I find it hard to concentrate on videos of people talking. I have no problem sitting in long lectures or conferences, but I get fidgety and distracted trying to watch conference videos on my laptop.
I'm used to thinking of video watching as being a low value activity that should not be optimized for, but there's an increasing amount of professionally necessary video watching.
Maybe I should build a dedicated video room, like a home theater but for work, with minimum visual distractions.
1.5x or faster speedups, turn on CC for the unintelligible speech. I really appreciate it when there's a transcript available in addition to the captioning.
Taking notes / creating Anki cards helps with focus.
I use noise-canceling headphones (inexpensive from Taotronics) and the DFX plugin [1] for audio clarity. The plugin has a Dialog Boost setting intended for transcription. It goes a long way to improve muddy audio.
In case some are wondering, "Video Speed Controller" extension can speed and slow down videos by pressing "d" or "s", respectively as much as you want with steps of 0.1x, instead of the non useful Youtube click and select a speed with a quantum of 0.5 and a max of 2.
If a talk is 40 minutes and there are no slides available and the author goes through the slides in the video, I'll play the video at 10x or more just to check out the slides and see if the talk addresses the points I'm interested in. 40 minutes at 10x or faster is around 4 minutes. It helps me decide and avoids me wasting 40 minutes on the wrong talk.
I found it very helpful to have your own rituals for the task you want to accomplish.
I create a spreadsheet with every startup before I start watching anything.
Then I start rating startups and comment on founders on my sheet while watching the videos.
I focus 100% on the first minute of any video, sometimes founders are so good they completely get my attention, sometimes I lose interest and just go back to my sheet commenting.
My sheet/notes are my starting point, if I’m bored I fix it there..I found out that I get bored when I hear a pitch that solves a problem for industries I’m not interested in.
I attended 4 online demo days, and every time my sheet gets improved.
I cannot watch these videos without a spreadsheet..and now my team asks me to send them the spreadsheet before every demo day.
I think YC should add a sheet for us to write our comments/ratings and decision.
The data from these sheets will be so helpful to understand how attendees perceive each pitch, how founders can improve it
I've been making investment mistakes and trying to learn from them for 15 years now. Recording a couple sentences about your reasons why or why not helps a lot. People aren't naturally good at learning from decisions with long feedback delays -- you have to keep notes.
I wish I had decision notes from earlier life choices, like why I studied EE instead of CS, why I chose my PhD advisor, why I joined companies, got married, etc.
I keep track of investment decisions, but not life decisions...life is too big for me to have it tracked on excel.
But I hear you...sometimes you lose sight of your big goal. It helps to have your goal/vision engraved in your mind, it helps to write and dream about it.
My current job has a lot more video calls than prior. It took some getting used to. I find the biggest challenge to be the urge to do some low-quality work simultaneously. What's helped me on that is:
- Use a good monitor or TV. Ideally not the main one you use to work.
- Move, physically, from my desk to a place I take the calls in. Enter 'meeting mode' not 'desk mode'
- Close all other applications. Full screen video.
- Turn off other monitors
- Take notes via notebook
I bet building a room would help, but these things worked for me in an apartment where that wasn't an option. Still takes energy to focus on it though.
Same here. My problem is allocating dedicated time to sitting and watching these things. I'm fine with meetups and conferences, as I commit to them in some concrete way. I stash my devices and give the speaker my full attention for however long it takes; but for videos, at best I start it in a browser at work and within 5 minutes it's just running in the background and within 15 minutes I've usually been pulled on enough work-related priorities that it dies, paused, in its browser tab.
Perhaps you’ve tried this already but taking notes with pen and paper might help you to focus. I like doing that during meetings at work, in order to help me keep focus and prevent my mind from wandering away.
What works for me is using my headphones/earbuds on a laptop in a room that doesn't have other distractions. The audio quality of the recording makes a huge difference. Bad audio is a killer.
I will always look for a written alternative if there is one, but if forced to watch a video I'll speed it up at least 2.5x, sometimes more depending on the video, and use captioning. For me it's the worst possible medium in general though.
Tangential: I know Sam Altman has expressed interest in the real life phenomenon. Recently I was thinking it had to do with human perception. Video is a substitute for authentic cues of reality.
A solution that would be up your alley for experimentation is getting curved LCD display and putting it on a humanoid^.
I think getting some sample audiences would allow for iteration to a decent remote solution. It may be awkward at first, so bringing back cohorts may help them adapt to the robot.
^I think it would have to be more nuanced, but it is a start to engaging with real depth perception.
The discipline to maintain focus is a skill that requires practice. We practice "multi-tasking" a lot more than we practice single-tasking. The problem is not the environmemt or the medium or the technology.
A good way to practice paying attention to video is to take notes while watching. And use pen and paper! You don't need the notes later, they are just a tool to help maintain focus and process as you listen.
Hey, we're Supermedium, a YC company exploring building a VR home environment for utility and productivity (which includes focus). If anyone is interested, subscribe to our email list at http://supermedium.com to get updates, we'll be slowly releasing apps and experiments to try.
I think it can help to put yourself in "prosumer" mode, produce and make it an interactive experience, instead of being a 100% consumer. Get on the back-channels - Slack, live-tweet about it, make a buzzword bingo card etc.
The suggestion here about making a spreadsheet is good too, it reminds me of people who keep records while watching sports.
I do the same. I listen to a tutorial or tech talk, and find myself wanting to keep my hands busy. So I start messing with causal games on my phone. Some stuff I can still follow like a tech talk but If they show actual code or something I find my self either pausing or rewinding.
I have a ritual of watching through my queue of Youtube videos (on many topics) when I am preparing and eating breakfast each morning. It works well. I've been able to churn through so much useful content over the years that I wouldn't have normally watched.
Try running the video stream (YouTube has VR mode) in something as simple as cardboard/daydream. There’s something calming and focusing when your peripheral vision is silenced.
Treadmill desk. It's on the edge of being too difficult to walk and do real work, but you can walk pretty fast (for a decent amount of exercise) and watch videos easily.
I'm used to thinking of video watching as being a low value activity that should not be optimized for, but there's an increasing amount of professionally necessary video watching.
Maybe I should build a dedicated video room, like a home theater but for work, with minimum visual distractions.
Do people have advice on how to focus on videos?