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Comment by spaetzleesser | Hacker News Reader

I think it also has a huge effect on sports. Especially the ones that aren’t on TV. When I did martial arts in the 90s it was super hard to find recordings of good Muay Thai or kickboxing fights. So you had to figure out things for yourself very slowly instead of seeing how the world class guys do it. Today’s youth can watch the best in the sport from all history and learn things way faster.

So I expect the next generations of athletes to have way better knowledge of the sport and just be way better.

Same in music. I had a drummer friend who had one tape of Neil Peart of Rush. He studied this in and out. Today you can find recordings of all the greats easily and see how they do it. This will take off years of the learning curve.

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Also, the ability to observe professional athletes in high definition. When I was first getting into tennis, I found it incredibly useful to see the best in the world practicing 4k 60fps [0].

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMa5xHfJlBg

As a part-time tennis pro. The combined benefits of watching the best in the world and then comparing it to a video of yourself playing is tremendous for most people.

And for tennis in particular, the court level angle especially shows just how good these players are. There was an Isner vs. Djokovic court level video that's now taken down (the full quality version), and seeing up close the speed at which Djokovic would change directions and return one of the biggest serves was astounding.

This has been extremely pronounced with skateboarding. Technical tricks that used to take years to land are now being done effortlessly by kids filming throwaway clips shot vertically on their phones.

Rodney Mullen, the godfather of basically every trick that involves jumping up and flipping the board and landing on it, has a great TED Talk on epistemology in skateboarding [1]. The biggest block is often just to see proof that something can be done. He also draws apt comparisons with the open source community. Interestingly, he apparently invented a lot of his tricks in isolation on a farm; some genius thrives in the woodshed.

Thinking in McLuhanisms, these new mediums have undoubtedly extended epistemology in very revolutionary ways, but it's definitely amputated them as well. The dime-a-dozen landscape and portrait photos that are nigh indistinguishable, the wild west of the content treadmill economy, and the anxiety of influencers [2].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVO-MfIl1Q

[2] https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/tiktok-house-collab-hous...

" The biggest block is often just to see proof that something can be done. "

This is super important in most sports. It's really hard to know if you are just doing it wrong or it's just not possible. Only the super talented can break through that. Most others need some guidance.

I learned a lot about knots and anchors on Youtube, and as a climber sometimes my life depends on it.

But of course you should take actual lessons from instructors before using youtube as a resource.

I feel like people are too afraid of saying that you can learn dangerous topics without a proper teacher. IMO it holds people back.

I'm a completely self taught outdoor climber (with the exception of a lead belay course indoors) and have worked up to some pretty advanced stuff. Trad, big wall, self-rescue, etc.

Youtube was a big part of that. You can watch videos published by authoritative sources, cross reference them with books, etc. and get a very good understanding of a topic. Even when your life is on the line.

Then you can start branching out once you know the building blocks. Some rando on Youtube is showing you how to build some new-to-you self-equalizing anchor? Well they're just using the knots and concepts you already know from the authoritative sources. You can verify it's safe yourself, and then judge the usefulness.

But are you the exception or are you the norm? I agree that if you seek out the right information - you can learn about all the safety concepts. I would say climbing is fairly intuitive and follows some basic rules.

But I've seen my fair share of people setting up american death triangle or threading ropes directly through the metal anchor. I've seen people using daisy chains as personal anchor device or taking hands off the grigri.

I fall on the side of holding people back is better - but who knows, maybe not

> But I've seen my fair share of people setting up american death triangle or threading ropes directly through the metal anchor.

Do you think these people have spent even a second doing any actual research on Youtube or otherwise, though? I have a hard time believing there are any Youtube videos suggesting the use of the American Death Triangle or threading ropes through the fixed anchor chains. Not using a daisy chain as a personal anchor is basically a meme at this point in any climbing forums.

In that case, it seems like the real thing to suggest is that people not just go out there and wing it. It's not that Youtube has failed them in that case, it's that they didn't even use it.

I think the norm is already broken by being able to learn a thing.

Most people can't go rock climbing outside

Not only that, but for example for table tennis there are hundreds of high-quality teachers showing you the basics of the sport, sharing tips on how to get better, giving you professional advice on how to train and much more.

It is a lot easier nowadays to go from completely new to decent or even "good" in a specific domain by following some simple visual instructions.

Any channels you might recommend?

For table tennis? There's so many:

PingSkills: https://www.youtube.com/user/pingskills

Tom Lodziak: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHc12tVGhzBtlMUq7MR7wA

PingSunday: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnSKFBegbrmsimjnC9p-G...

Coach Lin: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChW6mCKAPsYIEYnH5jnkCyw

And many more that them have very good and useful content.

Thank you very much!

Tetris is another great example of how competitors are using YouTube to rapidly progress in skill.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-revol...

Jonas Neubauer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Neubauer), the elder statesman of the sport, openly shared and encouraged this behavior. Really an amazing community.

He seemed like a really genuine guy, there couldn't have been a better representative for the competitive scene.

I'm learning how to drive a Porsche 911 cup car in sim.

There's this guy on YouTube who races the car in both real life and iRacing, and he explains how he drives the car fast in both contexts.

His insights probably saved me a lot of work of figuring it out myself.

I think that's one of the reasons why F1 drivers are getting younger and younger. The games prepare them for the rhythm and a lot of other things you encounter with real cars. I remember first time I drove a really fast car on the track I had massive problems getting used to the brake distances and the rapid shifting. If you drive the car in a game you are already prepared for the basics.

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