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by MadWombat 3541 days ago
I do not, in fact, have a favorite YT channel for developers. I hate with a fiery passion the recent fad of making everything that is supposed to be text, maybe text with a few pictures into a video. You cannot search a video. You cannot skim a video. You cannot copy and paste code sample from a video. You cannot watch it offline as easily as you can read a page.
3 comments

Different learning styles... Sometimes a video is far more effective for me than reading docs or posts. Especially if its a new language/framework/concept.
I've been learning Vim recently and no amount of trawling through the docs and tutorials inspired me half as much as Derek Wyatt's videos[1].

It's not that I memorized functions and key mappings by watching videos , but without an engaging demonstration of them in video, I'd have had no clue what the possibilities are to begin with. If I'd just read about it, I'd probably have lost interest.

Often I use videos to get an understanding of the landscape and the possibilities of some subjects, and then turn to documentation and tutorials for a deeper comprehension. For me, videos aren't a replacement for reading.

[1]: http://vimeo.com/user1690209/videos

While your on vim I'll mention vim casts (http://vimcasts.org/). Thoughtbot also do some grate vim/emacs stuff.
Also it's nice to see how different developers do their job, I've learned a lot of productive tricks by just watching how other people work.
I created a note-taker app for videos but never had the time to make it into something more useful. They are not transcripts, of course, because those would take a whole lot longer to create. It is hosted on GitHub pages for now.

http://www.videojots.com

Just curious - and I am asking anyone here who feels similarly, if someone created a list of these "notes" for a given channel on YouTube, would you be more likely to sit through the videos?

What if they provide the code samples for download?