I have a love-hate relationship with videos. I love how easy and entertaining it has become to watch expert problem-solvers tackle difficult problems on YouTube. Occasionally, I hate how this medium has diminished the crucial skills of reading and writing for too many people.
There is no doubt that watching somebody else accomplish a task can teach you to replicate the repair they are demonstrating. The very best-of-the-best also teach you the underlying theory and the process by which they came to their knowledge and skills.
Just a few of my YouTube favorites include:
Clive always demonstrates excellent written communication (schematic diagrams) and research skills (finding, reading, and understanding manufacturer’s datasheets). He uses clear labelled photographs to reverse-engineer designs.
Dave does amazing whiteboard tutorials in addition to great exploration videos, where sometimes he does not know what he might discover when he dives into a project. Life is like that.
https://www.youtube.com/@farmcraft1026
Can one man repair an 80 foot boom lift by himself? Yes, but he has to call on an incredible variety of skills and tools. In order to understand how that device worked, he first built a scale model using wood and other bits. The variety of problems Jon takes on is astounding. A lot of his videos involve him repairing the machines he acquires (and needs) to solve some original problem.
A father and son (and son-in-law) take on home construction and improvement. They consistently deliver education and entertainment. Paul (the father) leads with humor, wisdom, and humility. I particularly love the way he consistently demonstrates that you need math skills to do basic jobs.
Another skill that many elite video presenters use is providing helpful summaries and links in the video description.
I love the variety and breadth of skills that all of these creators demonstrate daily. You can recognize that they have done a lot of reading and research before they start working with their tools. They all spend time considering the safety of users, products, and projects.
There are of course, many other content creators on YouTube: some good and some terrible. I often surf or watch new videos in a browser’s private mode so that I don’t constantly get new recommendations based on the lowest quality videos that might have suckered me in with a click-bait headline.
My advice: learn what you can from the smartest folks and then consider how you can best share with other people the lessons you have learned in your own problem-solving adventures. Sometimes that will be in written form, and sometimes a video does better.