[dopeboy]

Question for people who learn by video rather than text based guides - why do you find it more effective?

I have trouble following someone else's pace in a video (or audio for that matter). I also like to be able to copy and paste code into my editor. Navigation to particular sub sections is easier too.

[_asummers]

I get different things from videos than I do text. From a video, I get a "why" and a "how" most often, whereas from text I get a "what". Obviously text can represent why and how, but I feel there's something lost going from screencap to screencap that is perfectly captured in video about the process of getting from point A to point B. Additionally, most blog posts don't publish the mistakes (let's try this thing! crap it didn't work, here's why. This is especially true as a result of a question.) but you can very easily convey that type of information in video by just showing it not working. The pacing thing is totally a valid concern and I find myself watching youtube videos at 1.5 or 2x speed to consume the content.

[Pfhreak]

I use a combination of both, and I'll scrub a video a lot to see a concept.

For me, hearing a description will often come with some emotional cues. Stuff like, "Now this is cool..." or "Oof, forgot the iterator..." help me learn where I should be paying attention.

Text often has a hard time conveying the same set of information. Sure, you can type 'watch out!' in a yellow box around some text, but my ape brain doesn't pick those up as the same as watching (or listening) to another ape brain make the mistake or exclaim in delight.

[mmanfrin]

Sometimes it's seeing the workflow. Sometimes it's seeing the outcome without having to run a hello-world yourself. But I think mostly it's because videos give a much better overall topology quicker than reading. For example, I'll watch a screencast end-to-end, and then I'll begin the project and start to go through it slower, knowing which branches of the text tutorial are important because I've seen the complete picture.

[wtf_is_frp]

Maybe the problem is that you are assuming others have no trouble. Videos tend to pack more stuff in a shorter amount of time and new concepts require extra effort. I have heard that some "learn better by video rather than text, etc..." but doubt it is true.

[michaelbuckbee]

I always liked Railscasts and the companion/transcribed "Asciicasts".

I think the video format is a kind of forcing function in terms of the presenter really explaining things (if they aren't just reading off the screen). Which in turn made the transcript great to read.

[natmaster]

My brain simply absorbs information at a faster rate with video/audio than reading.