What have you been putting off? And what do you think helps videos connect? I feel like scripts and time delays inhibit connection and I want to address that. Veritasium on Patreon: bit.ly/VePatreon
I agree. If you want to do "live" Veritasium videos, live-stream the recording process, on this channel. Then post the edited and well-produced version on the Veritasium channel proper.
Aditya Khanna I Absolutly second this. If you want more freeform, just post more here on 2v! But please keep up the professionalism too, it helps me clarify my knowledge and explain it to others better. To respond to a different question; Of course there are things I am putting off! There's usually good reason though. I can only balance (and afford) so many things in the present. While doing the Now I think about and hopefully prepare for all that will come Later. Its a pretty decent cycle
Bernie Abraham haha, yeah. Harshly realistic. The people on our screens often seem superhuman; I'm still not entirely convinced that he's not an alien/android from the future/demigod. 😂
It is refreshing to watch someone on youtube who has dedicated so much of their time and energy to teach others. You are an inspiration and have such a positive influence on my life. I just want to thank you for the content and i wish you the best of luck in the future.
You scared me with the ending of the video, i usually just listen to your video and when you stopped talking i assumed that the video ended, and then the sound when your logo pops up was so sudden and it made me jump a little in my seat! Great video as usual and all of your videos makes me stop and think about whatever youre talking about for a moment and reflecting about how it impacts my own life. Its so funny how i payed attention to where you were now and i knew where you were walking and were you were going to go to get to KTH :)
I think both are great, but in their own respects. Your scripted shows are amazing, clear and concise (ha! I was typing this as you said those exact words!) and the information you wish to impart is easily received. But your free talks are also great, it shows us another side of you and imparts a different layer of knowledge. I say do both (you don't need sleep, right?).
I've been a public speaker. I found useful both the process of mapping out or brainstorming my content, and talking off the cuff. As long as I can feel intentional about my messages, I quite like talking off the cuff. I've been trying to change my instant gratification outlook, with my blog for example. Now that I've built the skills in planning and writing I've written more consise work. For myself both imediacy and a long term outlook can work together. Maybe they don't have to be mutually exclusive? I've had to take on a long term outlook when it comes to my mental health recovery journey. This frees up space where I don't have to deal with too many things minute by minute. I can do what I can now, and make further progress later. I'm think whatever works for you. I like both the scripted and the freeform elements of your videos. I also like the photos and videos you've put in at post production. Maybe a blend of the two in a few videos here and there would be nice?
I personaly put away a lot of things - mainly due to fear of failure or pure lazyness. I admire anyone able to act - for me even potential failure in acting fast only means you learned somthing faster :) However, I do not have any recommendation for you - I've never did what you do and I already enjoy your results :)
This channel reveal more of yourself, who you are, how you react and i think its partly becaure it is unscripted. I like that and i also enjoy veritasium because it allow you to deliver high quality information in a short time. It takes you more time but it does result in a better informational quality video wich is perfect for educational video in my opinion.
So, I livestream programming / physics. In the end, the stream is where I do all my conversational stuff. It's for fun and the idea is different than for educational videos. For educational videos, I like things to be short and concise. I am watching the video because I want intuition, and videos provide more intuition than other formats simply because they are visual. If the video is over 10 minutes, I'll wait to watch it until I have a meal or something in front of me because it's often too much of a time commitment (even if I watch it at 2x speed). If an educational video is too long, I would much rather read a paper than watch a video describing the material in the paper. For livestreaming / longer content, it's alright to dawdle a little. This is a lecture of sorts, so it's better to have people ask questions and allow them the opportunity to interact with you. People will pop in and out of the stream and it's hard to hold an audience for a long time. For this reason, it's not easy to teach a full lesson with a livestream; however, it's great for socialization because the audience is right there in chat. Anyway, good luck / I hope it helped somehow!
I think there needs to be a balance, somethings are better immediately and some things need more time. I make very realistic oil paintings and they require lots of time. But lately I am taking up sketching to give myself immediacy for ideas and concepts. So there is a place for both and one can enrich the other. So to answer your question, yes sketching is something I have put off for years because I don't want it to suck.
To me the whole point of Veritasium is how thought out it is, compared to so many other channels. I'm not interested in live conversations. Those usually are all about mood and personality, which is better for entertainment than for education.
I have been putting off my school work..If its not actually interesting its been really hard to get on going..essays especially. I really like these more conversational style of videos.
The Conversation style is worse at getting a Point across than your usual style of videos on the main channel. But especially this video shows the great strength of the conversation style, as it leaves some questions unanswered and encourages the Viewer to engage in the process much more than the "Classical" style
I think my biggest thing I struggle with is success. Sounds odd right? Why would anyone be afraid of winning or having things go well for them? I think it can be all summed in a few words, I do not think I am worth my own time and effort. When it comes to alot of things in life, I value myself around fourth in things I care about. Family, friends, animals and then myself. It might have stemmed from the fact of how I learned at a very young age of 7, how many people were in the world, then how small I am compared to the earth, sun, universe and the galaxy. I really do not matter, to grand scheme of things, my little time on this little rock isn't going to amount to much of anything compared to the grand vast world. I know that alot of this is ego that got busted at a very young age, but I can help to think, it would have been so much better if I didn't learn about how small I am. If I still had this thirst and hunger to do more, be more, and to have more. I just don't care. The only thing I care about nowadays is, learning and understanding, not just facts and the universe, but people as well. To understand one more person, kinda is the only thing keeping me move forward.
Reccaman I know your problem. you lost the childish view, the enthusiastic nature of a new and eager life. you lost it to the experience that makes you grow up, the repetition that kills your intrinsic drive to yearn for life and the rationalization of relativity, that kicks you out of the kingdom of childhood where everything is rapidly changing. as old as it may sound, the best way to take away the flatness of this world is to find this lost child within you again. Board the vessel and start exploring. exploration is the easiest way because that's what you did as a child. go travel, try new things and leave the comfort zone. but that alone will only trigger a reminisce, the hard work lies in the core, the feelings. because you cannot become a child again, you can only use the childish nature to truly live again. and truly living means living in the moment. start meditation to become more aware of yourself and your feelings. connect with people and through the shared happiness and! through the shared pain, together with the awareness of those feelings you will become more self aware. and living means to feel... and to be aware of that.
That's a very real struggle. We all have gifts and talents, though, and we all have the ability to use them to help others out. Don't be afraid to take some risks, trust your gut, and find that adventurer inside you. I'm doing that very thing starting a new business--it's scary but it's worth it because I'm using my gifts and talents to help others! That's HUGE. Thanks for sharing and being so genuine--that's a rare thing today and should be appreciated!
I have been putting off writing my story. There's no deadline on it because I just want to do it for myself. I just thought of getting a Tumblr to just get some input from friends. Just because the fact of it not having a deadline is the reason I have been putting it off writing down the new parts I have thought of
For an educational channel like yours I think it's fairly important for it to be precise and not contain too many mistakes or confusing structure, because the things you cover are already quite confusing on their own, so I don't think it would bring much to the table. For the live thing, I personally don't think it's a good idea, as I pause and go back a million times in your videos to understand everything, and not having that would suck, like when you are in school and the professor just goes too fast for you. HOWEVER, they can definitely be appealing, and they can definitely be done on lighter subjects, this channel itself is a good example of it. You just improvise, mostly, I'd assume, and post it, and that's it. It feels more interactive and "authentic", which is of course something to appreciate. So I guess it all simply and heavily depends on the subject you are covering!
I dislike most live videos. I have this constant state of annoyance at both "it's taking too long to do the thing" and "this isn't quite as clear/understandable as I need it to be." Because a planned and post edit video has all the pauses and duplication and irrelevant periods removed. And the explanations come in logical places so I'm not wondering so often why/how/where. I just get the things I need when I need them. I like that. I also really like these walk and talk videos. I don't know how much you edit these in post. It doesn't feel heavily edited although there is clearly some editing. But the think I like about them is the sort of thought/idea that you explore. I'm a huge procrastinator because of my desire for everything to be organized and right. So I don't pick up the sketch pad because I forgot to get the new eraser. I don't have all the things so I don't do it. It's mostly imaginary barriers.
I have been waiting to launch a RU-vid channel. I have done some planning and developed some ideas and some "rules" but I have not launched because I admire quality education channels on this platform and do not want to produce substandard videos or content. I don't want to give too much away here, but I plan to challenge the system and try to become the "Educator-in-Chief". I want to introduce disruption and change into a political system that needs it now more than ever in my lifetime. And I think social media and RU-vid are the solution. I just want to get it right. Should I begin... just go for it? What do you suggest?
What have I been putting off...oh dear god can I put off even thinking of it? I like the idea of procrastination being a way of ourselves trying to be as efficient as possible with our time, but I don't see it as being realistic... There is something to be said for conducting a task, improving on it incrementally for the next time it is preformed or to learn from it in general.
funny, remind me of a covnersation between a theater comedian and a movie actor, one prefer the "imediacy" of the cloud opinion, and the other prefer the preparation and the post process of a movie.
My issue with procrastinating with my particular thing that I want to do, is I don't know how to get that point at all - whether it is through university or sharing the idea with other people. Just lost more than not wanting to do it at all.
I delay the stories I want to write in favour of more immediate storytelling like in roleplaying games. Sure, the feeling of perfection is a part of it, but I guess for me the story just is more alive when it simply happens at the table with friends and I don't stare at my words always unsatisfied always thinking that could be better, but also it could feel more alive as it does in the moment.
I agree that it's one of the reasons of procrastination, but I'd rather do it a little sooner than later, because if you do it last minute, you will be thinking about it constantly couse you know it's something tou have to do, and that will mess up with your brain.
you, and Destin, and others have made me want to do my own educational stuff on RU-vid, but I keep putting it off afraid my ideas are not quite right. Of course that's a bad excuse; learn by failing right?
All a fan of immediacy to the extent it allows for serendipity - like the guy you encountered on the street. (But did he add any value?) Yet, at the same time, a more scripted presentation makes it tighter. And, frankly, a content creator has a very small window to capture attention and convey a message. So, yes to immediacy for some content. And even FB live when it is a breaking live hear and now or capture the moment bit of content. But I think those opportunities are rare. I look for the cogent and insightful scripted content for the most part. Keep experimenting.
I like the conversation style. at least in this channel. maybe you can script for the videos in the main channel but I also like these vlog-style videos where you just talk about things
Yeah, both styles have their place. Unscripted videos are a lot longer and harder to get raw facts out of, but they're usually better at getting people to think. I like how on the main channel the videos are sort of a hybrid of the two, he'll ask a question either directed towards you or towards actual people and then explore the common answers.
Even more so, it is because he cares about what he wants to say. Script or no-script, it is the emotion, the passion, the curiosity behind the voice that gives it richness. I see many science videos of qualified people talking about interesting thing with the most monotone, unemotional, scripted voice that I turn it off.
I think they are different and I watch both for different reasons, in different mental state. I personally prefer scripted video but i think conversational video are more refreshing, IE it's great but it's not something to do everytime
Conversational videos have their place, scripted videos have theirs. I think if you're trying to convey some kind of in-depth concept, scripted is the way to go.
I like the fact that you have two channels, because I appreciate the careful thought and high standards of your educational videos, but I also like to hear straight from Derek Muller, an individual with spontaneous ideas and flexible opinions, on this channel. I suggest making Veritasium as carefully prepared and crafted as possible, and 2Veritasium as immediate and open as possible.
You responded to many of my questions and comments in the Live Facebook feed. I loved it. Seems like something worth continuing because it has further encouraged me to go to graduate school. The question for both of us is why consider stopping? From what I experienced your fans will be able to appreciate your experiences and knowledge even more personally when you talk with your audience live. You cared to respond to me personally four time that day, and I've had professors get tired after just a one or two questions. But it is not your patience that makes you great. Compassion is your greatest trait.
I'm only a freshman, so I have just started having to read research papers, but what I have found helps me is just reading through each section, or really each paragraph, and write down a quick outline that summarizes what you read. Reading back through what you wrote really helps understand it. Then when you read through the article again it makes a world more sense. Then again, I don't have the most experience with this. That's just what has helped me since I had trouble with that.
I am going to chime in with a similar comment. Summarizing as you go, taking notes and just even taking a couple days to read can help. Often i will read through it once scratching down things i need to take away. Looking stuff up as I go. Then reading it the next day often makes it much more consumable.
What do you mean by long winded? I find that, sadly, there is no shortcut to scientific papers. They are the epitome of research and are quite reserved for those who have been following it for the past 20 years or more. I recently had to read 80+ scientific papers on the discussion of current Metazoan Phylogeny, and after reading the old debates being debunked I felt like I've wasted my time reading the first 20 papers, because over the years a few papers set the bedrock for discussion they revamped the knowledge and were accepted thoroughly. Books aren't kept that way, the most accurate books are lacking 8~10 years of research, in this topic. And that hinders. It would be nice if scientific papers would pop up like Reddit responses, yeah it sounds stupid, but you could follow the responses and debates more accurately over time and get to know what topics winded out or not.
If you mean, "don't do them exclusively," sure. If you mean, "don't do them ever," I'd disagree. There's room for a mix, because you don't have to watch every video he makes.
Agreed. I don't have a lot of free time either, but I love nice long videos when I do have a little time. I'd MUCH prefer two hours of Derek to lots of the movies that come around.
ya know I hate being early because all the comments are just 'im early' 'first' 'not first' 'hi' etc etc jeez people just stop if your going to comment something make it worth while
Well take that time to create your own ideas about what you think of the video. If you immediately go to the comments, you can easily get wrapped up in other people's feelings, but if there aren't any opinions yet, be free to think about what you thought.
mike rotch ha! I did not notice that until you pointed it out... Guess he must have filmed that bit another day. He was actually wearing the other outfit at the start too... Just slipped that little encounter in there. Making a point about immediacy I guess, but kinda funny to realise that this video is so edited...
I wondered if anyone would notice. Yeah, I filmed the same ideas over two days. The first day I saw the guy and loved his reaction, but the rest of that clip was more rambly so I just cut it into day 2's recording.
spot on. Just imagine if you didn't make those first few videos cause you didn't think they were good enough, maybe Veritasium wouldn't even exist, and trust me there are a lot of things that don't exist for the same reason, cause people get addicted to procrastination and perfection is the best excuse. In my opinion, I liked your previous videos better ie. when you had lesser preparation and scripting. That is why I prefer RU-vid over Television and I think when you switched over to the other side to make high production quality videos, a lot of the magic and charm of your channel was lost. In any case, all the best, Derek! -Leo from TPSC
That dilemma is definitely very real and very challenging. We go through it every time we make a video for our channel. It is really valuable to be genuine in videos but still be concise/prepared. Having two channels like Veritasium and 2veritasium also helps.. content fits the context!
I sense many layers of meaning to this question, some of which you are not conscious of yet. Regarding videos, sure, don't over think them. I see many youtubers fade out with hesitant self doubt when it's not really necessary at all. The fear of erring can easily be mitigated by the willingness to admit mistakes. Never make truth your enemy.
Hey man hope you see this and i wanna tell you from some syrian living across the planet that sometimes its hard to figure out your effect on the world, except you can always know that you have a great impact on human life because you push knowledge out and contribute to the betterment of millions. so cheers to you and to everyone like you :D
why is that? don't worry about performance, and when things start on your channel, it won't be perfect even if you tried your damnedest. There are a lot of gaming channels that start out as "ordinary" style with a "flashy" opening and closing scene. I thin Derek made a video on this topic you are talking about. It was when he started doing these vloging type videos. If i find it, i'll post the link here. Also, my point was that you should start it, get some subs, and get some feedback. Check out "Caiyth"s channel and watch her first video that she uploaded. I hope this helps more than not. And good luck with your channel.
+Teddy I hear you! I've got a video, edited and ready to go which I am going to use to start a woodworking channel. It's been 'completed' for over a month now, BUT it's got a few small mistakes and I can't bring myself to upload it. I'm unsure whether to reshoot it (which would probably end up with the original mistakes removed, only to be replaced by new ones). I could probably make it more professional with every take, but then when do you stop? I could be there for 5 years improving it! I could just upload and learn how to make better videos on the fly, all whilst in the public view but as Teddy says "I don't want to put out stuff that sucks". I've seen many bad RU-vid videos and they have you shouting at the monitor and making a mental note never to watch that RU-vidr again. I don't want to be that RU-vidr. Hmmm...
+EscapeMCP I tend to feel the urge to be preemptively self-deprecating, or intentionally ridiculous, so that I can come to terms with the cringing before posting. It's certainly not right for every style, but you could do the muppets thing of inserting yourself commenting on how badly you flubbed a line. If you do something completely borked in the woodworking, you could keep it in, acknowledge it, and try to figure out where to go from there, like what the Wood-Working for Mere Mortals guy does when things go badly. Best of luck! :) I'm procrastinating on figuring out how to record and edit a cello tutorial for a violin concerto I transcribed for cello... I'm so bad at casually talking to a camera.
Jack Hudler Well, I'm better at having a dialogue with another person than having a monologue at a camera, but that wouldn't quite work for this unless I found someone I could meet regularly with who was interested in learning to play Wieniawski's 2nd violin concerto on cello. It'd be cool if there was such a person, but finding them in a short timeframe would be a long shot. I'll just have to push through cringing at myself and get more practice talking to the camera. :)
I think both styles are good. Conversational is more personal, however, it may not be as information dense or concise as scripted. I say do both! Thanks for the vids!
What would be great is a conversational-style video perhaps once a month or week with a quick overview and your comments on any particularly interesting or important science or science-related story during the period it covers. I'm always interested in hearing others thoughts on the long term effects of recent advances and discoveries or how they think modern culture might respond to the sorts of changes new technology might bring about.
Why is it either or? Just do what ever you like. Nobody's telling you what you allowed to do so do it all. If it works then great, if not then try something else.
i think he feels like he should talk to us about that because we are the viewers. he is not makink the videos for himself and probably don't want to decide something and just expect us to accept. talking makes everything easier. Besides that, some of us may bring something he hadn't thought too since we have different perspectives and expectations.
That guy's reaction was epic. It was as if someone pulled an emergency brake in his brain and everything struggled to get going again. Understandable though
Derek, I go away for Christmas and come back to all this amazing content from you? Thank you for this video- I think it's what I needed to hear. I've been agonising about just starting a script for a video idea I had a week ago. I think I've just got to type it out. For me there is no option to not have a script, but I'm definitely trying to make the whole thing more conversational, and I want to share more of my immediate thoughts by just uploading videos about cool new things that I learnt- rather than just videos I've been planning for about 2 years. Part of the inspiration is seeing your 2veritasium videos actually. I like that you can just switch on a camera and talk (I'm sure you plan at least but), they feel really natural and personal. I'm starting to dislike the sound of people's narrator voice (mine especially)- that voice people suddenly adopt in videos or in my case just whenever I'm teaching. It's so much nicer to hear people tell you interesting things the way your friend might tell you something cool they learnt.
Pol Timmer I feel like he definitely should. It would be really good to be able to do a quick quiz after watching a Veritasium video to make sure I understood the content, maybe get a bit of spaced repetition in there... Perhaps that's not quite as in depth as what you're looking for, but it'd be a start, eh?
Josh Gosh I think what I said still applies, if we take into consideration what Khan Academy covers with their content (Physics, Math, Biology...). Plus a lot of extra. :) :)
Maxander2001 yes, definitely your personal experience. Quizzes, tests, and spaced repetition have significant benefits when it comes to retention, comprehension, and other educational outcomes. Going digging for resources all over the web may suit you, but having a single link to click below a video to get more reliable info and test / review the knowledge we have acquired would be vastly more accessible to the general public. Seeing as part of what Derek is trying to do is make science more accessible, it would make sense for him to consider something like this. He wouldn't have to do it alone, I'm sure there would be plenty of people interested in working behind the scenes on such a project. As Derek has found in his research, giving people the facts isn't enough, you have to show them what they are getting wrong, otherwise they will think they have understood. Cognitive bias and all that jazz.
I find it difficult to pit the two versions against one another. I love hearing your stream of consciousness. But I also love how detailed your scripted shows are.
I love the conversational style, but I think it fits with THIS channel. Your "main" channel is a deeper, more thorough channel, going into details and subtleties, which scripting makes a nice, beneficial difference.
I think there is room for either kind of content and often the best kind meets right in the middle: - prepare the heck out of a topic but - don't actually commit to a script Make sure you really know what you're going to talk about on a grand scale but let the details be filled in by the moment-to-moment conversation. Prepare the forest, discover the trees, if that makes sense. But it really isn't necessary to stick to either. How about this?: Have a long(er) form, more in-depth, more scripted episode out every, say, month or so, but fill the gap with off-the-cuff smaller, "more immediate" videos. That should work nicely. (Modulo the exact timing)
David Ouillette There are many interntational shops and companies in Sweden. We Swedes learn english from a very young age and use subtitles instead of dubbing movies, tv, ext.
Thanks. I knew most swedes were taught English. I just did not expect to find it so prevalent. I guess I expected more like Japan where sure they are taught English in school also, but you almost never see it in the streets.
In my case, one reason to procrastinate is that I am a perfectionist and never finish anything to my own satisfaction. That is the reason why I deliberately do not start working on many things, as it would drive me crazy when actually doing them. Immediacy is a nice concept and I see some parallels with spontaneous behavior. Why plan what you do in the weekend in two months in advance, just to experience it not happening at all? Even if things go as planned or expected, what experience can you draw from them? Our anticipation of things itself can be a bigger reward than the things actually happening. And this could be also a part of procrastination, at least in my case it is. About connecting. You cannot simply connect with everybody, or at least not connect the way you would like to. This is natural and perfectly OK, you do not need to feel bad about it. You are just one person and the day is only 24 hours long. I am bit surprised that you post videos on this channel in this time, as I would expect that you enjoy the season and have some time off, spending with your family. PF 2017!
Scripting is a must! You need a train of thought to get from point A to point B. But you also need the liberty to just improvise at a certain point. If you don't want that become a movie actor where you have to do the exact same thing dozens of shots. But here goes the same as with everything in life, find a good balance between Immediacy and Planning. There's nothing wrong with being sporadic every now and then. Same as that there's nothing wrong with planning your life. But you need to balance the two.
I wouldn't say it's better or worse, it's just different. Some videos are better unscripted, some longer term projects on more difficult topics are probably better scripted. No harm in embracing both styles when it suits.
Leave the main channel, Veritasium, scripted except for when/if you do live Q&A's, etc, and have 2veritasium being more relaxed and conversational. And also, are you still in Stockholm?
I love these conversational style videos! It reminds me of times I would just walk around with a friend and just muse about random ideas/life. These types of videos feel more personal and it’s interesting to hear and see you in a less scripted manner. But that being said, I also enjoy the high quality scripted videos you have on your main channel too~ To answer your question on procrastination, yeah, I would say I also procrastinate bc I want to do thing perfectly but feel intimidated to even start.. I realize that I also tend to procrastinate bc it feels overwhelming to start big projects, but I find that it can be helpful to scope an idea/project first to make it feel less intimidating and more feasible, so therefore breakdown any procrastination barriers. ^^; As for procrastinating smaller tasks, I just try to tell myself to do it immediately bc actually if I procrastinate short tasks (such as washing dishes or keeping my room organized), it might end up taking even more time in the long run (bc they would get worse/dirtier as time goes on), or the fact that I’m spending all this extra time and energy to have a conversation in my head to complain and justify why I should allow myself to procrastinate, I probably could’ve already finished the task already if I didn’t spend all that extra time resisting it in my head.
