The worst thing about online learning is that everything has become a video. Every code tutorial. Every design tutorial. Nobody actually writes out a guide anymore. It's just "hey guys welcome to my tutorial" and watching 10 minutes of content that isn't remotely relevant...
Post
Replies:
0
@Daojoan And to make matters worse, there is fuck ton of stupid Ai generated generic slop videos that don't actually fix anything, it's just a generic video to fix some very broad issue and you can find like 15 same videos from different "creators".
@Daojoan
"Oh, I remember this video talked about that. Let me just ctrl-F the keyword to find the right part of the video..."
@Daojoan not to toot my own horn too much, but this has been annoying me for YEARS, and after pushing for way too long there's now interactive learning built into #Grafana.. as in, If you go to https://play.grafana.org/alerting , click the question mark in the upper right, and then select the interactive guide, it teaches you within the UI
@Daojoan the inability to process written language was the first slice at the throat, imo.
@Daojoan Now there is a AI button on youtube videos which you can use for summarizing the video or asking other questions.
@Daojoan omg this. Every click to a link is painful.
@Daojoan yes! We had a discussion about this at my customer, and a user survey. The result has been 50/50 between video and written. We did a blended learning concept and we decided to choose the best for the users .
I agree , I like written as well more
@Daojoan I always hated video tutorials. Esp. because the format is inherently hard to adjust for updates.
@Daojoan Writing good guides is so much harder. Modern life gravitates towards the easy path.
@Daojoan Yes, I greatly prefer a concise, written 'how to' above the endless blathering on a video.
@Daojoan depending on what you want to learn I can suggest the Odin project if it’s software development you want to learn they have an exhaustive guide
@Daojoan Fully agree. Unfortunately most (AI gen'd?) websites also fail to get to the point efficiently, and ramble on around the subject for ages. Hence I prefer a short'n'succinct Codeberg/Github page or minimal blog post that dives straight into the issue and be done with it.
@Daojoan to be fair, video *tutorials* have worked better than written *tutorials* for me in many occasions. What I really struggle with right now is finding something that *isn't* a tutorial when all I need is concise, high-quality, up-to-date, structured and easily searchable reference material. Especially when it comes to web development.
@Daojoan Oh hell that is so true! It drives me bloody insane!
Ten minutes of video drivel that could be condensed down to a couple of pages of text and a few diagrams - all of which might take just a few minutes to read, understand and act upon.
I know about learning styles, etc. and that video instruction works better for some people, but give the rest of us the option FFS!!
@Daojoan Most people would rather die than write. Fake“professionals” prefer to ramble the same inane bs many times over writing it down once.
@Daojoan Absolutely correct
Food bloggers used to write things down. That is, they used to teach you how to cook. Nowadays, that still write, but it's like every article starts with, "I was born on a farm in Nebraska..."
For me it has been a blessing. I've always struggled to keep focused when reading walls of text, but now I can get a visual guide.
For quick "was it Y?" I've never failed to find a brief written answer (usually in SO, reddit or the rare forum post).
For long tutorials, I've managed to find stuff that gets to the point very fast. SponsorBlock for YouTube is also pretty good for skipping meanderings.
We have choices now. What works for you is good, what works for others is also good.
@Daojoan makes me want to make a tutorial video that's just the text of the tutorial slowly scrolling past
@Daojoan My brain can very easily retain information I have read in text. I have a very hard time remembering what somebody said in spoken words.
@Daojoan German #music #education for #free in written form:
Have fun, people. 👍
@Daojoan if it's a video 9 times out of 10 I will not view it. If I must view it, I will not play it, but skip through it as fast as I can.
If it's on YouTube? Forget it.
@Daojoan Roots feed the branches, and during any 'leap' change, as has been the computer age, there requires a countermeasure to fill the gap/deficit that's left in said "leap".
And as a byproduct of millions of years, of harder physical differentials, placing too much weight on software, and far less on hardware, results in the inevitable asymmetry we're seeing now.
May as well be a brain in a vat, while cockroaches inherit your past potential.
@Daojoan “Could this 10 minute video have been a 2 minute read?”
Are you setting up your AI skills.md file so that it only gives you the advertisements and weekly drama you're interested in instead of random ones after you ask it to write out a guide for you?
@Daojoan
once upon a time I lamented about this,
explaining the time and energy lost (to make and consult this), the inability to search for keywords.
nowadays I getvthe answer 'shitGpt can sum up for you, then search in it'.
I quit.
Creators profit from YouTube's garbage business model to the detriment of those looking to actually learn anything.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NewTubers/comments/drqk8f/10_minute_videos_for_monetization_still_a_thing/
And if they do, it's AI slob which starts explaining how to turn on a PC, the history of computers in general, why <your problem> matters. Then there's the solution: click on <menu => option that doesn't exist>.
@Daojoan what might help is to try different search engines that focus on blogs and lower the ranking based on ads and tracking.
The big two trackers (google & bing) actively give big tech and ads supported websites higher ratings, leaving independent blogs in the dust, at page 8.
@Daojoan I agree. I usually put extra time into searching for text-based alternatives to these videos 
@Daojoan I only recently started realizing that more often than not, people are surprised to find that for the presentations I give, there usually is a full text written version, and that the references are links to actual text resources.
@Daojoan I can't agree more! I in particular do best learning through text and am good at scanning a document quickly to find what I need. I hate watching videos produced by amateurs with annoying speaking habits who spend the whole video drawing imaginary circles with their cursor around the menu item they are talking about!
@Daojoan I dont know if is this or that Discord replaced so many forums, that many problem solving answers and learning material is not searchable or will get lost forever.
@Daojoan A guy I now work with documents internal procedures by linking to YT vids. I'm about ready to rewrite all our wiki pages
@Daojoan
But every information is repeated 5 times, to get the 10 minutes video filled up.
With garbage.
@Daojoan Ugh, so true! I hate watching long videos when I just want quick steps. Give me a simple guide please — my brain can’t handle all that fluff!
@Daojoan Really annoying
But luckily I have found an exception for coding: 
Codecademy
No video, just text and coding exercises. Directly on their platform. You code following the exercise, it corrects you and you can test yourself directly on their platform
I have a love/hate relationship with them: I love the fact that it is practical, no 30 minute video course, but the pace is really slow.
But if you want to tackle a new topic in coding, it's just great
@Daojoan
Heartily agreed! While -some_ things benefit from video (like "How do you take apart this thing?", though well made photos do the same), most things really don't need a video and bad voice over.
FWIW, there is this script:
https://github.com/obra/Youtube2Webpage
which converts YT videos to a series of screenshots along with the subtitled text. I have not tried it, so I don't know how well it works.
Or if you do find a written tutorial, it's written by AI, so you can't trust it.
@Daojoan true. I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't pad it out so much with useless ramblings just to stretch the useful bit.
@Daojoan I blame the platforms (Coursera, Udemy, etc). They all enable mediocre quality video peddlers to make a fair amount of money.
A course-creation/monetization platform that didn't rely on video would probably be beneficial.
@Daojoan I like the use of #video as very short clips embedded in a text narrative or instructions, along with still #photographs.
As used by the @bbc in the early days of the Web.
Stills are often best for showing which part is where, video is a good way to see how someone skilled does a particular tricky move, words convey #structuredinformation, and best printed.
@Daojoan Very much agree. I'm a visual person, but in the sense that I scan a well organised text much, much faster than a rando with a webcam can explain it.
@Daojoan all compounded by the fact that the vast majority of people uploading instructional videos are *monumentally fucking shit* at instructing. Teaching is a skill, and most people who try to do it just leave you wanting to punch them repeatedly for being so obliviously bad at it
@Daojoan and the first two minutes telling you how "we're gonna jump right into it."
@Daojoan but on the plus side: you can use the YouTube "ai" to turn the video into a longer-winded text full of errors!
@Daojoan Videos are so slow! I’d rather read quick steps than watch someone talk forever. Where’s the simple guide when you need it?
@Daojoan That is so true. I believe it's all about two factors, the easier "stream of thought speaking" (against writing a correct text) and the desire to show off themselves, before any technical content
