4 ms·

What a "get off my lawn" take. I think you are entirely undervaluing having access to video tutorials on virtually any subject. A paragraph on the internet do

What a "get off my lawn" take. I think you are entirely undervaluing having access to video tutorials on virtually any subject. A paragraph on the internet doesn't show you step by step visually how to do something. Short form video, if you haven't noticed, is absolutely dominating social media and google has good reason to bundle and theme it for the workplace.

fyrn_ 2y ago
It is entirely unsearchable though
- Zambyte 2y ago
  Definitely not "entirely" because there are ways that one can search in a video, it's just not widely available and not as useful as it could be where it is. One way to search in videos is to use Kagi search with the AI assistant. You can ask it questions about a video, and it will answer (generally pretty well). I think ideally it would should the timestamp(s) of where the information came from though.
mostlysimilar 2y ago
I don't think using dominant social media practices as a proxy for "good" is the win you think it is.
muppetman 2y ago
Can't believe you missed the chance to reply with a "Hot Take" video and instead opted for the old school 'Type in some text like a Grandpa' approach
eviks 2y ago
> paragraph on the internet doesn't show you step by step visually how to do something. It does, images existed long before YouTube, and plenty of tutorials used them Social media domination is usually associated with less productivity, so that's a negative factor
fetzu 2y ago
It’s a “get off my lawn” take from someone who has worked in video and film for well over a decade. I have almost never watched a video tutorial an any subject and thought “that was informative and a good use of my time”. As others have pointed out, there is absolutely a way to show step by step how to do something with “static” media. Take the example of an IKEA assembly manual: think about how they are well conceived, and now imagine the absolute hell of having a video showing you the same instructions. Think of all the pauses, rewinds and fast forwards that would be necessary. And since we are doing half-assed attacks, yours is a very naive take. Setting aside that most “short form video” on social media is not even used to actually convey information (as in the “productivity/office” sense of the original article), the reason video is dominating social media is because 1) advertisers pay way more to have ads shown before a video than among static content and 2) it is much more complicated to do Ad Blocking on video than on static content.
- uuddlrlrbaba 2y ago
  Hah, well it wasn't an attack. But nice job digging in the heels in and flashing those senior credentials. That's impressive or something. At any rate... We can have both written text and video media. And we will have both. It's pointless trying to present one as better than the other. They will exist in parallel. There are troves of information in short form. Information spreads among young people who own phones more rapidly than ever before. Not sure what to tell you. Maybe scroll some tiktok videos about programming and find out.
  - uuddlrlrbaba 2y ago
    Also, the IKEA manual is a step by step visual guide that contains essentially no text. There are few to no written words in their instructions so no translation is needed between languages. Only numeric quantities and part identifiers. It basically already is a slide show. Add some chapters and it'd be fine as a video. Pause and unpause as you progress.
- jdgoesmarching 2y ago
  > I have almost never watched a video tutorial an any subject and thought “that was informative and a good use of my time”. I’ve use video tutorials for everything from home renovations to cloud certifications, Minecraft builds, woodworking projects, software dev, and my graduate degree. This is kind of absolutism towards video is absolutely a get off my lawn take, regardless of your industry ties. I think it’s especially ridiculous to pretend that the current state of most written media on the web is dramatically superior. I wish people ITT could just accept that they have a bias towards the medium they’re more comfortable with instead of pretending there’s some objective fault in things other people prefer.

fyrn_ 2y ago

It is entirely unsearchable though

Zambyte 2y ago
Definitely not "entirely" because there are ways that one can search in a video, it's just not widely available and not as useful as it could be where it is. One way to search in videos is to use Kagi search with the AI assistant. You can ask it questions about a video, and it will answer (generally pretty well). I think ideally it would should the timestamp(s) of where the information came from though.

mostlysimilar 2y ago

I don't think using dominant social media practices as a proxy for "good" is the win you think it is.

muppetman 2y ago

Can't believe you missed the chance to reply with a "Hot Take" video and instead opted for the old school 'Type in some text like a Grandpa' approach

eviks 2y ago

> paragraph on the internet doesn't show you step by step visually how to do something. It does, images existed long before YouTube, and plenty of tutorials used them Social media domination is usually associated with less productivity, so that's a negative factor

fetzu 2y ago

It’s a “get off my lawn” take from someone who has worked in video and film for well over a decade. I have almost never watched a video tutorial an any subject and thought “that was informative and a good use of my time”. As others have pointed out, there is absolutely a way to show step by step how to do something with “static” media. Take the example of an IKEA assembly manual: think about how they are well conceived, and now imagine the absolute hell of having a video showing you the same instructions. Think of all the pauses, rewinds and fast forwards that would be necessary. And since we are doing half-assed attacks, yours is a very naive take. Setting aside that most “short form video” on social media is not even used to actually convey information (as in the “productivity/office” sense of the original article), the reason video is dominating social media is because 1) advertisers pay way more to have ads shown before a video than among static content and 2) it is much more complicated to do Ad Blocking on video than on static content.

uuddlrlrbaba 2y ago
Hah, well it wasn't an attack. But nice job digging in the heels in and flashing those senior credentials. That's impressive or something. At any rate... We can have both written text and video media. And we will have both. It's pointless trying to present one as better than the other. They will exist in parallel. There are troves of information in short form. Information spreads among young people who own phones more rapidly than ever before. Not sure what to tell you. Maybe scroll some tiktok videos about programming and find out.
- uuddlrlrbaba 2y ago
  Also, the IKEA manual is a step by step visual guide that contains essentially no text. There are few to no written words in their instructions so no translation is needed between languages. Only numeric quantities and part identifiers. It basically already is a slide show. Add some chapters and it'd be fine as a video. Pause and unpause as you progress.
jdgoesmarching 2y ago
> I have almost never watched a video tutorial an any subject and thought “that was informative and a good use of my time”. I’ve use video tutorials for everything from home renovations to cloud certifications, Minecraft builds, woodworking projects, software dev, and my graduate degree. This is kind of absolutism towards video is absolutely a get off my lawn take, regardless of your industry ties. I think it’s especially ridiculous to pretend that the current state of most written media on the web is dramatically superior. I wish people ITT could just accept that they have a bias towards the medium they’re more comfortable with instead of pretending there’s some objective fault in things other people prefer.