YouTube Channels where you can actually learn real-world skills

[iNcog]

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[Goodspeed]

Well I disagree with your logic in more than a few ways goodspeed. First off there's no way in hell you can automatize any process without first knowing how it works by hand.

Don't we?

"Basic real-world skills" are hardly useless even in the modern age I'd say. You won't make a living off of it, but that doesn't mean it's not useful. A simple example is the vegetable garden which my parents have which I help with. I can assure you that I'm eating some of the world's most delicious potatoes. For the bargain price of probably 5 days of work a year.

There's a bunch of stuff which is worth knowing about, I think. it's not a necessity but it's very valuable nonetheless. kind of like how you're better off building your own PC than buying a pre-built. necessary? no. better? yes

I know basic real-world skills, as far as that is even a term, are not useless. I'm saying that today's useful real-world skills are very different from 50 years ago.

[Metis]

@Goodspeed

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If you think about it, many basic skills are pretty much the same as they were 50, or 100 years ago. Mowing the lawn, tilling the soil, planting a crop, herding cattle, cutting down a tree and hundreds more "modern" tasks could be performed by someone who was transported from a hundred years ago with little thought. Sure, there are specialized computer-controlled manufacturing and industrial processes but if you've ever taken any courses in such things you will know that you learn how to do it "cave man" before you use a computer.

Sometimes you can't use modern tech, even if you wanted to. For instance, I taught riparian habitat assessment and improvement in the Pacific Northwest. GPS is a big boon to that endeavor. However, the terrain is usually so mountainous that you almost never can get a lock on even two, much less the four or more, satellites you need for accuracy. So, you get out the transits and tape measures and survey pretty much like they did when they built the Trans Continental Railroad in the 1860s. If it worked then, it will work now too.

[Laurence Drake]

i have mastered the most fundamental of all skills

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIwOiCDVLG4[/video]

[Goodspeed]

@Goodspeed

notification

If you think about it, many basic skills are pretty much the same as they were 50, or 100 years ago. Mowing the lawn, tilling the soil, planting a crop, herding cattle, cutting down a tree and hundreds more "modern" tasks could be performed by someone who was transported from a hundred years ago with little thought.

I might mow a lawn or plant a crop in my lifetime, but it's hard to count such simple tasks as skills. As for herding cattle or cutting down a tree, I can't think of a scenario where I end up doing either of those things.

Sure, there are specialized computer-controlled manufacturing and industrial processes but if you've ever taken any courses in such things you will know that you learn how to do it "cave man" before you use a computer.

Not exactly, in many cases what computers do is already too complicated for us to do by hand. Generally you do learn the theory behind the process, I'll admit.

Sometimes you can't use modern tech, even if you wanted to. For instance, I taught riparian habitat assessment and improvement in the Pacific Northwest. GPS is a big boon to that endeavor. However, the terrain is usually so mountainous that you almost never can get a lock on even two, much less the four or more, satellites you need for accuracy. So, you get out the transits and tape measures and survey pretty much like they did when they built the Trans Continental Railroad in the 1860s. If it worked then, it will work now too.

I see your point but I don't think I'll ever teach riparian habitat assessment in the Pacific Northwest. The "sometimes you can't use modern tech" argument only applies to people who choose to be in that situation or are born into it. I personally rely on modern tech to such a large extent that I would actively make sure I am able to use it at all times, and I'm not the only one. I think this is a trend that will only grow from here, all the way up to the point where the "real world" is no longer the real world, if you catch my drift.

[momuuu]

I think it'd be more helpful towards your personal development to spend half the time watching maths videos and half the time polishing up your social skills in fun social activities. Who cares about knowing how to do a simple task if you've developed yourself to the point where you can easily figure out how to do a task when on the spot. Right now if I don't know how to do something I can just take out my phone, google how its supposed to be done and then apply my general knowledge to solve the problem.

[Metis]

If you haven't planted and harvested your own crops, killed and butchered your own meat, prepared and cooked your own food and built your own shelter, then you haven't done much in life. Sorry about that. I truly hope that you don't find yourself in a position where you have to possess some actual real-world survival skills. I'd have loved to have seen how your average techno-nerd would have fared on the two weeks I spent in desert survival training. If you think that it takes no skill to find food, water and shelter outside the borders of civilized society then you must have more inherent talents than any Army Special Forces Operative I've ever met.

[momuuu]

If you haven't planted and harvested your own crops, killed and butchered your own meat, prepared and cooked your own food and built your own shelter, then you haven't done much in life. Sorry about that. I truly hope that you don't find yourself in a position where you have to possess some actual real-world survival skills. I'd have loved to have seen how your average techno-nerd would have fared on the two weeks I spent in desert survival training. If you think that it takes no skill to find food, water and shelter outside the borders of civilized society then you must have more inherent talents than any Army Special Forces Operative I've ever met.

I do not get how doing things in life is the same as gaining survival skills. Theres limited amount of time you can spend in life and Ive decided, so far without regrets, to not spend my time on survival skills but rather spend time with friends, family, on school and on hobbies like sports and playing an instrument. The goal of life is to be happy. If bragging about your acquired skills on an internet forum makes you happy, then be my guest, but if that involves insulting other forum members then I would personally like to see you just piss off.

[Vinyanyérë]

If you haven't planted and harvested your own crops, killed and butchered your own meat, prepared and cooked your own food and built your own shelter, then you haven't done much in life.

To you

Sorry about that.

It's ok

I truly hope that you don't find yourself in a position where you have to possess some actual real-world survival skills.

Same. But fortunately I probably never will.

I'd have loved to have seen how your average techno-nerd would have fared on the two weeks I spent in desert survival training.

Yeah they'd probably do pretty badly. But fortunately most of them probably won't have to.

If you think that it takes no skill to find food, water and shelter outside the borders of civilized society then you must have more inherent talents than any Army Special Forces Operative I've ever met.

I don't think anyone here thinks that.

[Metis]

Iv'e decided, so far without regrets, to not spend my time on survival skills but rather spend time with friends, family, on school and on hobbies like sports and playing an instrument. The goal of life is to be happy. I would personally like to see you just piss off.

If you are happy and content, then good for you. It's also good that there are those few "rough men" who serve to protect and support you behind the scenes. I guess that your great grandparents never did tell you what they went through when their generation failed to defend the Netherlands from Germany? Would your musical ability alone have helped you then, or perhaps would it not have been good to have other skills as well?

[momuuu]

My great grandparents were long dead by the time I was born and my granddad didn't fight in the war so there's that. But good point for sure, I hope theres a youtube account that teaches me how to not die in a nuclear war.

But yes, you were right all along. The goal of life is to prepare for the highly unlikely scenario that I will be fighting in a war, and with most certainty the goal is to start preparing for that right fucking now. Sports doesnt count, and spending time on other things is ridiculous.

At this rate I have a decent chance of being hired as a technician or scientist during war anyways so I'd fare pretty well during war.

[momuuu]

In todays society good social skills are the most important aspect as long as theyre backed up by a decent amount of intelligence. The best way to be 'succesful' in life is to get out there and trying to turn into a charismatic person while building up a network of connections. All these survival skills are absolutely meaningless in todays society.

Even in the hypothetical case of an imminent world scale war (but not nuclear or technological) being close to breaking out there is plenty of time to acquire these survival skills and what not. World wars are usually plenty telegraphed.

[Metis]

To those of you who think that the basic skills needed to survive are not relevant today, well you obviously haven't read much history. Even today, there are hundreds of thousands of people being displaced every year due to drought, famine, economic collapse and war.

When I speak of "survival" I'm not talking about that fake "Bear Grills" stuff. I'm talking about having a basic skill set that can be applied no matter what the situation you are in. If you learn how to catch, gut, clean and properly cook a fish, you can do so over a pleasant weekend trip with family or you can do so to feed your family if you become refugees. The same goes for gardening, etc. and other skills. For instance, if your car breaks down and there are thousands of people fleeing, do you really think the motor club is going to come help you?

Those of you in Europe, especially, should strive to possess such skills. There is a war right on your doorstep with hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring across your borders. And you well know that not all of these just want to make a new life for themselves in a new country. Many want to tear apart your country and remake it in their own image.

[Gendarme]

I think most of you underestimate the probability of a "every man for himself"-scenario as GoodSpeed puts it, in the not too distant future.

Although it is not probable from what I can tell from my limited knowledge of the world of politics, I highly doubt it is negligible.

[momuuu]

You appear to have been reading up on too many conspiracies.

I seriously dont get how you consider being able to catch a fish in the wild a crucial life skill. Theres enormous amounts of things I could come up with that I'll be more likely to do in life.

[Metis]

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content.
An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.
“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”
“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”
“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.”
But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.
When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.
Then the Grasshopper knew: "IT IS BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS OF NECESSITY.”

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.E.)

[momuuu]

In other words, if you see rough timea coming you should prepare for them.

You're absolutely insane if you claim a state of earth where survival skills are of utmost importance is imminent.

[Gendarme]

I seriously dont get how you consider being able to catch a fish in the wild a crucial life skill. Theres enormous amounts of things I could come up with that I'll be more likely to do in life.

I don't think anyone here finds that crucial in the sense that they would need those skills for personal survival (however, perhaps for teaching their children and grandchildren). Knowledge in the world of IT is obviously very valuable (not too far from crucial, I'd say), even if one is not interested in working in that field.

However, my main two cents on this topic is that I have no skills, not because I find other things more important, but because I have been a lazy kid my whole life - and that is my only excuse.

#confession #diary

[Metis]

I'm not saying that all you should know are the basic survival and mechanical skills, or proclaiming, as did Chicken Little, that "The Sky is Falling!" However, I am saying that if you possess no basic skills at all then you may someday find yourself at the mercy of those who do.

I don't know how it is in Europe but here in the US (at one time, at least) most boys were Scouts. In the Scouts you learn skills that you occasionally find yourself applying throughout your life. I use the knot-tying skills I learned when I was 12 nearly every day when cutting and hauling wood. Do you know how to tie a hay-bailing knot? If not, I'll post a video link, as it's a good knot that you can use to tie up your luggage to your car rack, if nothing else. Hell, knots are just fun to tie in their own right.

Perhaps you have never done any rock climbing, mountaineering, rappelling or camping but if you have you would find that you have used many of the skills that you used in Scouts. Perhaps you have never sailed, boated, skied, hunted, trapped or fished? Have you not planted a garden or cooked a meal for yourself? Have you not built or repaired a wagon? Have you not ridden a horse or herded cattle? Have you not built a house, shed or even a cabinet? Have you ever stood ready under arms to protect your country and its people? Have you not healed the sick, bandaged the injured or ministered to the dying? Have you not delivered a baby or taught a child to be a productive member of society?

If you have done none of these things, then I really feel sorry for you, as you have neglected a lot of what it means to be a human; your ancestors did these things and more for tens of thousands of years.

I can stalk and kill a deer with a bow and arrow, gut and butcher it and then cook it over a campfire that I've started using nothing but a few sticks and the shoelace from my boot. I also possess an electronics degree and several concomitant certifications and can design an build an electronic circuit from scratch. The two skill areas are not mutually exclusive. Everyone I know who has graduate degree has also hunted or fished sometime in their lives. Well-educated and well-rounded individuals know that there is no skill set that should be "poo-pooed" as below any other.

[Metis]

Hay-bailing knot. This is good for tying down items. Start by tying the rope to one fixed point then passing it through the other fixed point and then back on itself. Then, form a simple slip loop and pass another loop through it. The double loop makes untying the knot much easier as it will never jam. Now, pass the free end of your rope through the double loop and pull to tighten. Finish off the tie-down with a quick-release knot as shown.

First loop


Second loop


Pull free end through 2nd loop


Tighten, then finish off with a quick-release hitch


More knot tying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8drKsdf5E

[Vinyanyérë]

WRT your Aesop fable: the grasshopper made the mistake of not preparing for an event that was going to happen with probability 1 (the event, in question, being that winter will come after summer). It is a good idea to prepare for events that have probability 1. It is not necessarily a good idea to prepare for events that have probability less than 1.

There's no doubt that, in disastrous circumstances, the skills that you're listing will be good to have. The point being made is that the circumstances in which these skills will be useful have low probability (unless you're actively seeking out these circumstances), and that there are other skills that have a higher probability of being relevant, and that the expected value of learning these skills is higher than that of learning the skills you've listed.

If you have done none of these things, then I really feel sorry for you, as you have neglected a lot of what it means to be a human; your ancestors did these things and more for tens of thousands of years.

I don't think that we should be consider being human to be doing what our ancestors have done, or even that we should treat being human as some sort of inherent good. Regardless, something that our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years is cooperating with each other and dividing labor so as to improve everyone's quality of life. I've heard that you like Ancient Greeks, so I will place here a semi-applicable quotation from one such Ancient Greek philosopher:

"Just as the various trades are most highly developed in large cities, in the same way food at the palace is prepared in a far superior manner. In small towns the same man makes couches, doors, ploughs and tables, and often he even builds houses, and still he is thankful if only he can find enough work to support himself. And it is impossible for a man of many trades to do all of them well. In large cities, however, because many make demands on each trade, one alone is enough to support a man, and often less than one: for instance one man makes shoes for men, another for women, there are places even where one man earns a living just by mending shoes, another by cutting them out, another just by sewing the uppers together, while there is another who performs none of these operations but assembles the parts, Of necessity, he who pursues a very specialised task will do it best." -Xenophon

Well-educated and well-rounded individuals know that there is no skill set that should be "poo-pooed" as below any other.

I am inclined to agree; however, some of your posts run contrary to this. For example, the earlier

"'Specialization is for insects.' — Robert Heinlein" — Metis

indicates that you think that the person whose skill set consists of being the best AoE3 player in the world and nothing else has a skill set below the person who can change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly.

As does

If you haven't planted and harvested your own crops, killed and butchered your own meat, prepared and cooked your own food and built your own shelter, then you haven't done much in life.

and

If you have done none of these things, then I really feel sorry for you, as you have neglected a lot of what it means to be a human; your ancestors did these things and more for tens of thousands of years.

[Metis]

I really liked the Xenophon quote. I also will have to admit that video games and their adjuncts are a booming industry now. It's amazing how much advertising revenue some game casters now bring in. For instance, I used to watch an Irish guy named JackSepticeye back when he was struggling to get 1000 views per video and was trying to talk with an American accent. He found his nitch though by being more himself and acting a bit more "Irish." His popularity skyrocketed and now he has nearly 13 million subscribers. I'd guestimate that he now pulls in at least a million dollars a year, if not more. I really hope that Interjection and some of the other casters here could take off like that, they are every bit as good, IMO.

However, it is a basic principle in evolutionary biology that the specialist will usually go extinct, whereas the species that remains generalized will continue its linage. The classical example of this regarding human professions is the Linotype typesetter, whose profession disappeared almost overnight with the advent of word processing. I can see this amongst several people I know too. Some specialists, like one pediatric surgeon, are doing quite well as there is a high demand for this profession. Others, especially those who tied their jobs to the oil boom, are mostly now out of jobs. One kid I went to school with had a company that made oil-field equipment and employed over 120 people. He had to close down when the oil glut hit as nobody was buying that speciality equipment anymore.

[Laurence Drake]

Hay-bailing knot. This is good for tying down items. Start by tying the rope to one fixed point then passing it through the other fixed point and then back on itself. Then, form a simple slip loop and pass another loop through it. The double loop makes untying the knot much easier as it will never jam. Now, pass the free end of your rope through the double loop and pull to tighten. Finish off the tie-down with a quick-release knot as shown.

First loop


Second loop


Pull free end through 2nd loop


Tighten, then finish off with a quick-release hitch


More knot tying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8drKsdf5E

disappointed, thought you would be making a hangman's noose at first.

[Metis]

thought you would be making a hangman's noose at first.

The hangman's noose is just about the least useful knot I can think of. In fact, I can't think of any situation where I've actually used one, except for a Halloween decoration.

[Goodspeed]

If you haven't planted and harvested your own crops, killed and butchered your own meat, prepared and cooked your own food and built your own shelter, then you haven't done much in life. Sorry about that.

I don't know how to respond to that other than to state the obvious, which is that you enjoying these things doesn't mean everyone else enjoys them, too.

I truly hope that you don't find yourself in a position where you have to possess some actual real-world survival skills.

I do too, for humanity's sake as well as my own.

I'd have loved to have seen how your average techno-nerd would have fared on the two weeks I spent in desert survival training.

Yes well how would a survival-nerd fare automating complex business processes or analyzing large amounts of data to answer a very specific question? I don't think I need to tell you which of these skills is more valuable in the current job market, or which is more difficult to learn.

If you think that it takes no skill to find food, water and shelter outside the borders of civilized society then you must have more inherent talents than any Army Special Forces Operative I've ever met.

Of course it takes skill, but that doesn't make it worth it for me to learn. I would much rather (indirectly) pay farmers to grow my vegetables, the government for water supply etc. We have infrastructure in place that makes it real easy for me, which means I get to spend more time improving skills that are actually useful in today's job market as well as my hobbies. Because that's what survival is in a 2016 western society Metis, a hobby. You can try to argue that the world is ending but it's just not.