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This. I never watch video posts. I can skim-read a text site in seconds to see if it's worth a real read. I can't do that with video, and there's always some ad
by spacedcowboy 3mo ago
This. I never watch video posts. I can skim-read a text site in seconds to see if it's worth a real read. I can't do that with video, and there's always some ads in it, whether the author put them there or not. I hate ads.
And it's not just HN either, video is a very poor substitute for a well written article. Video can augment a well-written article, but it can't replace it.
- gosub100 3mo agoPosting here for anyone who might not know this: you can click and hold on most YouTube videos and they will play at 2x. I find that to be a good test at whether the host is communicating effectively. If I can understand them perfectly clear at 2X they are talking too slowly.
- ta8903 3mo agoI watch everything other than songs or something cinematic at 2x anyways.
- bombcar 3mo agoThen you get things like the ATP (I can't bring myself to say ATP podcast because La Brea Tar Pits and all that) where two hosts are fine at 1.5x and the third becomes a chipmunk. Maybe they can make Overcast have dynamic speed based on speaker.
- sneakymichael 3mo agoWho of the three do you feel speaks much faster naturally?
- bombcar 3mo agoHere's where I admit that I can't identify them - but offhand I think it was Siracusa. I know because I tried speeding up a recent episode and he started talking and I had to slow it back down.
- pchristensen 3mo agoDefinitely Siracusa.
- throw2ih020 3mo agoI prefer to download the video using yt-dlp and then watch at 2.5x in mpv.
- bookofjoe 3mo agoPut podcasts in this category.
- pchristensen 3mo agoIf you have YouTube Premium, you can use their Gemini AI to summarize videos. I've "consumed" tons more videos since I discovered it, since I can get a good idea from the summary if it's worth actually watching the video. My overall minutes of YT have gone down, but I probably interacts with 2-3x more videos. Just like skimming on HN!
- bfdm 3mo agoIf you're Google you could transcribe and summarize all videos on upload for easier consumption, but then you lose your ad revenue so...