Since my first article about Obsidian, back around the start of 2023, all I’ve ever really done is write about the topic. That all changed less than a week ago, though, because I started posting video tutorials and workflow insights to my YouTube channel.
But which medium is better? This isn’t a simple question to answer but I’ll attempt to do so in this piece in a little detail.
(If you don’t want to read, the short answer is that some things lend themselves to video content a bit better, and some things work the other way around. There’s no one-size-fits-all response, and it depends largely on skill at creating the content in question.)
Let’s get started…
Written content
This is where I have a lot more experience to talk about. Since this first article back at the start of 2023, I’ve shared articles, newsletters, email broadcasts and more in an attempt to educate, build an audience and start an online business.
Some of these pieces did really well, netting thousands and thousands of reads and views. some of these pieces did less well, reaching only a hundred or so viewers.
Were there any common themes across the more engaging pieces? Not at first glance. And we have to ask the question of whether virality or engagement is something that’s worth optimising for in the first place.
I’ve always wanted to teach rather than entertain, and sometimes this means sacrificing views in exchange for attracting and retaining the kind of readers that I want around my work.
Things like listicles and stories that don’t really add much insight I can take or leave. They might perform well but really, I want to be taking people inside my own mind to show people things for them to take away and apply to their own processes.
Because of this, I’ve always thought that written content was better for teaching the more abstract or theoretical in terms of PKM. The kind of thing that doesn’t really need to be demonstrated in front of the faces of others — there’s less to see and watch, more to internalise and understand.
They’re the kind of concepts in which waffling or going down rabbit holes or off on tangents (like you might find it easier to do when recording videos) might subtract from actually getting the main idea across.
Because of this, things like Minimal Note-Taking and Evolution of a PKM System are better explained through writing, in my opinion, so that’s why I’ve done so for the last two years.
On the other hand, video works for a different category of teaching…
Video content
I watch a lot of video content — podcasts and vlogs are my favourites. They account for more content than I ever consume through reading, although I’m actively trying to change this. Video’s just more engaging, stimulating the viewer through different dimensions and sensations.
This point works in favour of video as well as against it. For some things, it’s all most a requirement to have a visual demonstration or walkthrough to get your point across. In other things (things like the concepts and theories which are taught better through written content), a visual element might cause distraction and take away from the teaching taking place.
Demonstrating plugins such as Folder notes and Dataview is what I’ve been using video for so far — it’s things like this that I think suit videos most of all (it beats putting screenshots inside of articles). I’m not very good at talking to the camera yet but the near necessity of using video for things like this done negates my incompetence.
But this brings me on to the main caveat of comparing writing vs video…
The caveat — it’s mostly a skill issue
This is the main thing that stopped me from making videos for such a long time — I’m better at writing than I am at speaking to a camera. So I thought that I could get away with writing everything, rather than biting the bullet and being a failure at recording pieces to camera for a short while.
Not accurate. Even with such a short time in video-making, the positive responses to some of what I’ve put out shows that I shouldn’t have put this off for as long as I had.
Even if I am bad at the start, building competence in recording videos will build a really valuable skill that I can make use of in the future. And with demos and walkthroughs being so dependent upon video, even if I remain bad at recording and producing them, actually being able to watch me work inside of my Obsidian vault will give some insight into the things I want to share about anyway.
So there you have it — in my current opinion, video is a necessity when it comes to certain types of teaching, less so when it comes to others. Even so, for the ones that it is important for, the visual and more tangible aspect of demonstration almost completely negates any incompetence in recording or producing videos.
The bottom line — if you teach online through writing, perhaps consider recording videos too if you don’t already.
Thanks for reading!