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Comment by kenhwang | Hacker News Reader

YouTube's monetization and algorithms incentivized content to be bloated with fluff like long intros, outros, intermissions, shoutouts, life updates, sponsorships, etc. Basically content that added no value to the user and only exists to make the video long enough to qualify for more ad pods. A 10 minute video would often only have 2 minutes of relevant content.

TikTok encourages the opposite: so content creators cram in as much information as possible, often speeding up music and talking. Sometimes with supercuts to even minimize the natural pauses between words. The same 2 minutes of content gets sped up and cut down to 30s and shares more similarities with a lightning talk and slide deck than a video.

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TikTok encourages fast consumable content (fast fashion), not information. And yes there could be fluff in longer form videos? But that also can included context, and allow the viewer to skip or watch at their own pace.

You could listen to an audio book at 10x speed, but would you retain much of it?

I guess i would say, TikTok information is the personification of the meme of "How to Draw an Owl" quick and short. But does it convey enough information, could a longer form be better?

https://i.imgur.com/H7U6Bn2.jpg

from my recollection of Scott Young's blog and to a certain extent my personal experience, you can generally up the video speed to 1.5x-2x and retain the same amount of comprehension - people generally talk much slower than you you can understand, because it takes more effort to say something than understand it.

Those Audible/SkillShare/VPN ads ruined YouTube for me, and I consume a lot less content on YouTube nowadays. Sponsor Block addon has saved me hours automatically skipping them, but I can't help but worry that it is only going to make things worse in the long term as creator revenue drops.

Yeah, most youtubers simply read off some prepared generic script... although there are a few exceptions like HeavyDSparks who at least make the effort to make a fun story tied in with the video's topic for whatever supplements they're shilling.

> YouTube's monetization and algorithms incentivized content to be bloated with fluff like long intros, outros, intermissions, shoutouts

I can watch YouTube on a television though.

And, just like a book, I can skip the parts I'm not interested in.

Are we at the point that research has become something that should be so effortless that even the tiniest annoyance is considered bad?

> so content creators cram in as much information as possible

> The same 2 minutes of content gets sped up and cut down to 30s

which is exactly the opposite of good information.

A lightning talk it's not information, it's an hint to something that should sparkle your interest, nobody actively search for lightning talks as a form of research.

At school I studied Roman history for ever, it's not like that Roman history is really that complicated (it is vast, it spans a very long time and there are many names and many battles, but still not complex stuff) it's that persistence of knowledge requires time, repetition and going into details.

You can cram Roman history in two paragraphs, but that's not information, that's trivia.

But mostly, good information requires reputation: you can't just take a 2 minute video crammed into 30 seconds chipmunk high pitch voice and call it "information". That's just someone talking about stuff, as far as the use knows, it could be 100% bullshit (and probably is).

Ironically, your comment has the same problem the people you are complaining about are a complaining about ... 8 paragraphs as opposed to the GPs 2.

I'm not learning Roman History from youtube/tiktok, I'm trying to figure out how to factory reset my parents DVR. 10 minutes of rambling is not useful.

Why make such a rude and useless comment? If you don't like what people say you don't have to read or listen.