3 ms·

He's one of those youtubers (everyone seems to have one) that I just don't like, everyone on HN always says his videos are good/educational, but to me he just c

by belval 2y ago

He's one of those youtubers (everyone seems to have one) that I just don't like, everyone on HN always says his videos are good/educational, but to me he just comes off as confidently incorrect and on the few videos where I am more knowledgeable than the average person his assertions are often wrong which makes me doubtful of his other content. To anyone reading this who likes his content, I'm happy for you, I guess I just don't get it.

kibwen 2y ago
His videos are interesting, and he's got an admirable attitude for doing experimentation and research. But he's not a subject matter expert on any of these things, and it shows. He's more like an independent reporter and/or journalist. Other channels on technical topics often hire experts to check them to make sure they're not making any obvious mistakes, and his videos would benefit from the same treatment.
- gattilorenz 2y ago
  To both of you: care to elaborate on which videos and inaccuracies you found?
  - burnerthrow008 2y ago
    I'm sure everyone will have their own, but some examples off the top of my head: * In the video about EVs not illuminating the brake light when regen braking, he confidently assumes that the problem is with all EVs, not just the particular brand of EV he drives. * Not knowing that inverter microwaves exist, and confidently asserting that you can hear every microwave cycle on and off. * (Over a series of videos) Letting his hatred for Tesla color his videos about EV charging. For the last bullet: He went on and on about how every other brand uses CSS (with no acknowledgement that more than half of EVs in the US were, and still are to this day, made by Tesla). He ranted that CCS was obviously superior, argued that Tesla was trying to lock in their customers (despite EVgo and a couple others already offering Tesla plugs). After the industry switched to the "inferior non standard", he started parroting the lines "well Tesla is just CCS anyway" and this is "Good For Bitcoin^H^H^H EVs". It's too bad because there was actually a lot of good info in his EV charging videos. They're just so heavily slanted that I can't recommend them to anyone.
    - gattilorenz 2y ago
      Thanks for sharing! I don’t think the first point is fair tho. If this [1] is the video, at 1:27 he talks about two specific manufacturers. The point of the video was that regulations are outdated so different manufacturers can implement stuff differently, not that “everyone does it wrong”. Around the 13 minutes mark he speaks about GM doing the right thing. [1] https://youtu.be/U0YW7x9U5TQ https://youtu.be/U0YW7x9U5TQ
  - kibwen 2y ago
    I don't have the exact video on hand, but in my case it was a video discussing the performance characteristics of LEDs (which is a regular topic of his), and while it was clear he had done a fair bit of research on the subject, his conclusions were based on a very narrow reading of the resources (which were intended for a technical audience and assumed a certain level of technical background), which belied the confident forcefulness of his conclusions. Other channels (e.g. Veritasium, Numberphile) delegate the heavy lifting of explaining details to professionals by including interview segments, and in this case he would have benefited from letting an engineer explain the topic, which might have tempered his ultimate assertions. It's only a small thing, but it behooves me to consider the Gell-Mann amnesia effect.

by belval 2y ago

kibwen 2y ago

His videos are interesting, and he's got an admirable attitude for doing experimentation and research. But he's not a subject matter expert on any of these things, and it shows. He's more like an independent reporter and/or journalist. Other channels on technical topics often hire experts to check them to make sure they're not making any obvious mistakes, and his videos would benefit from the same treatment.

gattilorenz 2y ago
To both of you: care to elaborate on which videos and inaccuracies you found?
- burnerthrow008 2y ago
  I'm sure everyone will have their own, but some examples off the top of my head: * In the video about EVs not illuminating the brake light when regen braking, he confidently assumes that the problem is with all EVs, not just the particular brand of EV he drives. * Not knowing that inverter microwaves exist, and confidently asserting that you can hear every microwave cycle on and off. * (Over a series of videos) Letting his hatred for Tesla color his videos about EV charging. For the last bullet: He went on and on about how every other brand uses CSS (with no acknowledgement that more than half of EVs in the US were, and still are to this day, made by Tesla). He ranted that CCS was obviously superior, argued that Tesla was trying to lock in their customers (despite EVgo and a couple others already offering Tesla plugs). After the industry switched to the "inferior non standard", he started parroting the lines "well Tesla is just CCS anyway" and this is "Good For Bitcoin^H^H^H EVs". It's too bad because there was actually a lot of good info in his EV charging videos. They're just so heavily slanted that I can't recommend them to anyone.
  - gattilorenz 2y ago
    Thanks for sharing! I don’t think the first point is fair tho. If this [1] is the video, at 1:27 he talks about two specific manufacturers. The point of the video was that regulations are outdated so different manufacturers can implement stuff differently, not that “everyone does it wrong”. Around the 13 minutes mark he speaks about GM doing the right thing. [1] https://youtu.be/U0YW7x9U5TQ https://youtu.be/U0YW7x9U5TQ
- kibwen 2y ago
  I don't have the exact video on hand, but in my case it was a video discussing the performance characteristics of LEDs (which is a regular topic of his), and while it was clear he had done a fair bit of research on the subject, his conclusions were based on a very narrow reading of the resources (which were intended for a technical audience and assumed a certain level of technical background), which belied the confident forcefulness of his conclusions. Other channels (e.g. Veritasium, Numberphile) delegate the heavy lifting of explaining details to professionals by including interview segments, and in this case he would have benefited from letting an engineer explain the topic, which might have tempered his ultimate assertions. It's only a small thing, but it behooves me to consider the Gell-Mann amnesia effect.