[byteofprash]

To learn anything, I always turn towards youtube. Its easily the best for getting started in anything. Cooking, carpentry, masonary, building a house!

But it just stops the moment you get started and make it to the beginner stage. The moment you get one project done, the details around how certain things work is nothing to be found on youtube, unless it’s a very generic skill like cooking.

After that valley of amateur, learning by doing is the best teacher.

[cladopa]

I disagree strongly. I have done things like changing the electrical sockets and conducts, replaced the toilet cisterns, the water faucets, remove brick and plaster walls and created new ones, and most of the important knowledge for doing that came from Youtube.

Just the other day I needed to remove the ceramic tiles in the kitchen to access a terrible drain clog as no professional wanted to risk doing that(it is easy to break the tiles, it could take so much time and in the end not fixing completely the issue so they will have to ask for a lot of money but you will be angry if they don't fix it). I have never done that but I looked at some videos and I removed 4 tiles and only broke slightly one(nobody is going to see it).

I am engineer so I understand how things work but before Youtube it would be impossible to do that as I will make very expensive mistakes like flooding or burning the house.

I also learn a lot from professionals just by watching them work.

>The moment you get one project done, the details around how certain things work is nothing to be found on YouTube

I believe the details are there but you need to be prepared to see them. A lot of times I made mistakes and then realised that the video bewared against it, but I just didn't pay attention to it.

[nehal3m]

The pitfall there is getting stuck in a loop of tutorials. I picked up some pencils and a sketchbook yesterday and consciously decided not to follow tutorials. I have like 5 (super shitty!) drawings now, where I would have had none if I'd gone the YouTube route.

[jon-wood]

I suspect (as with all things) it varies, at least partly based on how important a thing going well is.

In your case of doing some drawing there’s not really any downside to doing it badly other than a bit of time you might consider wasted, and the cost of a few sheets of paper. If you’re working on mains electrics the downside is potentially as bad as your house burning down with everyone in it. In that case it’s probably worth watching a few tutorials first.