Informative YouTube channels

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 YouTube (YT) can be a double edged sword for our long term well being. One the one hand it contains many informative, useful videos that improve our understanding of the world, on the other hand one could easily be sucked into mindlessly watching useless videos. Understanding how YT works will help us use it better. One thing we have to be wary about is YTs recommender system. This can hook us on and make us crave for more videos. I would recommend extensions like Distraction Free YT to avoid seeing YT recommendations next to current video. Instead of recommendations we can choose based on channels.

Channel list

Below I have shared a list of channels/playlist which I believe are more substance than style.

 

General


Podcasts


Technology


Talks


News


General heuristics

Some characteristics that might help us in identifying a good channel:

  • The people are experts in their respective fields, who have spent decades working in the area they are talking about.

  • Creator optimizes for quality rather than quantity, not required to release video on a frequent, fixed schedule.

  • Longer videos are better as they can get deeper into the subject.

  • Be wary of tricks used by YouTubers to get more views. These include eye catching thumbnails, clickbait titles, courting controversy without regards to nuance and truth.


Please comment below if you would like to share similar channels.

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