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Comment by wojciii | Hacker News Reader

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wojciii

I ignore video posts. Why would I spend 20 minutes watching something when I can read the same in one or two minutes?

I read inhumanely fast.

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I didn’t realise you were committing literary war crimes! Please read more humanely! Books have rights too!

No, if he reads humanely he reads slowly.

I'm not sure if you got it, that inhumanely != inhumanly. Where inhumanely is without consideration for the human race, whereas the other is non-human-like.

> I'm not sure if you got it, that inhumanely != inhumanly. Where inhumanely is without consideration for the human race, whereas the other is non-human-like.

Note they're also synonyms, so the confusion is understandable:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/inhum...

The person presenting is also important. I may be interested in the topic but if I don't like the presenter or their delivery then I'm still not going to watch it. Text doesn't have this issue.

^This. I find it frustrating with how so many things seem to be moving to video, even simple instructions.

Monetization. It's incredibly hard to monetize text content, particularly these days where Google's search AI has all but killed clickthrough rates. Youtube however, that will reliably give you revenue share.

I ignore video posts because my video watching time is after-hours.

I browse HN at work in-between GH Actions runs, compiling and Claude thinking, so no time for videos.

These says I just ask YouTube's AI for a summary of the video. Then I can decide whether the presenter is worth another 20 minutes of my time.

I do that too, and meditate if YouTube wounded themselves by adding that feature.

View rates must have dipped for a percentage we don't know of, but definitely made a dent.

That may be so, but are you skimming, or actually retaining the the things you care about? Video can have a lot more impact and staying power when it comes to things that matter in this context.

For me personally, I retain much less information from video vs reading it.

For text, I change my reading speed based on comprehension, going faster for things I know, and slower or rereading for things that are new or complicated. For video, you're expected to consume the info at the rate provided in the video, losing attention when they spend too long on info you're already finished with, and then blowing by other info that I want to spend more time considering.

There are options like adjusting video playback speed and rewinding, but that's not how video is typically consumed and is much less convenient than just altering your reading speed.

I read at talking speed so not as much to gain with text.

But do you comprehend it?

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