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I get distracted with my other hobbies when watching video tutorials. [Read More]

Started by June 09, 2015 12:33 PM
10 comments, last by jhocking 9 years, 6 months ago

I started having interest in bunch of stuffs when I became 13 years old, back then all I do was play games and study when we don't have internet connections ( yet I still get good grades and stays in the top 5 for our grade ). When I became 13 years old I had interest in doing stuffs like:

*Speedcubing
solving rubicks cubes and other type of cubes is fun once you know how to solve it so I try to beat my record of solving a cube.

*Drawing
I still need alot of pratice since I can't draw without reference

*Magic Tricks
It's amazing seeing other trying to figure out how you do stuffs.

*Singing with auto tune
I have a pretty rough voice, well they told me it's going to be smoother after some time which came true

*Pen Spinning
Spent months... Only learned 3-4 tricks considering I didn't really focus on this one.

Which I can say I became pretty good, I even learned how to do hand stands tongue.png .

Now that I'm 14 I am now interested in programming, I know HTML, and basics of flash and java. Since I wanted to start doing websites first before studying game programming I decided to go back to web programming and study JavaScript and JQuery.

But the problem is that since I have too much hobby, I get distracted all the times whenever I see youtube recommending tutorials on my other hobbies and ended up improving them than studying programming. I get less distraction when I read written tutorials but It doesn't give me the same impact when I'm watching video tutorials. Another problem is that after 15-20 mins of watching video tutorials I get sleepy and ends up watching BuzzFeed videos. I can say that as my understanding in programming goes deeper, It makes it more boring. Doing script while watching video tutorials removes that boredom but It makes stuff longer. Longer then it will take more time whereas I don't have much time since I have school.

What should I do to avoid distractions and become more excited with learning it (avoid getting sleepy)?

As a tutorial writer this is a good part of why for my most recent tutorial series. I do both text and video tutorials on the same subject. Its basically double the work but sometimes text is just so much better, while other times a video is literally worth a thousand words. I also get how YouTube can be a massive distraction, its recommendation algorithm is very effective and history based... Why was I here again... Oh hey look, the newest Jon Oliver episode is up! This is also why for tutorials I make use of the embedded player.

Another thing about tutorials... They are almost completely useless unless you actually implement things yourself.
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As a tutorial writer this is a good part of why for my most recent tutorial series. I do both text and video tutorials on the same subject. Its basically double the work but sometimes text is just so much better, while other times a video is literally worth a thousand words. I also get how YouTube can be a massive distraction, its recommendation algorithm is very effective and history based... Why was I here again... Oh hey look, the newest Jon Oliver episode is up! This is also why for tutorials I make use of the embedded player.

Another thing about tutorials... They are almost completely useless unless you actually implement things yourself.

I'm going to try your tutorials but to the next viewers do you have any idea on how make it more fun and do you know where can I download and print references for programming languages, scripting languages and markups (specially HTML5)

As a tutorial writer this is a good part of why for my most recent tutorial series. I do both text and video tutorials on the same subject. Its basically double the work but sometimes text is just so much better, while other times a video is literally worth a thousand words. I also get how YouTube can be a massive distraction, its recommendation algorithm is very effective and history based... Why was I here again... Oh hey look, the newest Jon Oliver episode is up! This is also why for tutorials I make use of the embedded player.
Another thing about tutorials... They are almost completely useless unless you actually implement things yourself.

I'm going to try your tutorials but to the next viewers do you have any idea on how make it more fun and do you know where can I download and print references for programming languages, scripting languages and markups (specially HTML5)

How fun programming is comes down to the programmer. Think about crosswords or soduku(sp?), for some people theyre a pleasant distraction, while others like myself, would rather see how many nails we could fit up our nostrels. Programming is like that. That said, some programming is certainly more enjoyable than others.

For your requirement though, the problem is that HTML5 is so prevelent and covered on so many sites and videos, that while the information way be out there, seperating the wheat from the chaff is not a pleasant task. For you, especially with your distraction issues... A good ole fashion book might be the best way to go.
I can't seem to find any book for teaching programming language and stuffs from the national bookstore which is the biggest supplier here in the philippines. I can find eBooks but I won't be getting a bank account till I'm 18.

I never understood why people would prefer video tutorials for something like programming. Whenever I search for some information, I can skip through a written text with ease and find what I've been looking for and read it in my own tempo. Watching video tutorials is so much more work. You have to watch the whole video to know if your actual question was answered, you have to listen to the guy making it the whole time, watching him getting sidetracked and going off on a tangent every few minutes.

I really don't think video tutorials are any good for learning programming. I can see the use for them for more dynamic tasks like drawing, 3d modeling or music composition, but for programming?

If it's so hard for you to focus on one thing, practice that. If you think you can't work as efficiently with a written tutorial as with a video tutorial, ask yourself if you're just too lazy to read the text (or improve your reading speed!). I was similar when I was younger, getting bored really quickly with long texts, but I was able to fix that with some practice (unless you have or think you have ADHD or something, then you might want to have a doctor take a look at your situation).

Reading is a very important thing for programmers of all kinds and there will be a day when you've advanced further than any tutorial can guide you. That's the thing you should be looking forward to and working towards, because it's a very rewarding thing when you can work out and solve a complex program all on your own. You will not be able to avoid reading a lot of stuff (and learning how to skim a text efficiently) by that time. Why not prepare for it now?

As for the books problem: I think you can order books on amazon.com and have them shipped to (almost) wherever you live. It might be a bit more pricey for you, but still better than having no books at all.

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Yeah, videos are mildly handy when it comes to seeing how someone works in a given editor. You can pick up shortcuts and see how to navigate the UI. But I also prefer being able to skim text and find the bit that I care about, and not have to watch the person slowly drone on about something that I'm not interested in, or already know, but can't skip easily because they might talk about the bit I care about.


I never understood why people would prefer video tutorials for something like programming. Whenever I search for some information, I can skip through a written text with ease and find what I've been looking for and read it in my own tempo. Watching video tutorials is so much more work. You have to watch the whole video to know if your actual question was answered, you have to listen to the guy making it the whole time, watching him getting sidetracked and going off on a tangent every few minutes.

Different people have different learning styles. I prefer video tutorials because I learn better from watching than reading. How I would learn the best would be to watch a video tutorial that was designed around a book, so I could follow along with the book while watching the video. By watching the video while following along in the book, the material is reinforced by two methods, then applied by the exercises.

One trick to avoid getting distracted is to avoid the temptation in the first place. It's tough when the tool you use to be productive is the same tool you use to goof off. I suggest that you create a Developer persona for your productive YouTube watching. Only watch and subscribe to dev related videos when logged in with your dev account. That way all the history tracking and content matching they do will focus you on dev.

If force yourself to take the time to log out of goof-off mode and log into dev-user, you'll hopefully gain some psychological benefit out of that too. In order to goof off, you'll have to expend some effort log back out of your developer user, then log onto your goof-off user. Then your goofing off is no longer accidental. It's a conscious choice that you're less likely to make.

- Eck

EckTech Games - Games and Unity Assets I'm working on
Still Flying - My GameDev journal
The Shilwulf Dynasty - Campaign notes for my Rogue Trader RPG

I don't like videos much for this reason. They are soooo slow to convey some information. The only good point is that for difficult subjects having someone actually say it slowly out loud can help it sink in.

This is my thread. There are many threads like it, but this one is mine.

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