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They Became What They Beheld: Medium, Message, Youtubery by Vi Hart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

p.s. OP, if you put your links in a comment, people will be able to click on them.

⬐ prakhar897

Thanks, Added in Comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

Vi Hart's incredible explanation of the modern medium (youtube) and how it affects the message, and the wise words (probably written by McLuhan) in Edmund Snow Carpenter's "They Became What They Beheld".

Vi Hart, taking a break from math/music, made a great video[1] on how artists (or "thought leaders", etc) create audiences. She quotes heavily from the forward to Edmund Snow Carpenter's book "They became what they beheld", which was probably written (or at least heavily influenced) by Marshall McLuhan.

The main thesis is that old-media was about finding channels of distribution. If you didn't utilize existing media channels, nobody would see your ideas. When technology made the mechanics of publication cheap and easy, it became easy for the artist and audience to interact without the need for an imprimatur or interacting with any gatekeeper. True "thought leadership" was made a lot easier - and a lot more powerful - because original thoughts could be conveyed with new types of media to create new audiences.

> If you address yourself to an audience, you accept at the outset the basic premises that unite the audience. You put on the audience, repeating cliches familiar to it. But artists don't address themselves; they create audiences. The artist talks to himself out loud. If what he has to say is significant, others hear & are affected.

> The trouble with knowing what to say and saying it clearly & fully [old media's methods], is that clear speaking is generally obsoleted thinking. Clear statement is like an art object; it is the afterlife of the process which called it into being. The process itself is the significant step and, especially at the beginning, is often incomplete & uncertain.

As Marshall McLuhan famously said, "the medium is the message". Utilizing existing mediums is by definition following what worked successfully in the past; the "thought leaders" and avant-garde artist are seen as "leaders" because they utilize new mediums, not just new messages.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

⬐ pjmorris

'The artist talks to himself out loud.' is a beautifully succinct way to phrase the creative process of the authentic artist, at least as I understand it. Thanks for that.

> I would feel that it had connected far more and with far greater purpose and meaning.

One of the better discussions of this topic is Vi Hart's explanation[1] of Edmund Snow Carpenter's[2] "They Became What They Beheld".

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

[2] almost certainly written with Marshall McLuhan

      "too much medium,
     not enough message"

The writing style works because those jokes, asides, and little mannerisms that are normally excluded from "serious" writing are part of how we think.

When we refine our writing (or speaking) to - supposedly to make it less jumbled and easier to read - we usually end up removing a lot of the little details that made up the original thought. The writing may have much better grammar and organization, but real thought isn't perfectly organized and we end up losing some of the "character" in the original idea. (this may be good or bad, depending on the situation)

Vi Hart has an amazing overview[1] of this concept, in which she discusses the very wise words of the Edmund Snow Carpenter in his[2] book "They Became What They Beheld".

    The trouble with knowing what to say and saying it clearly & fully, is that
    clear speaking is generally obsolete thinking. Clear statement is like an
    art object: it is the afterlife of the process which called it into being.
    The process itself is the significant step and, especially at the beginning,
    is often incomplete & uncertain.

The best way to write will always depend on what the goals are, but in general the further away from the original thought you get, the more writing and other creative ideas tend to degrade. Incidentally, this tendency of a thought to degrade the further it gets from it's origin is also how plans become policy: [3].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

[2] probably co-written - or at least "heavily influenced" - by Marshal McLuhan

[3] http://ogun.stanford.edu/~bnayfeh/plan.html (very mild NSFW language of the form "____ happens")

⬐ Outdoorsman

>>The best way to write will always depend on what the goals are, but in general the further away from the original thought you get, the more writing and other creative ideas tend to degrade.<<

So very true...

Open a vein...share yourself...reveal yourself...share what you've learned and let the excitement you felt while discovering it flow...

For most writers, the majority of the time, your true audience will "get" both you and the ideas you're trying to share...

Sometimes you'll expand the size of your potential audience with raw enthusiasm, even when they have no idea what you're talking about...

⬐ EC1

What's with the ellipses? Always so awkward reading messages from people who always do the ellipses thing.

⬐ fao_

I think in some cases it is because people are taught that Comma Splicing Is Bad. But imo Ellipse Splicing Is Worse (and should probably be Considered Harmful ;) ). Commas or Em Dashes[0] are better, clearer, and (AFAIK) more grammatically correct.

[0]: http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/em-dash.html

> Create something great for the sake of the greatness.

I strongly recommend ViHart's discussion[1] of Edmund Snow Carpenter's[2] "They Became What The Beheld". It is very easy to focus on the medium, when you should be focusing on the message.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

[2] Marshall McLuhan may have written the initial version of that book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

While Vihart is talking about youtube in this video, her discussion of Edmond Snow Carpenter's "They Became What They Beheld" is very relevant to this situation as well. (note: Marshall McLuhan may have written an early version the book)

Too much medium, not enough message.

Youtube also faces a big challenge with incentives IMO. Obviously discoverability of videos matter. But depending on how the decision to feature a video is made, Youtube can (and has) incentivized content creators to change their content to fit that box. It's the reason why most videos in my front page are click bait, with really obnoxious thumbnails, and a lot of times with all caps titles.

Here's a video by a youtuber about all this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-Jjvqu3U4

I believe the idea of moving towards a more AI/ML based recommendation system is interesting because it frees Youtube from the burden of defining what is worthy of being featured (and featuring everything that's relevant to each particular user). In a way it could democratize content discovery. But I don't see it working as well as it could be.

I have a feeling that Youtube may want to be able to promote certain youtube "stars" because, let's be real, they are the ones driving revenue. But I chose to believe a world where content discovery is more fair is possible.

I will say that this has less to do with the shitty way subscription works nowadays. The idea behind that is: if users want to follow certain creators, they should be able to. Moving that towards a AI/ML system seems just inefficient at achieving that goal. I don't know the rationale behind the decision here.