📢 Learn BoI – Video 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBjKGSmuy1U
it's on a new YT channel so hit subscribe and ring the bell!
it's on a new YT channel so hit subscribe and ring the bell!
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FI Learning
For learning with practice. Posts are not private and could end up on Bing.
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From http://fallibleideas.com/books#deutsch
I’m not complaining, this seems really interesting and helpful. Just curious.
If the universe were an unintelligible mess then humans wouldn't be able to understand it. So the fact that this isn't the case - that we're able to make progress and understand the universe - says something important about the universe.
But if you do enjoy the process and are interested in making thumbnails I do not think it’s especially hard to learn to make pretty good ones.
My best performing video (views and it actually generates some comments from people I don't know) is the paddling one (over a longer time period it's been the Leffen stream highlight). Based on the average view duration, people who click on the paddling video are expecting something different than slides and explanation, though!
IIRC likes, comments, and key words in the description / “about section” of the vid (not sure those are the correct YT terms) are the most important things to rank high re YT algo.
logo could be good. philosophy logos are hard. i don't really like Tew's. i think it's boring and doesn't communicate much. i like his version with 2 gears more than the single gear logo.
with a logo it could be like EDITOR EXPLAINS on the top left with my logo under that, and some BoI stuff on the right.
anyone have logo ideas?
also it's harder to make a logo cuz i haven't decided whether i'll name the new site Critical Fallibilism or something else. i'd prefer a logo that isn't based on text or initials anyway though.
Editor is the term DD and I actually used (i sent him BoI "edits" which were more idea comments than grammar or wording edits, though i did both).
Collaborator is more accurate but i think a bit confusing.
Commenter is misleading.
colleague doesn't get across that i worked on the book.
i can't say something too strong. i was not even close to a co-author. but much more than is typical of these kinda things. i did a lot more than just get sent a draft and give some feedback once.
BoI acknowledgments says thx 4 suggesting corrections & improvements. accurate but doesn't fit in YT title and ppl will assume i did less than i did.
any ideas?
I think the videos can be more polished because I guess the goal is to make the videos reach a lot of people.
These are some guesses. I am trying to nail down the reason for popularity of such videos. [from YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown]. I guess the reason is how easy it makes for someone to walk through the problem.
i like these video essays ok but the there are no learning outcomes. you're just supposed to feel smart and cultured and artsy and you don't have to actually do anything. it gives you some stuff to say at parties or tell your friends so you can sound smart or clever. https://www.youtube.com/user/yacobg42
(btw i appreciate the feedback/discussion. i think this topic matters. i've thought about it)
He started like this. He always made such videos with great animation which makes it a lot of fun for someone to follow.
this is an open problem. we don't know the effect of trying to reach more people. As I see it most people are real bad at reason so I expect not much growth. But attempting is obviously the right thing to do.
I'm super clear about this. I think everyone is super clear about this.
I've wasted enough time on YouTube. Now I'm trying to put it to some good use. I can share a list of similar channels and then a breakdown can be attempted on them.
I think it's also the case that some mathematical thinking is visual. That explains the why animation makes mathematical content more appealing. I think visuals help for non mathematical cases too but I'm not clear on the How and why?
there's a website called canva. They have some ready made templates too.
graphics are good for maps for history explainers https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmaBzfCCwZ2KqaBJjkj0fw
graphics are good for speedrun explainers like https://www.youtube.com/user/BismuthWasTaken and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUbO6rBht0daVIOGML3c8w and many others
there are good graphics and animations for explaining old video game hardware here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwRqWnW5ZkVaP_lZF7caZ-g
My guess is that people click on an attractive thumbnail.
It was a while back so I don’t remember. I think I was web searching for ~“how to rank high on YouTube algorithm” or something like that.
I too think ppl do click on an attractive thumbnail. I have two main criticisms of focusing on thumbnails too much though:
1) In order to see an attractive thumbnail the video first has to rank pretty well on the relevant search (w/ the algorithm) to show up at the top of the search results. If you can’t see the thumbnail you can’t click on it.
2) I don’t think that ppl who mainly make the choice of what to watch based on a thumbnail are the ppl Elliot is looking for (not his “kind of ppl” in Oist terms I guess). Ppl that mainly make their choice on thumbnail attractiveness might generate clicks but won’t actually watch the content. Clicks might help some, but I do not think that is the goal here.
They're not mainly making the choice based on an attractive thumbnail but it is an subconscious factor
that will exclude almost everyone. We shouldn't be looking for those people rather we should be looking to change some people.
any black background works. it shouldn't be a plain black colored image though.
good suggestion. I don't know how to do that. Canva doesn't have that feature I think.
I thought of doing that but it starts looking weird. If the book was actually on the desk then your suggestion is a banger.
That sounds right
That sounds wrong to me but here's a sample pic (ik the text is problematic):
like that. bottom right maybe
2 gears inside a light bulb. or inside animated looking brain.
i think those are too cheesy and make it seem like ordinary tryhard pandering stuff that blends in with the rest
the alignment has to be gotten right as well.
plain bold colors are no no for background. rarely works.
it can't be equidistant from top and bottom. the image shouldn't be too big.
That could be the case. I guess I’m not sure about who the target group is. If it’s ppl interested in BoI then there are no other BoI videos out there, so thumbnail wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Why shouldn’t we be looking for those ppl?
plain fails to catch the eye. too much detail makes it cluttered.
like it. solid colored nodes and make them really bold. make the two nodes of different shape and size. one a square and another a rectangle. Letter A as text in first node and B in second
I agree. Is the goal to get as many viewers as possible?
In that case I think what
I think that would be a crucial thing if getting the most views possible is an important goal. In that case a really good thumbnail makes a lot of sense to me. As well as some really good SEO:ing.
But that might not be what you are looking fore here. Maybe the goal is to just find an easy enough tweak that adds _some_ extra viewers?
if the videos start ranking high then it will start coming in as recommendations when people watch other pseudo-philosophy videos. Having a good thumbnail will matter there.
we shouldn't be looking to make ppl who don't care about thumbnail kind of stuff as the main focus and not care about those who might be motivated by stuff like thumbnails and in effect exclude them.
red pill thing. from matrix. anything with a bit of detail works. it has to look good as well. desk looks like a good setting. no detail is too simple and doesn't attract attention.
some are time lapse also
Makes sense.
https://weburbanist.com/2015/05/02/secret-skies-see-starry-nights-normally-hidden-by-city-lights/
but there are free ones like
https://search.creativecommons.org/search?q=city%20night%20sky
won't matter much I guess. As the photo is not there in the video, if a copyright claim is made then an offer to buy can be made and it's also easy to change the thumbnail.
that's not going to be a problem. once they click on the video they will see this
I didn’t think about this before you asked the question. But now I can see someone thinking that the vid is by DD. So I think it’s a possibility.
But as far as you add info about who is doing the analysis in the info section I don’t think it is a problem.
the sentence in the thumbnail can be changed to
"Analyzing The Beginning of Infinity
a book by David Deutsch"
more words is bad tho
change the font size of the words "a book by". more words mostly looks bad because of cramping so decreasing font size of not important words is a possible solution
that would be my guess too.
also you should mention at the start of every video that this is a video series. So when people watch it as a playlist they can get an idea of who you are.
You can add your qualifications under your name in the opening slide which is I guess common for every video.
Something like
"Elliot Temple
Editor of The Beginning of Infinity"
Maybe put "The Beginning of Infinity" in a larger font than the other stuff as another way to set it off. And/or maybe don't put the other stuff in all caps.
Analysis of
David Deutsch's
THE
BEGINNING
OF INFINITY
With the first two lines in a smaller font. This puts DD's first and last name on the same line, which I think looks better.
In general, one combo of stuff I like is text + photo + some single simple icon that's relevant/topical. I think the text + photo looks good though. Consider whether a mostly transparent square might set off the text better from the background; might not need it here though
i didn't try to solve that problem. that will be the easy problem which can be dealt with later. (I'm not good at that either. I will share the photo without text and so anyone else can solve the readability issue). Trying to get the design right was my first goal. I like the last design the best.
which one is that? I posted 4 right now. Order them from 1 to 4?
I liked ep3's thumnail the most, but mostly that was first impressions. ep4 has a "better" thumbnail in that it's more polished but IMO the thumbnail isn't more effective in an enduring sense.
I think there are two important bits of info missing from the thumbnail (and mb the titles too): the chapter and the the part number of the chapter -- e.g., "chapter 2 part 1". one reason that this is important is that (I guess that) the videos are being made to be enduring. For someone starting out this info isn't as important, but for someone returning it's important that they can find info quickly. In essence it's O(log n) vs O(1); i.e. searching multiple vids vs searching 1 vid. There's also a section of the audience that will be somewhat familiar with BoI or want to share a particular part. I think it's wise for each vid to have something about 'how to watch this series' at the start, but also that it's good if ppl can easily find stuff that they want to. Finally, I probs won't watch every vid, but I almost certainly will watch vids on chapters I'm particularly interested in. My learning strats might not be optimal there, but watching m/n vids is better than watching ~3/n vids. Including chapter number + part number seems to provide a bunch of benefit and little downside.
I agree with Max that it's useful to know which chapters are covered in each video. There's no need to clutter the thumbnails with that information. If the chapters are tackled in more or less ascending order, and what's covered is included in the video description, a binary search should not be particularly onerous for finding the video(s) covering a specific chapter.
I would suggest writing the chapter information at the start of the video description, so that viewers don't have to click "SHOW MORE" to find it. You did that for parts 1-3, but not for part 4, presumably because it's not directly discussing any chapter. It would be better if the description mentioned that it was a digression and included the chapter number which prompted it.
I have a suggestion on this. Most of these unscripted podcasts have a conversation partner. I don't know whether it will have significant effect but I think this format works better that way. Worth trying I feel.
it = social reasoning and entertainment. people who are reasoning socially are actually looking for entertainment rather than learning. That's my guess. It seems right to me.