I consume a lot of popular science communication. And I mean, *a lot*. Watching YouTube videos is my go to activity for winding down. I rarely watch any movies, I watch almost no TV shows, I mainly watch YouTube. And the main content I like to watch is explainer videos about science, math, engineering, politics, law and probably other stuff I'm not currently thinking of, so basically everything. I'm totally addicted to watching people stand in front of a camera and explain basically anything.

The one thing all these videos have in common is that they give you the feeling that you're learning something, because that's what makes these videos successful. Learning stuff feels great! But if you'd watch as many of these videos as I do, you'd soon find out that you're rarely learning anything. It's more like a simulation of learning, than an actual learning experience. It's like watching Bob Ross paint a picture. It's fun, it's satisfying and you feel like you're getting better at painting, but you're not painting. I mean, some people do, but most people who watch Bob Ross will never paint anything in their lives, apart from maybe a white wall.

I have come to terms with that. I don't expect to learn anything from these videos. I watch them for entertainment purposes. There's many things I have seen explained multiple times already. But I find satisfaction in a good explanation, even if I don't need it. Maybe it's the act of explaining that fascinates me. The way information can be visualized, the different angles you can approach a subject from, and the illustrative elements that can be used to make it interesting. The way some very good creators can make super engaging videos about very dry subjects. I love that stuff.

But sometimes I also think that this is a problem. Watching these explainer videos can give you a false sense of confidence in subjects that you have no idea about. It's like a Dunning-Kruger-amplifier. I've experienced this myself. Sometimes I talk to people about the stuff I saw in those videos and realize how fuzzy my memory of all the details really is. That's the point where I usually apologize and tell people that what I'm saying is based on my poor memory of some YouTube video. It's bad for the ego, but good for the propagation of truth. Too many myths and wrong factoids are going around because people tell each other misremembered information.

But I do still think that watching explainers is an awesome activity. And while you're not learning as much as it feels like, you're still learning something. It's a great way to experience domains that you'd otherwise not learn anything about. And it's sometimes just really beautiful.

Panel 1:
G and H are sitting on a park bench. H is looking at a spider in a nearby bush.
H: Oh look! A spider. Did you know there’s about 1000 spider species in this part of the world?
G: Nope. Guess I learned something today.
H: No you didn’t.
Panel 1:
H: People often say they learned something, when they hear a random fact. But they don’t care. And if they don’t care, they’ll forget it in a few days. That’s not learning. Learning is when you integrate that fact into your mental model, so you it becomes part of your greater understanding of reality.
Panel 1:
G: No, I mean I had a job interview at the arachnological institute yesterday. They asked the exact same question and I guessed 17. So I learned that I likely don’t have the job.
H: Oh. Yeah, no.