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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

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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago
    That was amazing. I really did appreciate that.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    If you like Indian scam callcenters getting busted, have a look at Scammer Payback.
lynx23 3y 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 3y ago
  [deleted]
fafqg 3y 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 3y ago
  I think it is orthogonal to qualities I look for although sometimes popular=profitable=budget to spend on content quality.
PKop 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago
    Doesn't this imply it's not a high quality channel?
    - bglazer 3y 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.

xupybd 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago
  That was amazing. I really did appreciate that.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  If you like Indian scam callcenters getting busted, have a look at Scammer Payback.

lynx23 3y 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 3y ago
[deleted]

fafqg 3y 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 3y ago
I think it is orthogonal to qualities I look for although sometimes popular=profitable=budget to spend on content quality.

PKop 3y 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 3y 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 3y ago
  Doesn't this imply it's not a high quality channel?
  - bglazer 3y 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.