4 ms·

Why even look at the recommendations? Just watch videos that you searched for or those from known accounts. If you can't help yourself scrolling through the r

Why even look at the recommendations? Just watch videos that you searched for or those from known accounts. If you can't help yourself scrolling through the recommendations, there are browser extensions that will hide them.

mouse_ 1y ago
Those extensions are ostrich hats https://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/26157/0c7951eaf2251821c174c49dd38b0d96 https://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/26157/0c7951eaf2251821c1...
- deaux 1y ago
  They're very different. If everyone bought an ostrich hat, the problem in the cartoon would grow only bigger, more and more victims being claimed. If everyone used those extensions, the exact opposite would happen - the problem would be solved, there would be no more victims. Sure, it would become a cat and mouse game, but the premise still holds.
  - mouse_ 1y ago
    I suppose you're right.
ssl-3 1y ago
Because recommendations can be useful for discovering new things? I watch all kinds of great stuff on youtube that I enjoy, over a pretty broad range that starts with building drag racing cars and ends with videos of quietly walking through Japanese cities at night. Somewhere in between those points lies more-technical presenters with a knack for cleanly delivering the best technical explanations they know how to make -- people like Geerling, Lovett, Wendell, Hillhouse, Jones, and Black. I learn a ton from these people, and I was first introduced to their youtube channels by The Algorithm. Meanwhile: I never, ever get weird MAGA spam or political hate on YouTube -- and I never have. Through years of mostly very passive training, the algorithm treats me pretty well, actually. A browse through my youtube recommendations mostly shows a bunch of engineering, machining, and car topics. Stuff that is replete with general pleasantness, and that is devoid of politics. Even the clickbait is dialed down nearly to zero. And maybe that makes sense, for me, since nobody but me has ever used my youtube account for anything -- and therefore, nobody has ever had an opportunity to piss in my well.

mouse_ 1y ago

Those extensions are ostrich hats https://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/26157/0c7951eaf2251821c174c49dd38b0d96 https://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/26157/0c7951eaf2251821c1...

deaux 1y ago
They're very different. If everyone bought an ostrich hat, the problem in the cartoon would grow only bigger, more and more victims being claimed. If everyone used those extensions, the exact opposite would happen - the problem would be solved, there would be no more victims. Sure, it would become a cat and mouse game, but the premise still holds.
- mouse_ 1y ago
  I suppose you're right.

ssl-3 1y ago

Because recommendations can be useful for discovering new things? I watch all kinds of great stuff on youtube that I enjoy, over a pretty broad range that starts with building drag racing cars and ends with videos of quietly walking through Japanese cities at night. Somewhere in between those points lies more-technical presenters with a knack for cleanly delivering the best technical explanations they know how to make -- people like Geerling, Lovett, Wendell, Hillhouse, Jones, and Black. I learn a ton from these people, and I was first introduced to their youtube channels by The Algorithm. Meanwhile: I never, ever get weird MAGA spam or political hate on YouTube -- and I never have. Through years of mostly very passive training, the algorithm treats me pretty well, actually. A browse through my youtube recommendations mostly shows a bunch of engineering, machining, and car topics. Stuff that is replete with general pleasantness, and that is devoid of politics. Even the clickbait is dialed down nearly to zero. And maybe that makes sense, for me, since nobody but me has ever used my youtube account for anything -- and therefore, nobody has ever had an opportunity to piss in my well.