Like this. Basic stuff, “I wish I had been taught how to do my taxes in high school” kind of stuff. Long-form video content is preferred but not required.
Edit: I should clarify for everyone in the thread that I could probably work my way up to reading stuff, especially further on when I’ve built up some better habits. Should also mention my executive dysfunction/ADHD issues in this post body
1st rule of an adult: video is an extremely ineffective media for any information except for sport and porno. You’re a grown up now, learn to read.
If you’ve got a resource for decent in-depth written how-to guides that isn’t buried under a mile-high haystack of SEO-optimized garbage, fuckin’ post the URL for it!
I learn shit in video format because decent info is a lot easier to find.
This is such a weird take. Do you learn in school mostly by reading or mostly by paying attention to the teacher and listening? Yeah video is terrible for things like news which just state information and there’s no deep explanation required but visuals, especially moving visuals, supplement the learning process to an extreme degree.
and anything where you’re being given instructions where you’re supposed to copy what the person in the video is doing, video works very well for that too
People learn in different ways. I have read many books and also watched many videos, and also been taught by others. All worked in different ways.
This is one of my all-time least favorite takes.
For a lot of stuff, text is a good way to present information. For a lot of other things, information is best processed visually, often in the form of a video. Think repair, building stuff, 3D software, complicated GUI software in general, sports and gym technique, physiotherapy, anything that involves spatial motor skills really.
Imagine if IKEA instructions were text-only?
Illustrations are not forbidden. Every technical non-trivial book has illustrations. That’s normal.
Either way, there is a lot of things where a book, with illustrations or not, is an inefficient way to convey information.
I respect these words of wisdom immensely as someone who should have had a mentor spell this out for me years ago. I’m not trying to bothsides you at all because I agree with you 99%. I just wanted to add a few niche areas like appliance/car/repairs/etc, videoform can be lifesavingly convenient in pinches But most importantly reading is fundamental
Life is life. No social rule is 100% correct at any time. Exceptions happen. Only mathematics can boast that (sometimes) :)
Reading a manual on how to fix the flux capacitor in my car is MUCH less useful than a video.
With a video, I can see what it looks like, where I can find it and how to get it back in there.
That’s silly as sometimes video is preferable especially for things like repair and “how-to” instructions.
Not everyone has the same learning style you do.
Last I heard, “learning styles” are a myth
not everyone learns the same and visuals work better in some cases. personally it was easier for me to see how to put air in my tires than read about it.
My advice is still important, though: text manuals are everywhere and about everything. Other formats are scarce and mostly of low quality. So you still should learn to read even if you have “really bad executive dysfunction/ADHD/whatever issues” like OP.
I’m going to one-up you here and suggest learning to learn. Some people can learn through long form video, some through reading, and some need to take notes and review them later.
For example, I hate all the extra fluff that goes into a written work and frequently need to delete sections until only the minimum information is there. Like deleting the first several paragraphs before a recipe actually gives you the ingredients and instructions!
That’s exactly why I refuse to use tutorials from YouTube. I’m just here to learn the thing you said you were teaching in the title. Im not looking to smash that subscribe button and ding the bell and comment below if I want to see more and see how all your other videos were doing or learn about how you got started in whatever field this is or when the thing was invented or little known facts about the thing that is useless filler to get you up to 10 minutes and im still not interested in like and subscribing and I don’t want to hear about how grateful you are about getting to whatever number of subscribers you have and just get to the fucking topic you promised you bitch
Yup. I find written fluff faster to run through than video fluff
I understand and appreciate the intent of what you’re saying, but I have really bad executive dysfunction/ADHD/whatever issues that make this not a realistic choice for me. This post wouldn’t need to exist if I had the motivation to sit down and read my way to victory. Long-form listenable content is also just much easier for me to multitask with.
Fully sympathise. People are giving general advice, and there’s good evidence that it works for most people. I have adhd, and even I know that multi-tasking is distracting and that if I can focus entirely on something I will perform better. But I also know from decades of daily experience that if I try and completely focus on something when my brain is not compliant, then I will do much much worse.
I will learn a lot more by listening to an audiobook while I do chores for an hour, even if sometimes the chores distract me from the content, compared with trying to read a book. Because if I sit and try and read, I will manage one minute, get up and get a drink, reread the same page, want some music to cover up some distracting noise, then rememeber that I’m avoiding distractions so turn the music off… And so on, until after ten minutes I’m only in page 2 and I give up in frustration, drained and demotivated.
As an ever more aged adult, I think the one piece advice I’d give my younger self is “trust yourself”. I’ve wasted so much time trying to follow advice and rules that just never worked for me, and eventually I realise that my instincts were right and I should have just improved my own strategies instead of trying to become something I’m not. That’s not to say you know everything already. Listen to people, try their ideas out, experiment and all that, but don’t feel pressure to do what works for “most people” if it doesn’t work for you.
Don’t apologize for not having the same learning styles that other poster has.