Navin Kabra Profile picture
Sep 27, 2020 40 tweets 20 min read Read on X
Ok, let's do this. What are good YouTube channels that you watched (or still watch) because they're fun to watch, but you also ended up learning from them?

Only recommendations from people born this century are allowed

@gauravjoshi2000 @arshkabra @KabraRuhi @ShahAvanti02
Include a link to the YouTube channel, what it's about, and why you liked it. And tag others who could add to the list. Younger kids deserve better recommendations than the ones from the previous century.
YouTube for youngsters: Epic Rap Battles of History. This did more for @ArshKabra's history knowledge than ICSE History ever did.
I grew up reading Ya Perelman's books but never could get the kids interested in reading them. ASAP Science came to the rescue.
"Watch for the X, stay for the science", is certainly a theme for this thread, where X = entertainment, animation, rap, irreverence and more
Both @ArshKabra and @david_perell recommend @TheCrashCourse. That's triangulation from two ends of the spectrum.
Science and maths aren't the only subjects that kids can or should learn from YouTube. Here's ...ahem... screenplay writing?
Is mechanics your thing? I feel jealous when I see all the animations and slow-motion videos explaining mechanics. So much easier to learn, and you can focus on higher level things.
More physics and engineering recommendations from Gaurav.
Warning: I suggest watching only channels recommended by sensible people

DO NOT TRUST THE YOUTUBE RECOMMENDATION ALGORITHM. There be monsters.

Read this if you want to get scared: I suggest watching only
Because @anujdeshpande whined about the adults being excluded, I'm allowing recommendations from older people. All such recommendations will be tagged #olderpeople

Which means all recommendations *not* tagged #olderpeople are from verified 21st century sources.
I think Rohan just missed the Y2K deadline, so he is technically #olderpeople but close enough that you can give him the benefit of doubt.

It would be difficult to find a modern machine without motors, so this seems like a good topic to explore
As I said just a few weeks ago, all science and maths should be taught using @3blue1brown style animations. And the recommendations in this thread are a step in that direction.
Is it F1 you seek? I guess the answer is yes for some of you...
#oldpeople recommendations. Quite a selection here: Geography, Restorations, Wildlife, and Well-being
Was totally not expecting a youngster to recommend @RayDalio, but here we are.
#oldpeople recommendation: but a channel on space tech sounds interesting. And another vote for @veritasium which also showed up in @ArshKabra's recommendations.
If you watched any YouTube videos because of recommendations from this thread, please let me know. Closing the feedback loop is important in tracking quality.

My DMs are open.
#oldpeople recommendations: CGP Grey's topics are all over the place, but all of them sound interesting.
Why am I separating the people born before 2000 from the ones after? The older people merely adopted the internet. The younger ones were born in it. Formed by it.

Hence their recommendations carry more weight.
Another vote for Wendover Productions. @Jaydeep_W has also recommended it. Looks like it covers Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...
Nerdwriter now had 3 #oldpeople votes. Any youngster wants to upgrade it to a first-class recommendation?
Feels weird to put @manasi_nene into #oldpeople but what to do. Anyway, 3rd votes for Crash Course and Nerdwriter.

And a new category makes an entrance: music theory and history
The School of life covers a bunch of humanities topics, which our science/math oriented schools do a terrible job of. So this should be an antidote.

Maybe I need a #borderline category for late '90s folks instead of #oldpeople
Hmmm... I wonder how many kids are interested in the art of making and writing movies. Second recommendation in this category, this time from #oldpeople
Nerdwriter and Wendover Productions upgraded to a full recommendation. And "Half as Interesting" makes a debut. Explainers for all kinds of stuff, including some geopolitics and current events.
Another bunch of borderline #oldpeople YouTube channel recommendations from Manasi. See her thread for more
This is a second vote for ColdFusion about what's happening on the cutting edge of technology. Even @Jaydeep_W has recommended it.
Third recommendation for @veritasium and second one for @PhysicsGirl for Physics and science experiments.
Second #oldpeople recommendation for Geography Now. Another one for 3blue1brown for advanced maths and physics. And Arvin Ash for advanced physics.
Lost count of how many recommendations Crash Course has received so far. And a new #oldpeople category makes its debut: Finance.
Ok, now we have philosophy and law recommendations also.
New category "Cooking" makes an entry in the #oldpeople category. Sahil recommends @FrenchGuyCookin: youtube.com/channel/UCPzFL…

While we are on the topic, let me add @KrishAshok's channel which combines science with cooking
youtube.com/channel/UCPzFL…
Collection of educational YouTube channels from @LearnAwesome (this is an #oldpeople reco)
Yet another vote for @veritasium
It appears that Veritasium, The Crash Course, and Wendover Productions are at the top with a large number of recommendations.
How's it made has explanations of...umm... how things are made.

Link for the lazy ones:
History recommendation: OverSimplified. Vishwesh promises that the recommendation has come from his son. 😀
More votes for Crash Course, Kurzgesagt, Geo History, Half as Interesting. And new entries: Real Life Lore, Knowlegia, VSauce. All from a verified kid.
Three #oldpeople recommendations by @iamsarnaik here: The Science Asylum, Mind Your Decisions (fun math problems), and Zach Star (advanced sciency topics)

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More from @NGKabra

Jul 15
Who are Indians descended from? Aryans from Europe? Dravidians who've been "here" forever? The Indus valley civilization?

A controversial question for 150+ years, but now we have DNA evidence that answers these questions with a high degree of certainty.

🧵 Image
The controversy originated with the (now discredited) "Aryan Invasion Theory" which began as a respectable theory of how Indian, European, and Persian languages all have a common ancestry: but was quickly adopted by racist white Europeans
It started in late 17xx when William Jones, a linguistic scholar, was appointed a judge of the Bengal Supreme Court. He came to India and noticed striking the similarities between Sanskrit, Persian, Gothic, Greek, Latin.
Read 42 tweets
Jun 21
Devanagari is an extremely elegant script. But this was never explained to us in school.

A thread on the awesomeness that is devanagari.

Let's start with the things that my teachers did *not* teach me in school:
Why do both श and ष exist? (The difference in pronunciation was never explained) Why do ङ and ञ exist?

What is ऋ? Is it pronounced “ri” or “ru”, and in any case, why does it even exist if री and रु exist?
Much later in life, when I understood the meaning of the rows and columns in Devanagari, everything fell into place and I saw the beauty and elegance of it all.
Read 17 tweets
Dec 13, 2023
Ever wondered why "sin" (of trigonometry) is called "sin"? Today, I decided to find out, and the history is fascinating. It comes from the Sanskrit word for bowstring which somehow got translated to the Latin word for the "pallu" of a toga.

Follow me down this rabbit hole 🧵
Let's start with this wonderful image I received from a friend on WhatsApp (source unknown). Here, you can clearly see why "tan" is called "tan". But what about "sin"?

If you think of the solid yellow arc as a bow, then the solid blue line (sine) is the bowstring 🧵 Image
jīvá (जीवा) the Sanskrit word for bowstring is the name given to sin by Aryabhata the inventor¹ of the sine and cosine functions.

How do you get from there to a toga? A series of interesting accidents

--
¹ Ok fine, discoverer 🧵
Read 7 tweets
Feb 8, 2023
WhatsApp (if used well) is one the best things that has happened in communications in recent times.

It is excellent for deepening bonds with friends, relatives, and professional contacts.

But you have to work to ensure that WhatsApp doesn't degenerate into uselessness/toxicity
By default WhatsApp can be too noisy and a distraction. Here's 4 things I have done to improve the situation significantly:

1. Surgical notifications
2. Ruthless exits from noisy large groups
3. Proactive creation of smaller groups
4. Polite policing
Surgical notifications: 3 customized levels of notifications

Disable all notifications for groups—No sound, no popup, nothing

Gentle, low-volume, low-duration notification for 1–1 chats

Proper notification for a selected few people: kids, spouse, boss, important small groups
Read 13 tweets
Jul 13, 2022
Rewriting my thread on #karmanyevaadhikaraste because it is important enough to get right

The first few tweets are a simple introduction and you can skip those because it will be familiar to most Indians

But the rest of the thread, the example applications, are the good stuff
Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, verse 47:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेसषु कदाचन
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते संगोसत्वकर्मणि

You have the right to action alone, not to its fruits
Don't be motivated by the fruits, and don't get attached to inaction either
The first part is famous and everybody quotes it: focus on your actions, not on the outcomes.

The second part is rarely quoted: don't use this as an excuse to not do anything. Do the right thing (even if it sometimes might seem pointless.)
Read 39 tweets
Jul 12, 2022
Good HBR article (by @TylerCowen et al) on reducing wastage and useless bureaucratic overhead from your hiring process.

Quick overview: /1
Do not have more than 4 or 5 "rounds" of interviews/interactions with a candidate. A study (at Google) showed that the first 4 gave 86% of the value. After that, the value diminished rapidly. /2
For each role, have one person who is the primary decision-maker. Unnecessary democracy and consensus results in worse hires.

A committee will hire a camel when a horse is required. /3
Read 8 tweets

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