this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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This is the way. Let those content creators sucking up your time be the background noise they were always meant to be.
tell me you don't work in IT without telling me you don't work in IT.
YT is more than just thots in shorts and fake scumbag competition game show hosts.
there's a whole community of educators and creators that are genuinely useful and is the core of what YT used to be used for.
I have a BSc in CompSci and an MSc in Cybersec & Dig. Forensics and I'm actively employed as a mid level engineer in the field on a fully employer-sponsored Skilled Worker Visa, doing everything from vulnerability management and triage to GRC for ISO27001 to advising product and engineering teams on implementation details for best practices and compliance for a multinational org to DR&BC tabletops etc etc. I think this counts as IT.
Perhaps even more impressively though: I use Vim btw (to program in C).
I am not necessarily trying to brag very much, only to establish my own perspective, I don't consider myself particularly talented or intelligent or successful - otherwise I'd have gone into research, but I am currently (and kinda always) studying to improve my skills and stay up to date.
Just recently I decided to take a look into pentesting to learn the l33t side of things more as my education only ever briefly touched on it, I started in August as something to keep my brain sane during studies for the settlement visa (Life in the UK) test, and I've made it to Hacker Rank on HackTheBox a week ago or so. I think I watched a grand total of one Ippsec video, the rest of everything I read.
I don't know where you got the "game show hosts" from my comment, and I'm not aware of this if it exists as some broader trend. I don't see YouTube shorts it's all long blocked for me since release haha.
Yes YT tutorials and whatnot are good, but they are only good as broad introductions to a topic, personal opinions, or a particular historical narrative (Dr.Chuck on C's history for instance). Those are few good nuggets between an endless sea of scams selling you a course or some other grift.
At a certain point you should start going a bit more in depth and reading - actively engaging with the material, move beyond simply knowing or purely copying and pasting terminal commands and understand why things work the way they do.
You don't become an electrical engineer or something by watching electroboom, you learn what it's about yes, but the rest you learn by reading and making, even basic arduino/breadboard projects will teach you more.
The best thing about YouTube is how good it is as background noise.
Ahh, that makes sense. you're not the target demographic of YT. you're too educated and too driven and you learn through more advanced methods.
that's OK, great for you and I'm happy that you're so successful. now, what about the millions of users that don't have the means to access higher education and training provided by their employers? what about the 18yo kid living in a leaky trailer with their methed out mom or dad that's looking for literally any way out they can afford.
perhaps in your quest you surrounded yourself with ultra successful people and forgot that there is a whole world with billions of people that do not have the same means as you do.
not trying to diminish the hard work and efforts you have clearly applied, but just because you did doesn't mean everyone can.
by removing easy access to content provided by these communities, even if they are wholly or partially incorrect, it only deepens the chasm between long term professional success and endentured struggle.
I will not support any action that denies a life the opportunity to rise above their status and claim a better life for themselves and their family. for every one person who stands above their born status increases the potential successes of those around them, and even cooler, it's a feedback system. your successes become their successes, and their successes become our successes.
Just to make it clear, I'm not trying to diminish your success I'm just trying to establish my perspective on your perspective so that we can share in a perspective that includes our success.
Oh no I totally understand that I'm privileged as all hell.
That said I also learned a helluva lot more outside of my degree during said degree and after.
Formal teaching is really like YouTube and it's meant to introduce you to what you don't know more than anything, and as I said that's a good thing as an introduction, but the vast majority of content is written, and you learn far more from it.
25 years in IT and I didnt need youtube.
BUT, I prefer learning by reading, not videos.
"I didn't need help when I went to college. these lazy kids just need to get a paper route for the summer to pay for a semester or two. it couldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks for books and classes"
what you did over your 25 year long career is irrelevant to what current people are going through. the rest of this is a rant on "boomer" mentality. I'm an xer myself, just sick of people perpetuating the broken ideals of the most spoiled generation.
I've been in IT just as long but in the last 10 years I have been asked to learn the following under threat of becoming "irrelevant"; cloud computing, big data analysis, cryptographic signing and tracking of data, machine learning, and the most recent artificial intelligence.
how the fuck are we supposed to keep up with this and maintain our family/home and maintain friendships and maintain our sanity all while juggling the roles and responsibilities weighing us down at work.
in 2021 I worked over 3200 hours in the year. that's double 8s almost every single day. part of that time was training time I was forced to comply with to make sure "the company remains competitive." it also doesn't include the 16 hours of training over the weekends that I couldn't claim because, "if you can't perform the responsibilities given to you within office hours provided then perhaps you should work from the office under supervision." I think we all know what that meant. want to know what I did with all that training? I'll let you know as soon as I use it.
point is, the world got fucked up, and greedy pieces of shit at the top make the smaller greedy pieces of shit greed harder, and so forth. when will it be enough? when can we stop working on frivolous bullshit that's going to be dropped and abandoned when "the next big thing" shows up? when can we start building shit that matters so much that we can't just abandon it?
so, what's this got to do with YT? if I could have watched 200 hours of training videos for free online instead of taking multiple courses, homework, tests, etc; I could spent more time with my kids, or hobbies, or doing whatever the fuck I want. instead, I was stuck doing busywork for some other assholes bonus.
!<
I'm sorry you got stuck with that. I too worked evenings and weekens. But I left. They ended up hiring three people to replace me.
I took a risk and exited IT. I now manage technical teams and projects in the dental industry.
I understand the usefulness of good video content, I was simply responding to the fact that this IT guy chooses to read rather than watch.
And your rant highlights a very common theme in corporations today. And not everyone has the freedom or the option to slide out from under it.
As for boomers, fuck 'em. I don't look down on the younger generations. I see smart young people trying wade through the crap us boomers left behind. And trying to navigate a shitty corporate world.
I hope opportunity knocks for you.
This is insane. My career started three years ago. I'm Gen-Z. Never used YouTube for learning. We get it dude you like videos, most don't and don't learn that way. Videos are mostly for ads and grifting
it's pitiful that you think a three year long career gives you the wisdom and ability to see what the next 35 years is going to need.
sit down child, nobody asked you.