The other thread got me wondering about what youtube channels you lads can recommend. Topic can be anything, just what you find to be good and interesting to watch.
Learning:
>Issac Arthur
I posted one of his videos awhile ago but it's well worth repeating. Every Thursday he does a really interesting and in-depth look at science and futurism concepts and does a really good job of explaining them simply but also covering the unnoticed drawbacks and benefits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7fLNvpl0c8
>ElectroBOOM
He has kind of gone to shit over the past few months but this is still a good channel for basic electrical engineering fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7foDiXX-CcE
>Tom Scott
Mostly for his 'Things You Might Not Know' series. He goes over some pretty interesting things that you might never notice but are all around us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm5khEUIBx0
>Rare & Unfamiliar Music Hunt
Rare albums from around the world and probably your best sauce for classic Afrobeat and the sounds of the former Eastern Bloc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsnG0P8v_5E
>Du Matin au Soir
Mostly ambient, minimalist and experimental albums. It's good if you're doing a bit of work and don't want to sit in silence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-XbRaRR6jA
>Wendover Productions
Basically a slightly longer version of Things You Might Not Know, with a mild bias towards transport-related topics. See also the sister channel Half as Interesting.
>>21877 >Pretentious but useful videos by Alain de Botton about emotional intelligence and applied psychology.
They did an interesting "Porn as therapy" thing which I was going to link here but it seems to have been scrubbed from the Art as therapy website.
>Binging with Babish
Great for those of you wanting to know how to cook or get the most out of your kitchen equipment for his new "Basics with Babish" series and frequent livestreams. He's self taught and his camerawork makes the whole experience feel a lot clearer and more interactive than most cooking shows.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw
>Mark Brown
Last of the greats from the heyday of gaming journalism. Mark's busying himself with a great informative series called Game Maker's Toolkit that really gets to grips with the nuanced design choices and player experience in hit titles. Particularly interesting is his rundown of the Legend of Zelda series' dungeon levels. Even if you're not much of a gamer, it's still worth watching for his captivating understanding of the interactive design experience.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ-Xo29CKyLTjn6z2XwYAw
>No Small Parts
Fan-made documentary series about C-list / bit-part character actors and their careers. Some interesting guest pieces and just a great insight into the recesses of Hollywood most are quick to brush under the rug. I recommend Brandon Hardesty's old impressions and improv videos too if you're looking for a laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sg9FpMWMamzWE2lJPY-Dg
>Townsends
17th century cooking channel. The host's a genuinely interesting and humble chap and his videos are great for learning about history while you relax. All there is to it really.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr2d4As312LulcajAkKJYw
>Techmoan
This guy used to do a lot of (very good) reviews of dashcams and action cams. Now he is mostly focused on hi-fi equipment, with a lot of interesting videos about obscure and obsolete formats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4K1QKKPX_g&ab_channel=Techmoan
That guy is pretty much a blueprint for the regular customers back when I worked at Maplin. I bet he's one of those who traps you in a half hour long conversation about the merits of gold versus nickel plated phono plugs.
I've seen him wandering around the Arndale centre a couple of times, usually clutching a chinese GoPro knockoff of some sort. I'd have talked to him if I didn't suspect the same as you. I really don't have the time to discuss my home cinema setup, as much as I'd like to.
>>21884 The gold plating is stupid, but the cable is less than a tenner on Amazon. Anyone got $7,200 for an audio interconnect cable? They're dead good. You'll hear a soundstage and warmth unlike any other cable you've ever used, I promise. Comes with a free bridge.
http://www.pearcable.com/sub_products_anjou_sc.htm
>>21874 >Tom Scott
I always presumed I liked him I really liked I remember being amused by his welcome to life video years ago, but I keep on finding videos of him explaining that there are exceptions to a rule that he presents really badly.
They all go the exact same way
"This is a thing that is understood by this quite simple concept but there is an exception to the rule, but then there is another exception to the rule, but then there is THIS exception to the rule, but then all that is fine, but there is an exception to the rule, and once you've understood all that there is an exception to the rule, so in conclusion it is this but then there is an exception to the rule."
None of the exceptions seemed that hard to wrap my head around, in fact he has done it for fields I've worked in, but his presentation is as if he were revealing some daunting truth that you should never even bother trying to understand in the first place like niche knowledge were some sort of elder god that must not be disturbed from it's slumber at any cost. This is a prime example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY
I think my problem is I don't like it when authors repeatedly produce video essays that follows the same structure, it feels like he went out of his way to try make the thing sound more complicated and dramatic just because that is the way he puts on a performance. I think his style actually discourages learning, as he makes things sound like these things are too intimidating to even try.
As a software developer, I can tell you that he understated the difficulty and complexity of handling time zones. They're one of the trickiest problems in distributed database systems and have caused horrendously expensive bugs. The weirdness of how humans keep track of time has some really nasty interactions with the PACELC theorem. Like crypto, it's something that 99.9% of developers should never handle themselves, because it's just too easy to fuck up.
Most of Tom Scott's videos on his own channel don't fit the template that you described. He mostly talks about cool research infrastructure (Built for Science) or quirky little bits of trivia (Things You Might Not Know).
I think his overall message is really positive. Science and technology is often presented in a really dry, didactic way, but he shows that it's full of unexpected surprises. He shows that science isn't a body of knowledge guarded by an elite, but a dynamic system of exploration and discovery.
>Primitive Technology
Ever wondered how the ancients made tools? Very cathartic with no dialogue/bullshit.
>Computerphile
They explain computing concepts in an accessible way.
>EngineerGuy
Explains how machines work. Similar to Computerphile.
>Gamesack
Retro gaming for adults.
>CPG Grey
I know some of you don't like him because of his mistakes in videos but I think on the whole it's quite informative/interesting.
>Vsauce
Does a lot of videos on phenomena, the earlier stuff was more interesting.
>TeamFourStar
For Dragonball Z Abridged. The rest isn't my thing.
Honorable mentions:
alltime10s. Like a cracked article in video form. I haven't watched these for a while but I used to like them.
Steveo from jackass.
LAHWF - famous for his awkward "prank" videos, he's tried to move away from the persona in recent years and at least he doesn't do fake stuff and act like a douche.
Vsauce used to be great, but nowadays he's doing this youtube TV series thing that wants you to pay two quid an episode. No thanks. The whole reason his videos were good is that he explored a lot of ideas in a nice condensed, no-filler chunk.
>>21923 >It feels a lot to me like he reads a single book on a subject and then tries giving a lecture on it.
That's almost exactly what he does, as he explains in the Hello Internet podcasts.
I spend a lot of time on the NASA and SpaceX pages. Loved this one from today. I never knew they used large amounts of water to acoustically insulate the rocket from itself - unprotected, the noise is so loud on takeoff that it could destroy the rocket. Amazing.
I wonder what fork in the road separates the life stories of Jeavons and Beno. Decent parenting? Two notches on the autism spectrum? Therapy? There but for the grace of god.
Jeavons seems to bear the haunted look of a man whose parents had enough money to send him to boarding/private school, but not enough money for him to fit in at all.
