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by Martin Fowler.
Original Post: Bliki: AvoidingVideo
Feed Title: Martin Fowler's Bliki
Feed URL: http://martinfowler.com/feed.atom
Feed Description: A cross between a blog and wiki of my partly-formed ideas on software development
Making and editing video used to be an
expensive exercise, but now cameras and editing software are cheap.
As a result many loud-mouths like me have got into making videos to
help spread their ideas. There's many reasons to do this, it's a
medium with lots of possibilities, it suits people like me who talk
well on stage, and there's good evidence that people will pay for
video - which is good both for one's income and as evidence that
people take it seriously. Despite these reasons, so far I've not
taken the plunge.
A big reason why I've kept out of video so far has to do with the
way in which I like to learn things - video just doesn't appeal to
me as a way of learning. When I'm watching someone talk, and this
may be in a video or live at a conference, I'm usually frustrated
because things are moving too slowly. I can read much faster than I
can listen. With reading I can also skip ahead over bits that aren't
interesting. Should I inadvertantly miss something important, it's
easy to jot backwards and catch up. As a result I'd usually a skip a
talk in favor of a paper.
The same isn't quite true for audio - such as podcasts. While the
same issue about slowness and lack of skippability applies, I can
listen to audio at times I can't read, such as when I'm walking or
driving. But in those situations I can't watch a video either. More
than once I've been frustrated by people who publish videos of
talks, but miss the opportunity to do an audio-only version.
Still my personal dislike of learning through video isn't that
much of a reason to not use it myself. There's clear evidence that
people do like to watch video to learn. So since my job is passing
on ideas, I should be using the medium.
My primary reason to avoid it is because when I'm writing, I'm
not usually explaining things I've already figured out, I'm doing
the figuring out as I write. It's often pointed out that the
etymology of the word "essay" comes the French essayer, meaning
"to try", and that writing an essay is about trying out your ideas.
The act of writing something down has often helped me understand
a topic, indeed I think that's a large part of why I write as much
as I do. I enjoy trying to understand things, and writing for others
is a vital tool to help me do that. It may just be unfamiliarity
with the tools, but I don't feel I can do that with video, and that
is the crux of its lack of appeal for me.
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