4 ms·

> Would it be better if she sat at home with the TV on and a paper book? No, I don't think so. I'm confident TV off and book is better than youtube, for the pu

> Would it be better if she sat at home with the TV on and a paper book? No, I don't think so. I'm confident TV off and book is better than youtube, for the purpose of maintaining and agile mind.

rixed 1y ago
I'm certain there is a lot more very good content on YT than anywhere on TV, but that's unfortunately not the content that google is pushing toward the users. (Yes, I'm aware that they push whatever the users click onto and whatever makes them profit; I don't care, I still believe they should push the best content).
- ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
  I didn't say youtube vs TV, I said youtube vs books.
pajamasam 1y ago
My dad watches niche car repair videos on YouTube and my mom does online art classes. Back when we didn’t have fast internet, my mom would watch crappy reality TV shows out of boredom. I think overall, the internet is taking up more of their time than books/tv did in the past (just as it does for me), but it also gives them access to quality content within their niche interests.
- ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
  I didn't say youtube vs TV, I said youtube vs books.
arccy 1y ago
these days books are no guarantee of quality
- leni536 1y ago
  It never was, we just don't remember the garbage ones.
0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
Books have a lot of undeserved cultural cachet, in my view. It's common for a book to have about a blog post's worth of useful information. Fiction books are full of outright lies =) But even nonfiction books tend to fail fact-checks: https://reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/cwa4uv/how_accurate_is_the_book_sapiens_a_brief_history/ https://reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/cwa4uv/how_acc...
- throwup238 1y ago
  That’s true for most mass market crap but that’s a low bar because it’s all just escapism in a different format. Books still have a much higher signal to noise ratio and information density than all content short of academic textbooks or courses (and I’ll die on that hill). Sapiens is a good example of that kind of mass market crap. I’m currently reading After the Ice by Mithen and The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow which are much better attempts at pop-academia takes at early human history. Even just the notes section of those books is a goldmine for sources that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else outside a dense textbook. Now with AI it’s easier than ever to stick to the good (nonfiction) stuff. Ask it for book recommendations and then ask it to search online for criticisms/reviews of their accuracy. I used to double check the sources for the reviews but never found any broad strokes inaccuracies.
  - leobg 1y ago
    > After the Ice Thank you for that recommendation! Looks great.
    - 0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
      FWIW here's a critique I found based on a quick Google search: https://reddit.com/r/Archeology/comments/1ksaqw9/after_the_ice_by_steven_mithen_came_out_in_2003/mtt0mhj/ https://reddit.com/r/Archeology/comments/1ksaqw9/after_the_i... I wonder if it makes sense to just avoid reading anthropology books until the field settles down a little more.
  - wiether 1y ago
nitwit005 1y ago
Look at the books people actually read, and you won't be as confident.

> Would it be better if she sat at home with the TV on and a paper book? No, I don't think so. I'm confident TV off and book is better than youtube, for the purpose of maintaining and agile mind.

rixed 1y ago

I'm certain there is a lot more very good content on YT than anywhere on TV, but that's unfortunately not the content that google is pushing toward the users. (Yes, I'm aware that they push whatever the users click onto and whatever makes them profit; I don't care, I still believe they should push the best content).

ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
I didn't say youtube vs TV, I said youtube vs books.

pajamasam 1y ago

My dad watches niche car repair videos on YouTube and my mom does online art classes. Back when we didn’t have fast internet, my mom would watch crappy reality TV shows out of boredom. I think overall, the internet is taking up more of their time than books/tv did in the past (just as it does for me), but it also gives them access to quality content within their niche interests.

ekjhgkejhgk 1y ago
I didn't say youtube vs TV, I said youtube vs books.

arccy 1y ago

these days books are no guarantee of quality

leni536 1y ago
It never was, we just don't remember the garbage ones.

0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago

Books have a lot of undeserved cultural cachet, in my view. It's common for a book to have about a blog post's worth of useful information. Fiction books are full of outright lies =) But even nonfiction books tend to fail fact-checks: https://reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/cwa4uv/how_accurate_is_the_book_sapiens_a_brief_history/ https://reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/cwa4uv/how_acc...

throwup238 1y ago
That’s true for most mass market crap but that’s a low bar because it’s all just escapism in a different format. Books still have a much higher signal to noise ratio and information density than all content short of academic textbooks or courses (and I’ll die on that hill). Sapiens is a good example of that kind of mass market crap. I’m currently reading After the Ice by Mithen and The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow which are much better attempts at pop-academia takes at early human history. Even just the notes section of those books is a goldmine for sources that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else outside a dense textbook. Now with AI it’s easier than ever to stick to the good (nonfiction) stuff. Ask it for book recommendations and then ask it to search online for criticisms/reviews of their accuracy. I used to double check the sources for the reviews but never found any broad strokes inaccuracies.
- leobg 1y ago
  > After the Ice Thank you for that recommendation! Looks great.
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 1y ago
    FWIW here's a critique I found based on a quick Google search: https://reddit.com/r/Archeology/comments/1ksaqw9/after_the_ice_by_steven_mithen_came_out_in_2003/mtt0mhj/ https://reddit.com/r/Archeology/comments/1ksaqw9/after_the_i... I wonder if it makes sense to just avoid reading anthropology books until the field settles down a little more.
- wiether 1y ago

nitwit005 1y ago

Look at the books people actually read, and you won't be as confident.