My main complaint with learning to code from videos is that it's really difficult to match the pace at which information is entering your head to the pace at which your head wants to absorb information. I believe (but cannot prove) that that mismatch is a major impediment to knowledge retention. With written material, by contrast, it happens so naturally that you don't even realize you're doing it. You unconsciously slow down or even re-read difficult bits, and skim over the stuff you already know.
I'm also a big proponent of active reading techniques for learning new material efficiently. It's nigh impossible to scribble notes on a YouTube video. With written material, virtually anything can be converted to PDF and read on a tablet with a stylus in hand.
That isn't to say that videos are useless. Lectures are great for learning things at a high level. And there are some YouTubers like 3blue1brown that make excellent use of the medium. But, unless you really just can't even with reading, even the best of them are probably still best used as supplementary rather than primary materials.
I'm an avid consumer of recorded conference talks and the like, too, but I recognize that as being a form of entertainment as much as anything else.
>My main complaint with learning to code from videos is that it's really difficult to match the pace at which information is entering your head to the pace at which your head wants to absorb information.
My way around this is by placing my fingers on the J, K and L keys, in case I need to go few seconds back to listen again, or pause to search more information/take notes, or resume where I was.
Sometimes a 15 minutes video can be easily stretched to 40 mins/1 hour.
I use this for learning code/design/guitar, and I think it works really well!
I'm also a big proponent of active reading techniques for learning new material efficiently. It's nigh impossible to scribble notes on a YouTube video. With written material, virtually anything can be converted to PDF and read on a tablet with a stylus in hand.
That isn't to say that videos are useless. Lectures are great for learning things at a high level. And there are some YouTubers like 3blue1brown that make excellent use of the medium. But, unless you really just can't even with reading, even the best of them are probably still best used as supplementary rather than primary materials.
I'm an avid consumer of recorded conference talks and the like, too, but I recognize that as being a form of entertainment as much as anything else.