Hacker News Reader

Comment by SapporoChris | Hacker News Reader

>The inventor taught himself the basics of aeronautical engineering using YouTube and over two years built a single-seater helicopter using a car engine and scrap metal.

I am speaking without enough knowledge. But I have to wonder if this serves as a harsh criticism of Youtube. I do understand Youtube is a mixed bag of resources. More structured learning might have resulted in better understanding of material strengths, testing, and safety.

Inspite of the failure, I admire his pursuit and find the article inspirational.

View on HN

I had this experience learning to work on cars and motorcycles. Initially I learned from videos, trial and (expensive) errors. Years later I got my hands on an official Honda tech manual and some real engineering knowledge and realized just how basic, incomplete or mistaken most of YouTube was on the topic.

Better not let the commoners learn too much. They might hurt themselves.

The problem with YouTube as an alternative to formal education is that it doesn't tell you what you don't know.

YouTube should warn people that its content shouldn't be mistaken for a comprehensive education on a dangerous topic.

> YouTube should warn people that its content shouldn't be mistaken for a comprehensive education on a dangerous topic.

You mean like those hundreds of safety warnings even for trivial appliances like smartphone chargers, which nobody ever reads? Do you think someone who builds a helicopter in their garage will be deterred by a warning "This video doesn't teach everything there is to know about mechanical engineering"? Come on.

At least one person did need to know that YouTube was not an alternative to an engineering degree...

But no, I was referring to the more general problem: how to keep people safe without withholding educational information.

Also I have no idea what warnings you're talking about. I've watched hundreds of YT videos on topics like chemistry experiments, woodworking, etc. A very small fraction of videos have warnings, and none are provided by YouTube.

I guess it's caused by not learning enough instead of learning too much?

"Knowing enough to be dangerous" is a well known phrase for a reason.

Maybe either would have worked: learning less or learning more.

No, learn too little, they will hurt themselves.

This is pure Icarus. If YouTube enables this, more power to YouTube, IMO.

It also could have been a fabrication problem. A stress riser in a highly stressed part is going to fail sooner rather than later.

Education in India is restricted to English speakers by state diktat.

The inventor noted above didn't have much of a choice - or indeed even a sequence of books he could work through.

This was my first reaction too but probably every DIY/educational video I’ve seen on YouTube has had strong warning disclaimers before introducing the material. Generally most people would be extremely cautious around industrial machinery that moves at high speeds, let alone ones that you design yourself. The higher the stakes, the higher the caution should be. I don’t know how that got lost here, he seems to have had a crew too.

People get used to industrial machinery too. Reminds me of the old saying, that a carpenter loses their finger when they stop respecting the saw.

In a professional setting, you have at least two forces ensuring your safety. Your own survival instinct is one. The other one is your boss being liable for accidents at work. Even if you feel super comfortable with your practice, there are other people who'll try to prevent you from doing something stupid - and they have power over you, because as your bosses, they can deny you the access to the workshop.

With a solo op, that second force is missing.

My grandfather was missing half of his fingers and not because he stopped respecting anything.

Simply because after working for 10 hours straight he was tired as hell. But life doesn't pause because you're tired.

Probably the number 1 accident maker - tiredness, both mental and physical. Reduces your cognition and reflexes, which results in injuries and death.

There are an insane number of bad examples to follow on YouTube around chemistry, explosives, radioactive materials, electricity, mechanical devices, high powered lasers, etc.

YouTube does occasionally take some of it down, but typically not until it's popular enough that it gets flagged by somebody that cares.

> I have to wonder if this serves as a harsh criticism of Youtube

That's not how I see it at all. The guy built a working helicopter from scratch watching YouTube; That's crazy (good). Even with structured learning he made the helicopter from scraps so it would have never been "safe" by modern standards. Plenty of other people died trying to fly their own device.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com