-possum 4y ago
Yep that’s exactly why I don’t follow him. Not to my taste.
acomjean 4y ago
I watched this one. The content seems solid and he’s clearly talking to bed bug experts. I thought it was pretty well done. I guess for my tastes not that annoying (though his videos could be a tad shorter) The fact he gets bugs hiding in his shoe soles was pretty interesting.
baby 4y ago
You’re criticizing one of the best youtuber. Ballsy.
ChrisRR 4y ago
Then he's not the channel for you. There's plenty of fun science/engineering channels, and there's plenty of dry channels. Just take your pick what you like
kuhewa 4y ago
Being silly is how they make a buck and are able to put time and resources into technical impressive content. They aren't being silly just to be silly

computerfriend 4y ago

Had not heard of him until just now.

lloydatkinson 4y ago
You're in for a treat with the squirrel Olympics and the parcel thief traps.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  If watching the parcel thief videos, start with the original, it's by far the best.
  - prewett 4y ago
    The last one where he goes to India to mess with call centers is pretty crazy, too, but not as hilarious as the first video.
- agentwiggles 4y ago
  The package thief videos are great from the engineering perspective, but always make me feel kind of bad. One of the things I find most distressing in that series is the kids who show up in the videos, participating in theft at the behest of their parents. Some of the conversations between those kids and their parents are extremely sad. And look - steal a package off a porch, you deserve the ultimately harmless annoyance for sure. But even with that in mind, there's something kind of cruel about the level of effort that's put into the package traps. Once you've found a target that no one will defend, it's just fine to douse them in fart spray and glitter. People cheer because, well, fuck thieves, right? I get it - I really do. But ultimately, it's fun at the expense of other humans and those videos have always left me feeling a bit gross.
  - korroziya 4y ago
    [dead]
  - 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]