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Comment by mjreacher | Hacker News Reader

I myself only saw this video quite recently and like many in the YouTube comments my first thought was, "What has changed in the way we teach things that this video looks so refreshingly simple?" The first thing that comes to mind is the focus on visual intuition and simplicity, so that if you dragged someone randomly off the street, showed them this video, they could be able to understand it, what else?

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>my first thought was, "What has changed in the way we teach things that this video looks so refreshingly simple?"

I think your perception that the teaching method has changed is just "availability bias": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic

People have always been making models and filming it to explain concepts. Today's examples on Youtube :

- toy models to demonstrate hydro engineering phenomenon (e.g. sinkholes) : https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel/search...

- models to show science topics: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheActionLab/videos

- CGI models to show various technology: https://www.youtube.com/c/animagraffs/videos

- ... hundreds of other educational channels like the above ...

And before the internet, you had tv shows in 1980s with models to explain machines:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=secret+life+of+...

That transmission differential video should be notable because it is old and still relevant and not because nobody teaches like that anymore. The limiting factor even today as it was in 1936 is that it takes a ton of extra effort to build models to teach rather than write dry boring text.

I love that Tim was able to post all the episodes of "Secret Life of...", and then continue with new ones too. I enjoyed his book (https://www.timhunkin.com/40_rudiments_book.htm) as a child, and still have it.

Tim Hunkin is great and I've enjoyed revisiting his Secret Life of Machines on YouTube.

Actually, the original TV programme has a distinct flavour of YouTube to it - in the best possible way it has the feel of talented amateurs. Clear, entertaining and no excess polish covering up the personality of it all.

Don’t forget survivorship bias. I’m sure there were many terrible, unintuitive models in 1936–this is one of the few that was so good it managed to survive almost 90 years later.

I don't think there were many at all; the production costs were much higher back then, so if anything those who could afford to film would've wanted it done right far more than today.

I love this video like most people here, but it must be recognised that that demo apparatus was probably quite expensive to design and build such that it makes everything so clear.

It might be one of those things where if it's done right, you don't see any of the effort.

Edit: I assumed the video was this [0] one about how a differential steering works (containing an awesome demo)

Now I've flicked through the video it seems really expensive and I assume that big budgets just want to get higher viewing figures and so lean on the flair.

- [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI

In the (good ol') times, to get a driving license (here in Italy) you had to have a basic understanding of how cars worked, including the engine, the gearbox, clutch, etc. and driving schools would have had a "fake" car with all the mechanisms visible (and working) so that the teacher could explain in practice how everything worked.

They were "pieces of art", examples:

https://www.museomotori.unipa.it/img/main/180.jpg

https://www.dannatavintage.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/00...

You still do (to a lesser extent). How a transmission works is a typical driving test question.

Yep, but only a very few (old) driving schools have these models (that would be anyway largely obsolete), and those that still have them keep them only for decorative/historical reasons.

Now what is (usually) taught is not "how a transmission works" but rather "how to answer the questions on how transmission works" (which is different).

I think someone prided themselves in understanding the principles in such a degree that they were able to explain it to others in an intuitive way. Kind of the opposite of what we're doing today, where most people are bullshitting to some degree and need to hide that..

I really liked the fact that the video started with a basic principle - levers! It showed the viewer how levers work on a example that is easy to grasp to layperson, then went on to gears and their interactions. During the whole video the pictures were up-close, no clutter, no distracting cuts. Really nice.

No you're right. If YouTuber's did the same it would be mostly a talking head and perhaps a quick sketch on a whiteboard or equivalent. There is a certain quality to these.

One thing that changed is that appliances that used to be simple and worked by using mechanical parts that you could see and replace are now just one more thing with a chip inside. Watching a toaster work with the bimetallic strip that suddenly pops is appealing to the human mind in a way that "enh, it's just magic, like your phone" isn't.

I'm gonna guess that corporate resources were allocated to the production of this video, as opposed to someone trying to churn out content for a second rate youtube channel. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good new stuff being made, but I think there's increasingly more junk content.

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