0:00Hey it's Tim here. In today's video I'm
0:01going to be talking about why I make videos
0:04. Now if
0:04you haven't caught it yet, yesterday I
0:06released a video talking about how I make
0:08videos. At the
0:09very beginning of that video I called out
0:11the fact that actually why was a much more
0:13important
0:14question in terms of understanding the
0:16motivations behind choosing video as a
0:18format to share content.
0:20Now in answering this question of why,
0:22there's actually two ways to think about it
0:24. There is
0:25why in the sense of you know what motivates
0:27me to make videos, why do I even bother,
0:29why share content in the first place and
0:32secondly the question of why choose video
0:34as a format to
0:35share content. So I'm going to be tackling
0:37those two questions in this video. As
0:39always let's get
0:40stuck in. Okay so to answer this question
0:42of what motivates me, we have to go way
0:45back to 2006. In
0:46fact the summer of 2006 is a very fun
0:48summer for me because this was right before
0:51I went to
0:51university and essentially I had five
0:54months in between my A-level exams and
0:57going to the
0:58University of York which is where I studied
1:00and essentially I had nothing to do. Unlike
1:02other
1:03students I wasn't going away on some sort
1:06of you know travel journey or I didn't have
1:09that
1:09opportunity essentially and so I needed to
1:11find some other way of preoccupying myself
1:13and at that
1:14point I was getting into technology and I
1:16was really keen on understanding how web
1:19development
1:19worked. So I basically just started trying
1:22to learn web development as much as I could
1:23. Now
1:24this is 2006, we didn't have the internet
1:27and the google that we have today and so I
1:30came across
1:30this platform called lynda.com and so the
1:32first person I actually really want to
1:34highlight in this
1:35video is a lady called Linda Wyman. Now ly
1:37nda.com was this great tutorial platform,
1:40actually founded
1:41many years before I came across it and it
1:43essentially had courses that were entirely
1:46delivered in a video format. Now what was
1:48amazing about this is I got like a one
1:50month subscription
1:51for free. They had the classic you know fre
1:54emium model where you use one month then
1:56after that you
1:56give them your card details and you keep
1:58paying them every month for access to
2:00content. So I took
2:01one month and I learned as much as I
2:03possibly could about web development. Now
2:05whilst doing
2:06that course I actually got distracted and I
2:08ended up doing another course on photoshop
2:10by an
2:10instructor called Deke McClelland, I think
2:13that's his name and essentially I really
2:15enjoyed that
2:15course and it was how I learned photoshop
2:18and ever since that moment I was just
2:20amazed that in the
2:20space of you know basically two weeks I was
2:23able to go from nothing to something in a
2:26piece of
2:27software that lots of people were using to
2:29be creative and so suddenly this opened up
2:32a whole
2:32world of information to me. I was suddenly
2:34able to sort of just learn things very very
2:37easily and
2:38this was in direct contrast to the
2:39experience I'd just gone through in in
2:41terms of setting my A-level
2:43exams and the learning experience for those
2:46were extremely painful for me and the
2:49context for why
2:50that was extremely painful wouldn't
2:51actually come to light until three years
2:53later I'll come to that
2:54a little later and so here I was I learned
2:57photoshop and essentially I just found this
3:00calling in creative software I just started
3:02trying to learn creative software as much
3:04as I can and
3:05fast forward a few months later I'm at
3:07university I find this opportunity to get
3:09involved in a
3:10magazine it was called Bad Taste and then
3:13again I thought well what do creators use
3:17to create
3:17magazines and it was a piece of software
3:19called Adobe InDesign and so I learned
3:21Adobe InDesign
3:22and the person who taught me that was Terry
3:24White. Terry White is an evangelist at
3:26Adobe,
3:27still works for Adobe today and his videos
3:29really sort of sort of opened up my mind
3:32because he was
3:33someone who was just so passionate about
3:35the product understood the product so well
3:37and he
3:38was sharing knowledge about this in so many
3:40really interesting ways and so I did a
3:42whole course on
3:43Adobe InDesign and I pretty much picked up
3:46as much as I can in fact the very first
3:48video on this
3:49channel was based on the typography concept
3:51that I learned from Terry White so if you
3:53go to that
3:54video check it out I learned that concept
3:56from Terry White and so it inspired me and
3:59something
4:00I've mentioned before in another video
4:02where I talked about race and the most
4:04common thing
4:05between all these points was actually the
4:07fact that these people weren't just
4:09training me they
4:10were giving me an opportunity to express
4:13myself creatively and actually use that as
4:16a way of
4:17furthering myself and so I found myself
4:19just really sort of infused by this energy
4:22that I
4:22couldn't really understand where it was
4:25coming from and secondly I was just amazed
4:27how much I
4:27was picking up through this video platform
4:30essentially at the time and I really didn't
4:32understand why until a few years later. I
4:35finished university I pretty much went
4:37through the entire
4:38university experience without actually
4:40dealing with this problem that I only
4:41discovered after
4:42university which is that I had dyslexia
4:44okay and so the challenge with dyslexia is
4:47actually made
4:48it very hard for me to consume content in a
4:51reading format and so I could suddenly
4:53start to
4:54see what was going on here. I was very
4:56attracted to visual learning systems okay
4:59and this was
5:00something that was sort of you know just as
5:02soon as I found out I was dyslexic I just
5:05just light
5:05bulbs went off everywhere I suddenly
5:07started trying to optimize all my learning
5:09so it was
5:09primarily visual and things just started to
5:12come in much much faster and so I had this
5:15revelation
5:15which was wow how many other people in the
5:18world don't know that they're visual
5:20learners
5:20and maybe because you know that's a
5:22preference of theirs maybe they have dyslex
5:24ia like me maybe they
5:25have some other disability but essentially
5:27how many other people in the world are
5:29visual learners
5:30and don't know that because if I'm honest
5:32you're always told that reading is the best
5:34way to
5:35interpret information there's no end of
5:37research paper that will say that repeated
5:39reading
5:40reinforces knowledge in your mind that just
5:41doesn't work for me I just don't believe in
5:43that
5:43but that's for me that's that's sort of my
5:46personal opinion and so here I was really
5:48passionate about
5:49visual learning and I just thought wow what
5:52could I do to help other people discover
5:54this and so
5:55I just started making videos and that's
5:58when I made that video about the typography
6:00concept and
6:01I made a few other videos then and I just
6:03started making videos and the thing I saw
6:05myself doing
6:06there was I was sharing that opportunity
6:08with other people if someone came across my
6:10video
6:10who also had the same challenge maybe they
6:13too would learn it better in a visual
6:15format rather
6:16than in a textbook and so I was trying to
6:18sort of give back to this community of
6:20people who taught
6:21me so much now over time I've met a whole
6:24world of other creators okay so it doesn't
6:27just stop with
6:28you know Linda, Deke and Terry it actually
6:31goes on and more recently I sort of really
6:34want to pay
6:35homage to a few people here Maggie Ableton
6:38who creates these amazing sort of I can
6:41only call them
6:42visual learning aids for technology
6:44concepts and programming concepts I'll put
6:47a link in the
6:48description below and I'll send you a link
6:50to a website and then another trainer who's
6:52called
6:53Maguire Brannan who is actually the
6:55instructor that told me everything I know
6:57about Webflow
6:58which is a CMS system I use to build my
7:00website now these two people are funny
7:03because they're
7:03more recent I've only just discovered them
7:05in the last year but they've sort of
7:06continued this
7:07narrative I haven't really met anyone since
7:10those early sort of instructors that really
7:12sparked
7:13something in my head who sparked something
7:15else in my mind and so Maggie for her you
7:18know really
7:18good visual creative aids which help people
7:22learn in an entirely visual way and they're
7:24largely the reason I've really gone into
7:26sketch notes and I try and sort of
7:28replicate some of what
7:29she's doing there in the sketch note format
7:32and then Maguire Brannan for his just ruth
7:35lessly
7:35brilliant way that he does tutorials now if
7:38you've never seen a tutorial from Maguire
7:41Brannan or
7:41you've never seen Maggie Ableton's content
7:44again links in the description below you
7:46don't need to
7:46be passionate about the topics they're
7:48teaching to just see their content and
7:50understand that they do
7:51it really really well so please if you have
7:53a moment go to the link description check
7:56the
7:56content out it's some of the best learning
7:58content you'll you'll ever come across
8:00honest to heart
8:01and so those are the motivations behind why
8:04I make videos I'm essentially trying to
8:06give other people
8:07that opportunity that you know I felt like
8:10I discovered too late and so if you're
8:12starting
8:12your journey with Tableau and you find my
8:15videos early and you find them at the start
8:17of your
8:18journey I'm hoping to catch you I'm hoping
8:20to catch you someone who's struggled to you
8:23know
8:23understand Tableau concept because you have
8:25to go to the Tableau documentation and read
8:27all the pages
8:28I know that stuff is there and if people
8:29ask me I could always send them those
8:31articles and they
8:32could just read the same information but
8:34the reason I make videos is because I think
8:36some people
8:37much prefer seeing what's going on rather
8:40than reading what's going on and that's
8:42largely why
8:43I've avoided blogs I tried blogging I used
8:46to have a blog I had to sort of I've had
8:48like incarnations
8:50of blog we've all used wordpress it just
8:52just doesn't stick it's such a tiresome
8:54format for me
8:55and then there's another sort of concept
8:57which is books you know a lot of people
8:59especially in the
8:59visualization community pretty much
9:01exclusively write books and I'd like to
9:03challenge that concept
9:05I'd like to challenge that concept with
9:07something different something visual and so
9:09at least the way
9:10I do that at the moment is just making
9:12videos on YouTube you've seen my sketch
9:13notes which are
9:14another sort of take on that visual format
9:16but you know at some point this year and
9:19next year
9:19we will eventually take that visual concept
9:21off screen and we'll try and do it in other
9:23ways but
9:23for now it's just videos and that's
9:25fundamentally the motivation behind why I
9:28actually make videos
9:30um there's sort of no other way to put it
9:32primarily opportunity but also I think
9:35there's
9:35a whole host of visual learners who just
9:36don't know they're visual learners and so I
9:38'm just
9:39hoping to catch a few of those people um
9:41out there in the world and so that's
9:42fundamentally why I
9:44make videos now the other thing about
9:46videos that sort of extends onto this
9:48concept of
9:49accessibility in some ways is actually that
9:53I think videos are a very efficient way of
9:55getting
9:56information across now if we go back to
9:582006 the cost of hosting a video to the
10:01individual that was
10:02you know making that video was actually
10:04quite high and also the you know the
10:06technology
10:06infrastructure just didn't exist to be able
10:09to send video to a whole group of people
10:12very very
10:12quickly in fact I'd almost argue that only
10:15in the last few years have we really
10:17started to even
10:18scratch the surface of having enough
10:21bandwidth on the internet and
10:22infrastructure for video to
10:24become a mainstream learning tool okay
10:26although video has been around a while it's
10:29only just
10:30getting to the point where it can start to
10:32be considered as a learning tool like a
10:34serious
10:35learning tool and so at this sort of precip
10:38ice that we're at I'm just really passionate
10:41of really
10:41challenging the norms and I really think
10:44video can be this very accessible format
10:46for getting
10:47information out to people and just showing
10:49them how things work rather than having to
10:51insist that
10:52you know they sit through pages and pages
10:54of a textbook you can just search that
10:56small thing you
10:57want to search see how to do it very
10:59quickly and then get on with the thing you
11:01're trying to do
11:02this sort of idea that you have to sort of
11:04work through a whole body of work some of
11:06it that
11:06might be relevant some of it that might not
11:08be useful and to be honest it's a skill
11:10that we not
11:11all have you know if you've been brought up
11:13in an economy in a world where you know you
11:15didn't have
11:16access to maybe a great library or a whole
11:18world of books you just haven't been given
11:21the skills
11:22to navigate the the the world that is
11:24literature okay these are skills that you
11:27just don't get by
11:28reading books you have to be taught how to
11:30do it and how to do it well the concept of
11:32skim reading
11:33for example that's something that
11:35researchers and academics do all the time
11:37but if you've never
11:38worked in academia or research you just won
11:40't know how to do skim reading properly and
11:43so video just
11:44cuts through all of that to me video is a
11:47nice level it makes it very easy for
11:49someone who has
11:50you know no literature skills all the way
11:52to someone who has you know the best of
11:55literature
11:55skills and just talk to everyone at the
11:57same level because what i'm engaging is
11:59your visual learning
12:00mechanism and okay i still have to be able
12:03to put together a coherent script that's on
12:06me but for
12:06you the viewer you just have to be able to
12:08understand what i'm saying at the very
12:10basic
12:11understand the language and off you go that
12:14's pretty much it and so for me video is
12:16probably
12:17the most accessible format out there and it
12:20also presents probably some of the lowest
12:23barriers to
12:23entry that i've seen in any other format if
12:26you take books for example books typically
12:28are geared
12:30towards the western economy okay they're
12:32made by publishers that typically price
12:34them to sort of
12:35benefit from certain economies of scale so
12:37if i just take you know the typical book in
12:39the us
12:4050 30 is about right take that same price
12:43and put it in a developing world that that
12:45's just not going
12:46to work a video on the other hand youtube
12:49someone can stream a video in india or in
12:52africa and it's
12:54exactly the same video as you'd have here
12:56in the west in 4k they can stream it in 480
12:59p but the
13:00brilliance of video is that technology
13:02sorts that challenge out the user doesn't
13:05have to understand
13:05that that's something that technology
13:08solves and so maybe i'm murdering this
13:09point a little bit but
13:11i really think video is the format that
13:13breaks barriers for lots of people around
13:15the world
13:16and so if i can do something to contribute
13:18to that platform in any way i can then that
13:21's absolutely
13:21something that i will do and going back to
13:24this concept of visual learning if we can
13:26find other
13:27creative ways of getting visual concepts
13:29out to people to sort of try and challenge
13:30those barriers
13:32of education and access then that's
13:34something that's super super important to
13:36me so in a
13:37nutshell that's why i make videos it's a
13:39bit of a rambly video i know but um i just
13:41wanted to make
13:42sure i covered all these points and sort of
13:44really touch on that question of why why
13:46even bother um
13:47and so hopefully you know a bit more about
13:49why i make videos okay that's it for this
13:51one thanks
13:52for watching um if you've got some thoughts
13:54on this please let me know in the comments
13:56below
13:56i'm sure some people disagree with some of
13:58what i've said so don't just be a button
14:00degree go in
14:01the comments and passionately tell me why
14:03you disagree if you agree uh then by all
14:05means share
14:06this message with everyone you know join
14:08the revelation as it were and you know
14:10catch you
14:11in the next video thank you