5 ms·

I appreciate everything he stands for - he's on the right side of just about every issue. I just wish he could make more succinct and effective videos.

• edoceo 3mo ago
  Sometimes the problems are so complex and entangled it's hard to fit solutions into sound bites (vis: taxes, healthcare(USA) and apparently product "ownership". Deere is a long way from the user accessibility of the Model A or B.
• cgyvbunji 3mo ago
  Personally I think if he did that people wouldn't pay attention. My experience is that when you complain to people about digital rights they just glaze over unless you walk them through all the ins and outs and the implications.
  • dataflow 3mo ago
    I share his videos here but nobody seems to see them and/or care enough to vote; all I get is crickets. It's baffling to me. Examples: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48802162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48802162 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48395520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48395520 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47043208 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47043208
    • VladVladikoff 3mo ago
      I clicked on one, he was rambling about wearing sunglasses because of studio lights, seems like pointless drivel, so I stopped watching.
      • samplifier 3mo ago
        Have you tried SponsorBlock? https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock
    • throw2ih020 3mo ago
      HN audience prefers text to video; videos rarely do well here compared to other sites.
      • TedDoesntTalk 3mo ago
        Agree. I almost never watch them when posted in comments. Sometimes if it’s a main article I might.
      • wojciii 3mo ago
        I ignore video posts. Why would I spend 20 minutes watching something when I can read the same in one or two minutes? I read inhumanely fast.
        • glitchcrab 3mo ago
          The person presenting is also important. I may be interested in the topic but if I don't like the presenter or their delivery then I'm still not going to watch it. Text doesn't have this issue.
        • whstl 3mo ago
          I ignore video posts because my video watching time is after-hours. I browse HN at work in-between GH Actions runs, compiling and Claude thinking, so no time for videos.
        • mboto 3mo ago
          I didn’t realise you were committing literary war crimes! Please read more humanely! Books have rights too!
          • stavros 3mo ago
            No, if he reads humanely he reads slowly.
            • lemiffe 3mo ago
              I'm not sure if you got it, that inhumanely != inhumanly. Where inhumanely is without consideration for the human race, whereas the other is non-human-like.
    • shevy-java 3mo ago
      Voting on hackernews is a bit weird compared to reddit. The whole UI is strange to me. Having said that, I noticed that there is in general too much content to consistently e. g. vote or do similar actions. I was watching Rossman's video almost daily in the past; stopped doing so a while ago simply because of lack of time on my part. I need to choose more carefully where I invest my time. (Also, for some reason, when Rossman was in New York, his videos had a better punch; not sure if I am the only one noticing this but he seemed to have a better focus when he was still in New York, even though I understand he relocated, to stop getting milked by politicians in New York.)
      • ivanmontillam 3mo ago
        Not needing to be at the top of his game anymore makes anyone lose that sharpness. As you just said, he doesn't need to fight New York politicians anymore. I stopped coding for the past year or so and I'm considering going back because I definitely feel my own sharpness lost.
    • xboxnolifes 3mo ago
      I watch long form videos on topics I care about. If I care about the topic, I likely have already seen the videos. But I'm not going to watch a 20 minute video posted to HN to discuss it. If it's not something I can skim over in 3 minutes, it's too long. Take the post we're on right now. You can read through the entire contents of the article in 1 minute.
    • jimnotgym 3mo ago
      Oh that guy, I like him. He puts his money where his mouth is too. Weighing in and challenging people to sue. Good guy, intense but good. I think it is a shame youtube is forcing creators into longer videos
    • dspillett 3mo ago
      Video content, particularly on youtube, gets very little traction here generally. I watch his videos, but not from links here and that is probably what you are seeing: those of us who might follow your link have already seen the video (likely via grayjay rather than youtube) and will skip over it to the next interesting new thing. People who don't already watch him will see “[video] (youtube.com), 1 point, discuss” and think “oh, another video that could be a few paragraphs of text which would be much faster to read than watch, that so far no one else has seen as worth interacting with, preceded by two unskippable adverts”. A link to youtube is only going to get much attention if it is lucky to have a title that jumps out to a few people so it gains the first few votes and/or comments that get the ball rolling. Even then Louis' videos aren't going to get a hot debate going: most people either entirely agree so don't see the point commenting further, or they aren't the sort of people who are reading HN at all or are but don't follow video links.
    • lotsofpulp 3mo ago
      Unless the video is about an extraordinary natural phenomenon that can be seen, video (and audio) is strictly inferior to text for communicating information.
      • idiotsecant 3mo ago
        that seems pretty easily falsifiable. Sometimes you want want to consume content while doing something else that precludes reading. Sometimes you want to relax your eyeballs after staring at a screen all day. Theres plenty of reasons to consume audio or video.
  • wickedsight 3mo ago
    I'm one of the people who mostly ignores his videos due to their length and the 'old man angry ranting about things' vibe they give me.
    • sneakymichael 3mo ago
      Ditto. I love his ideology, and have watched a few of his videos over the years, but his lengthy roundabout style of delivery doesn't keep me engaged. Super glad he does what he does / is who he is though.
    • FatherOfCurses 3mo ago
      Everyone should be as angry as him, then companies wouldn't keep screwing us over.
      • tsumnia 3mo ago
        "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
  • forinti 3mo ago
    It's an uphill battle to inform the public. Most people just don't understand and don't care to understand the issues until it actually hits them, such as with the farmers who bought JD.
  • Shocka1 3mo ago
    Almost every conversation I've had over the years goes two ways: "Why do you care so much about <Flock, Ring Cameras, big tech name>? If you have nothing to hide, why are you so concerned?" Or: "Why do you care so much about <Flock, Ring Cameras, big tech name>? We already walk around with cell phones in our pockets 24/7." I used to be more passionate about persuading people about privacy, but I've pretty much given up. I've come to the conclusion that the majority of the population doesn't care what is happening around them as long as they have internet access and their iPhone.
    • archontes 3mo ago
      My response is typically, "I have literally everything to hide. I don't want you to know my middle name. I don't want you to know what I had for breakfast. It's none of anyone's business." And weirdly, the response I get is, "Oh yeah, fair."
• Abishek_Muthian 3mo ago
  His video style is just fine, him and his cats. I don't mind the expletives as the people/companies he uses it against deserves them but I had instances where I couldn't show his videos to some elderly people because of the expletives.
• yesimahuman 3mo ago
  I love his videos. He makes you feel like we can actually fight back and win. If he changed his style I think something great would be lost
• stogot 3mo ago
  Does YouTube monetization force creatives to do these longer videos to earn more?
• illliillll 3mo ago
  [dead]
• messh 3mo ago
  The videos work because they deliver also some entertainment. The signal that Louis really cares is strong in them
• amelius 3mo ago
  After this he should work on "Right to buy products that don't work against the user".
• darksim905 3mo ago
  You really want more succinct videos than what he already makes? Although they may seem long in a modern day where people have the attention span of a gnat -- his videos are fantastic and to the point. He literally ignores a lot more complexities and drama surrounding a lot of issues. Does he ramble sometimes? Maybe, but the talks so fast at times that the video is over before I've even gotten half way through with my own research. And this is from someone who has followed him since he posted videos on spinning on your own VoIP server and when he was still based in NYC.
  • Zancarius 3mo ago
    "An account of human suffering" (assuming I remember the approximate title) is one of his earlier videos that sticks out in my mind and one I'll never forget. It was a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fact board diagnostics for hardware that has obviously been abused by the end user is a tedious and often thankless process. I learned a LOT from watching his videos, and I don't even do board repair! Psychology, business, the human condition...