Youtube As A Learning Source

People can learn a lot from Youtube. I learnt a lot, and I used it normally when I have trouble understanding complex engineering concepts, especially after reading about them on Wikipedia. There are certain things that can need a video or at least more visual representation, in order to understand. I guess in the days before internet, this would be done by going to inspect the problem by own self, but these days, an enthusiastic Youtuber will do it for you.

And they do it for free, at least if you ignore the monetisation aspect, because most of the very technical and dry topic, rarely gets views in the million. Unless it is very well made and the channel has a lot of videos already, I think, the time spent to make video ‘costs’ more than the payment Google gives to the youtuber.

However today I happened to watch a Youtube video regarding metro train, which seems really well made. The video has a lot of views, hence how it came up in my feed. The content seems interesting and relevant enough. Halfway through, I came to feeling that the presenter has read a lot about metro systems but there are quite huge simplification and glossing about certain aspects. I then stopped watching, and ranted to my wife. Now I’m continuing to rant here.

My gripe is that there are more things that need to be considered in real life, that can’t or is rarely documented. These Youtubers who distilled information and present them to ‘public’, will then encode their understanding to the public. Other viewers who then create videos themselves, propagate the understanding, or rather misunderstanding/misconception. I don’t think it is as harmful as fake news, but there is certainly a big difference learning from the ‘source’ itself, versus learning from someone who has not experienced the process, or problem himself.

I myself suffer this problem. Although I don’t make videos (at least not anymore), I write here and I also explain to people, things that I don’t really understand myself. Most often this is something related to programming or technology. I would read and watch a few videos, and went gallivanting and explaining it to whomever willing to listen, glossing through the effort it requires to do certain things. Alhamdulillah I have been given the opportunity to work on the supplier side, and a company that design things. This is helpful and was summarized by my manager once, where he said something along the line, “Everyone says oh, it’s just software. Oh we can do that in software. But if you design it properly, you don’t need to do it in software. They don’t know the effort needed to do it in software.”

And yes, most people who thinks that it is easy, are the ones who either a lot about it, or know very little. I hope in years to come, I would be the former, and not the latter. Better yet, even if I know how to solve a problem, I still know how it is hard for other people, showing that I can empathize still.

Thank you for reading.