Hello everyone,
You might have heard before that the internet is largely “permissionless”. This means that you don’t need someone’s approval to get started. In the past you had to to secure some type of contract or deal to put your stuff out there. Inevitably that meant censoring or filtering your content to the demands of the gatekeepers. But, now there’s a way in which people can publish instantly and relatively unfiltered. (This also comes with a lot of downsides which I will write on on the future.) But, YouTube as a medium has been a tremendous source of information sharing because of it. It allows us to choose whether we consume that information or simply ignore that. Today I’m sharing what YT channels I follow.
This edition is part of a series on different resources that I recommend. We already covered blogs and essays. If you’re new here or missed those, you can find them here:
My favorite YouTube channels
1. MKBHD - Tech reviews
Keywords: Software. Smartphones. Computers. Screens. Tablets. Earbuds.
Summary: This channel I watch more for entertainment. I like to keep up with the newest tech that could improve my own workflows. MKBHD does high quality in depth reviews with no annoying clickbait, giveaways or any of that junk.
2. Jordan B. Peterson - Psychology Lectures & Podcasts
Keywords: Psychology. Personality. Science. Religion. Politics.
Summary: Jordan B. Peterson is an informative yet polarising character with many sides to him. And, I therefore suggest to be mindful of which of his work you look into. Personally I’m not interested in his (predominantly American) political analysis and Religious series. But, his lectures on Psychology from his time at Harvard university and his Podcasts with other scientists have been tremendously insightful. For-warning: He’s a bit wordy and bombastic in his speech.
3. Ali Abdaal - Productivity and self-fullfilment
Keywords: Productivity. Learning. Creating. Tech Reviews. Life. Goals. Book reviews. Entrepreneurship.
Summary: Ali’s makes videos that contain high quality and practical insights on living your best life. His demeanour and ambitions in life are very normal (even a bit basic), which makes his content easily digestible. It’s therefore great for beginners to the self-development space. But, also for people further along the journey there’s valuable insights in each video.
4. Naval Ravikant - “The Angel Philosopher”
Keywords: Health, wealth and happiness. Learning. Philosophy. Technology. Science. Knowledge theory.
Summary: Naval is a very successful tech founder and investor. His success stems from his judgment which stems from a deep and real understanding of the world. Naval Ravikant isn’t really a YouTuber perse. He’s most famous for his insightful tweets which he has occasionally compiles into videos. And, he also has some amazing conversations and interviews online. The density of information in Naval’s content is very unique. Every word counts and is understandable. They are so good that I’ve listened to each podcasts about 3-5 times.
5. Productivity game - short book summaries
Key words: Non-fiction. Self Development. Book summaries. Visualisation.
Summary: The name of the channels doesn’t really translate to it’s content. Productivity game makes 10 minute videos summarising core concepts and take aways from self development books. It’s explained very well with practical examples. Whenever someone recommends a book to me I first check if he’s made a video on it before.
6. Bonus: Lex Fridman - AI scientist
Key words: Technology. AI. Intelligence. Programming. Philosophy. Consciousness.
Summary: I’m cheating by putting Lex Fridman in the YouTubers category, because he’s more of a podcaster. Lex is a lecturer on Artificial Intelligence at MIT, and he also runs a podcast where he interviews prominent individuals on: science, technology, history, philosophy and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power. Previous guests include Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Harris.
That’s a wrap
I’d love to hear what your favorite YouTubers and essays are. Leave a comment on substack sharing your thoughts. Alternatively, drop me an e-mail!
If you'd like to see more insights in the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter → https://twitter.com/Edwindoit
See you next week!
Edwin