Yes, you'll always have some that don't fit the mold. Off the top of my head:
bisqwit
pwnfunction
cherno
However, it's like picking through a dung pile looking for the needle, or something like that. You're better off reading some books, the news, experimenting on your own, etc.
Have to agree with this. YouTube is ok for entertainment but haven't found anything actually educational coming from tech content creators, on either YouTube or Twitch.
I hate the new trend where they make ridiculous faces on the thumbnails. I know they’re doing it because it must be increasing engagement, but it’s so annoying.
If you're able to install extensions, this one[0] removes the clickbaity thumbnails and titles using crowdsourced data. It's from the same developer of SponsorBlock
It’s less a trend and more that yt rewards it. Not sure if that is actively rewarded by algo or just organic but I recall when it started some YouTubers being reluctant but did it anyway because it worked. Think some even semi A B tested it
This has been a trend for like 10 years already. Yes, it annoys me too but they apparently have the numbers to prove it gets more engagement, which is even more annoying.
Custom thumbnails weren't a feature on YouTube until maybe 2010 or so. Before that, they had to be a frame from the video, and originally you couldn't even choose which frame. So I wouldn't exactly call it an "original sin".
Dave's Garage is pretty interesting. He worked at Microsoft and wrote things like the Task Manager and Zip folders. He tells old stories and gives the inside scoop on how some of those things came to be.
John Hammond - Cyber security/ethical hacking. He explains what he's doing well enough for even someone like me, with very little cybersec knowledge, to follow along and understand.
Someone else also commented Nathan Baggs, also a great explainer of what he's doing (and he hacks some fantastic old school games too).
More on the entertainment side than educational (but if you understand engineering/coding you would highly appreciate the work that goes into some of these videos)
Quite a few of mine are already mentioned but if you're into retro-computers or restoration, I find Usagi Electric to be an incredible wealth of knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric
I gotta mention styropyro[0] even though he doesn't deal with computers at all - his channel is all about crazy overpowered lasers and sometimes some crazy chemistry.
One of my favorites is Optimum: https://www.youtube.com/@optimumtech. Lots of gnarly PC builds. I cloned his negative pressure Ghost S1 SFFPC build (but with a deshrouded Sapphire RX 5700 XT+ and Ryzen 3700x) and I absolutely love it.
Casey Muratori and Will Byrd, though I'm not that big on tech youtubers. Strange Loop was also pretty great and I can't believe I have to say 'was' there, but so it goes.
books: stuff that's been around longer than 5 years
papers: 5-2 years
slides: 2 years-cutting edge
a few blogs are about as good as slides (basically when they're serving the same purpose: technical communication with peers)
YMMV, but I aim for things that people spent a long time thinking about to prepare, in order that I may learn from them in a much shorter time:
Good books probably take 4-12 months (wall clock) to prepare, but I can digest them in days to weeks. (theoretical CS and maths take longer to digest; I'm guessing they're proportionally more difficult to write. a physics anecdote: Halliday and Resnick reportedly took 5 years to prepare their 1st edition.)
I'm not sure I've run into anyone who's consistently written more than 6 good papers a year, so call them 1-2 months to prepare; digestible in 1-2 days.
Slides or the better blogs may take days to prepare, yet are digestible in fractions of an hour.
Low Level Learning - Sub 10 min videos with a leaning towards the security aspect of code
Ben Eater - Making a computer from scratch
Fireship - 100 seconds of X to help me keep up with whatever tech stack my colleagues are proposing this week
IppSec - Security and Hacking
Jacob Sorber - Various programming topics, mostly around C
javidx9 - Game programming topics, most writing old-school game engines
Low Byte Productions - Long form videos (1+ hours) on low level topics
Nathan Baggs - Hacks old games to get them working again
The Coding Train - Various fun programming topics mostly around visualization and graphics, done in the format of a kids program
TJ DeVries - Teaches you how to exit vim, and other vim stuff
typecraft - Neovim and tmux tutorials, plugins, configurations etc
Acerola, GPU and shader programming: https://www.youtube.com/@Acerola_t
Sebastian Lague, various mostly visual algorithms for games: https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianLague
Freya Holmér, beautiful game dev related math: https://www.youtube.com/@acegikmo
pannenkoek2012, how Mario 64 limitations create the most interesting bugs: https://www.youtube.com/@pannenkoek2012
Jon Gjengset, some of the most in-depth rust content: https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo
AngeTheGreat, physics engine game dev including sound simulation: https://www.youtube.com/@AngeTheGreat
fasterthanlime, diverse, mostly rust content: https://www.youtube.com/@fasterthanlime
Bisqwit, retro programming: https://www.youtube.com/@Bisqwit
CodeParade, higher dimensional and fractal game dev: https://www.youtube.com/@CodeParade
suckerpinch, code that should not be though of, let alone executed: https://www.youtube.com/@tom7
SimonDev, game dev, performance focused, video quality varies: https://www.youtube.com/@simondev758
And many mentioned by SilverCode
Youtubers tend to fall into a few buckets.
1. Watch me build Minecraft in five minutes (all game devlogs, etc).
2. Watch me read an article and talk about it for 30 minutes (t3.gg, primeagen, etc).
3. Watch me build my dream game, part three (last uploaded three years ago).
4. Watch my shorts with fast jump cuts, large text and no substance.
bisqwit
pwnfunction
cherno
However, it's like picking through a dung pile looking for the needle, or something like that. You're better off reading some books, the news, experimenting on your own, etc.
[0]: https://dearrow.ajay.app/
Louis Rossmann is alright though I like him even though I don't watch him anymore.
Someone else also commented Nathan Baggs, also a great explainer of what he's doing (and he hacks some fantastic old school games too).
https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere
https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelreeves
https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober
https://youtube.com/c/theHacksmith
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw
1. Kevin Powell (Kevin Powell) - CSS
2. Daniel Schiffmann (The Coding Train) - Creative Coding
Also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile for more in depth videos
[0] https://www.youtube.com/@styropyro
Jeff Geerling
Ippsec
Linus Tech Tips
Louis Rossman kinda.
3d printing nerd
cnc kitchen
makers muse
zack freedman
tech ingredients
marques brownlee
adam savage tested
There's probably a bunch more, but honestly kind of watching more gun related stuff lately. Garand thumb, kentucky ballistics, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/atomic14
From my existing subscriptions:
- Just Another CTO https://www.youtube.com/@justanothercto
- Techno Tim https://www.youtube.com/@TechnoTim
- Wolfgang's Channel https://www.youtube.com/@WolfgangsChannel
- TechWorld with Nana https://www.youtube.com/@TechWorldwithNana
It’s more a podcast style channel, with a different guest on each episode with experience in a different area of tech/computer science they discuss.
No memes, no clickbait, no how to be a tech lead just mixed varied interesting computer science content/topics.
Agree with the other posters though, generally tech channels are junk full of charlatans.
Like blogs
papers: 5-2 years
slides: 2 years-cutting edge
a few blogs are about as good as slides (basically when they're serving the same purpose: technical communication with peers)
YMMV, but I aim for things that people spent a long time thinking about to prepare, in order that I may learn from them in a much shorter time:
Good books probably take 4-12 months (wall clock) to prepare, but I can digest them in days to weeks. (theoretical CS and maths take longer to digest; I'm guessing they're proportionally more difficult to write. a physics anecdote: Halliday and Resnick reportedly took 5 years to prepare their 1st edition.)
I'm not sure I've run into anyone who's consistently written more than 6 good papers a year, so call them 1-2 months to prepare; digestible in 1-2 days.
Slides or the better blogs may take days to prepare, yet are digestible in fractions of an hour.