I like to scan articles quickly for keywords/key phrases/diagrams/code snippets. I'm often put off when something is in video for simply because this is not easy to do. Together with the sound issue in my other comment, this means that I often end up never watching videos that provide content I would otherwise have enjoyed or found useful.
Am I the one missing out? Probably, but I also pass a lot of content that I do like around to lots of people, so the authors also lose out on a potential fanbase/readership/whatever.
If it's a video, I'm very likely to just hit the back button. I skim read far faster than a video is capable of giving me the information and I can't copy and edit example code from a video. I get that some people like videos, but unless there's a transcript, I'm not going to be using it. Now, if it's a general talk on a subject, a video is great as the speaker can entertain as the talk. But if it's tutorials, please write the article's to go with it.
That's interesting, I always feel the opposite -- when I open a page about some software that doesn't have a video I often close the page immediately because I want to see how something works in practice not just in description.
I tend to find videos helpful when I land on something completely new, because they summarise the key points in ~30secs, whereas the page itself takes a lot longer to grok.
I find them unhelpful when:
- the same information isn't also presented on the page
- they hide the seek bar, I use this to go over what I find most important
While my reaction to content posted as a video (whether it be a tutorial, paper, how-to, etc.) is more what I'd call annoyance than panic, I rarely watch them. I find I can skim written content and within about 30 seconds decide if it's worth spending more time on. Not so easy with a video.
If only I can find articles. There are a lot of people who know how to do something interesting, but they are not writing articles they are recording videos. I prefer written articles, but often I can't find anything, but I can find videos on youtube. Or maybe it is just that search for articles has the same problem?
Quite the opposite, I find it difficult to get technical content not on YouTube.
I'm not a fan of videos for learning anything technical. I'd prefer write ups, illustrations and photographs. Videos can be useful sometimes, but what it usually winds up doing for me is slowing down my pace.
Videos have extremely low information density as it is, and one where someone is just typing/typoing code for an hour is a huge time sink. I would rather spend the hour reading a chapter or two from a primary source on the matter
Why are people willing to pay for screencasts(of any quality), but NEVER for a well written article over the same thing.
I personally hate trying to learn things from videos. I can't search it. I can't copy and paste code from it. I can't skim over it. Later review and skimming ahead is lousy, at best, impossible at worst.
The only thing screencasts have going for them is that they are (in general) easier to create than a well written article. The difference for readers/viewers though is substantial.
Maybe many beginners might be jumping to videos. I'd like to think that most of the experienced developers like text more as they can quickly scroll past the bits that are irrelevant to them and look for the parts that are interesting. It is harder to do so for a video as you typically have no idea at which point the person will tell you about the concept you were looking for (unless you get some timestamp list but even then you may need to wade through some fluff/water before you get to the juicy bits).
The videos that I speak of are ones that have replaced basic informational articles -- information that might only take a few paragraphs to disseminate, and which allow the reader to quickly glean the content. When given as video, they impose a time and data penalty just for the viewer to either get the nugget of information or to realize there's nothing of value for them. +Edit autocorrect
Am I the only one who thinks watching videos is an inefficient way to learn new programming techniques?
There's no way to copy and it's hard to remember where a specific concept was so that you can reference it again. Sometimes, the video or audio quality is bad enough that you can't even really tell what's going on.
I doubt I will. There are cases where videos beat textual presentations (I think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9xAKttWgP4, the video about programming Conway's game of life in APL is an example) but they are very rare, and even if a few more years or decades of AI research produce a search engine that can be used to find videos answering questions I have, watching a few of the top 10 videos to apply the final human filter will still be slower than opening the top 10 search results now is.
Visually scanning well-written prose that is laid out correctly (easily recognized headers with good content, good paragraph layout) IMHO is way faster than finding the meat in well-written presentations that are presented and recorded properly.
I love the channel and have been watching for a few years. I agree that videos are the flashy things but in some ways videos have ruined the internet for me a bit (not your channel though). What I mean is if I'm trying to learn how to do something and search for a solution, I find a gazillion videos and will be lucky to find a page that has succinct, written instructions. It's very infuriating. So, I often (almost always) have to watch a 10 or 15 minute video for 2 minutes of information instead of having written info that gets to the point. Keep up the good work on Tech Tangents, its awesome.
When looking for information, I despise videos and will avoid watching them if at all possible. For exactly the reasons you mention: random access, too much fluff and low information content.
The only exception is things like home repair advice, fixing washing machines, etc. I assume that the people with most knowledge of these skills are more likely to produce videos than write down something.
When it is videos, it's not a plethora of information on a general topic, but a very specific explanation or tutorial in a niche area, and you run into the chicken and egg problem of having to know what to look for.
For me videos are about personality and creativity. This is usually conflicts with technical tutorials, in which I don't care about the personality. Plus:
- Not searchable
- High bandwidth
- Visually overwhelming sometimes
Am I the one missing out? Probably, but I also pass a lot of content that I do like around to lots of people, so the authors also lose out on a potential fanbase/readership/whatever.
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