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Comment by TFNA | Hacker News Reader

Even most of my nerd friends are consuming less and less longform text. It has been years now since budding hackers can pick up their coding skills through YT videos and now TikTok, and suggesting they read through longform documentation or an OReilly book just makes one look out of touch. HN's audience is as susceptible to the trend the GP mentions as anyone else.

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I'm currently learning electronics, as well as having just recently sat my Physics/Math finals. I can tell you with 100% certainty you CAN'T learn shit from /just/ video.

Actual learning requires you to think about what you just read, maybe re-read it multiple times, stop to try and solve a example problem, etc - all of which require you to stop/rewind which video inherently disfavors.

Besides, I think just like handwritten notes might have a slightly different neurological effect than typed ones, reading might just be a very different mental muscle more connected to comprehension; humans had oral language for much longer than any script, so maybe it came with some different connections to higher brain structures as well.

The only thing you’re saying with “certainty” is that you personally cannot learn only from video. Anything else is pure hubris.

I’ll say this with certainty, video is terrible reference material.

Talk me through something the first time, sure, but if I need to look something up (yes, I know asking an LLM is available) I want a comprehensive subject guide, mostly in text, searchable by actual keywords.

I think parent is trying to make the point that yes, for you video is a terrible reference material. For me too, but some people do keep links to videos and look up things that way, as surprising and counter-intuitive (to us) that may be.

Nobody said they do that though? Weird comment from my perspective.

They said they learn from them, not that they are effective references. I’m not buying the “us and them” or to each their own on this one, sight unseen. Do you have an example?

I mean of course you can go back to a point in time in a video, if you index a transcript and ignore the weird narration and wait through the typing sounds, OCR whatever comes up on the screen to copy and paste and need animations to be reminded you are supposed to pay attention, and you are aligned with the video feed algorithm.

I’m not trying to stop anyone.

You could compare performance on a timed exam between access to YouTube or to an open textbook. It really isn’t a generational vibe thing. They are different mediums.

Illusion of learning is more important than actually learning stuff to many.

I prefer to separate it as "casual learning/curiosity" and "intentional learning" rather than something so crass. I'd admit to being an enjoyer of both, I have no dreams or illusions about me becoming civil engineer or city planner just because I like watching those sort of videos, even though they're informative as well as mostly just entertainment with unreliable narrators.

As long as you're conscious about what mode you're in (which to be fair, many probably aren't), I think it's fine.

Well, I was talking about myself. I used to learn mostly through videos, but I often struggled to apply what I'd watched. Over time, I realized I learn best by reading, writing, and actually putting things into practice, rather than passively consuming videos. Videos often gave me the illusion that I was learning, but later I'd have trouble recalling or using what I'd learned. I don't have that problem with text.

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