A special recording in Notre Dame before it burned

Thank you for this video. Lately I’ve been trending towards the shorts on YouTube and avoiding the longer videos. You hit the nail on the head regarding social media trends and one of the reasons I did away with (most) social media over a year ago. It was a good gut check into my motivations when choosing content to consume. Keep up the good work!

Adam Pattermann

I will often times not view a video because it is long (10 minutes or more). Yes, I will watch some long videos if the creator is compelling, but many subjects can be broken down in to a series of bit-sized pieces (Destin's trip in a Navy submarine is a great example). On the flip side of that, Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut) recently made a 1 hour 20-something minute video about the history of Russian rocket engines. No way. Should be broken into episodes. Interestingly, Tim Dodd *also* made a 55 second video explaining expansion ratio in rockets. Outstanding! You can have your cake and eat it too. Make both long and short videos. Both have a place.

Pat Furrie

I believe he may have tweeted about it. If my memory serves, he is not in favor of it.

Destin, I really appreciate you addressing this topic and making a commitment to not being pulled and swayed by what YouTube wants. The study you cited and graph you showed comparing Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube is reflective of my own experience. Perhaps my own life reflects those trends even more dramatically to the point I’m pushing Instagram and Facebook further out of my life. I hope you regularly evaluate where you’re at and ensuring that you don’t lose your voice. I am more excited than ever to support you financially through Patreon because you’re willing to do what so many aren’t. Standing firm and not allowed yourself to be easily swayed. I pray God blesses what you’re doing for the world!

I hope this to be the most influential comment I've ever written. Destin, you asked me (and all of us) to support the things that add value to our lives. Smarter Every Day and NDQ bring value to my life, and I support that both verbally, monetarily, and hopefully actively. Please, stay true to yourself. You challenge me with every conversation, in every upload. Creative Distruction and adapting is natural... but we're all here because you challenge the things we take for granted. I need you to continue to challenge me, so I can continue to challenge others too. We were given two hands for a reason. One to pull ourself up, and the other to pull the person up behind us. Thanks for being a hand that pulls me up.

The video looks like the camera was attached to the head of a hyperactive golden retriever with dim vision. Very nausea-inducing. But still brings back memories from actual visiting. I hope to see it restored again some day.

I haven't listened to this one yet, but I'm glad to see another Sound Traveller video. I really like them and I hope you're still interested in putting them out.

Jason Manning

What is your opinion on YouTube getting rid of the Dislike count? if you haven't already made a post about it.

One of my favorite Videos still is the one where you were taking a short video of butterflies puddling on a fish. You did not tell us why. You did not tell us that you went there for it. You simply shared and invited us to enjoy with you. (Carnivorous Scavenger Butterflies Eat a Fish "Puddling") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApWAs9P0Sh8 I see that you remade this video here (SLOW Motion Butterfly Puddling - Smarter Every Day 80) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7x4LPhYlbc

Christopher Mayfield

I would encourage you to continue resisting the shorts. Though several here have advocated having them from those who have small bits of time between tasks or events, I would say they should take those moments to look at the world around them rather than looking at a screen again. Sit outside and watch people. Have a conversation with your neighbor. Take a walk, smell a flower, feed a squirrel, look at the artwork on the wall. Just interact with your environment rather than visiting someone else's. I really think that one of the tenets of SED is to lead the viewers to looking at their world a little differently and either more critically or from a different point of view, depending on the circumstance. I for one enjoy those moments when I can take a step back to look at something a little differently, or a little closer. Just yesterday, I discovered a little plant that my spouse really enjoys grows little red berries as winter approaches. A quick photo of that made her day. :)

Kevin Albers

Love the message of this, and as always, love your videos. While I do not have a strong opinion on it, I do not think that we should quickly dismiss shorts for how brief the content is. They do serve a purpose in the ever-growing busyness of our lives (a different problem), in that there are brief moments we find between meetings/calls/tasks, where we are not busy and can take a minute to find reprieve/rest (granted this does not consider the problem of bingeing such content) (sidebar: in writing this I searched "reprieve"; didn't know it had such a strong meaning!). However, the majority of content in the shorts category is...not conducive to education nor positively contributing to mental health. Therein lies the opportunity, which may not be for Destin and his channel, but nonetheless an opportunity: short content that DOES positively impact mental health - or at least provides a gateway to it. To understand what I mean by this, we need to look at the opposite: long videos/content. Work like Destin's is great, super informative, and a great launching platform for individuals to embark on an educational journey. However, there is a significant investment that the viewer makes in their time spent. I don't always have the time to watch SED videos, but will add them to my watch later list. Sometimes I never get to them. There are TONS of Veritasium videos that I would love to watch but don't have time for, or I just am not willing to invest the time - opportunity. What if there are shorts that are "bread crumbs" to longer videos? Sort of a "trailer" or teaser that can both provide a 10-30 second clip of entertainment, while enticing most viewers to watch the full video? I'm not immersed in this type of content (don't even own a TikTok account), but is there anyone doing this?

In your comments about your videos getting more views the longer they were, I think you’re possibly missing that the content and quality of the videos got better and deeper as you progressed, and the number of views reflect that more than the sheer length. Keep up the good work and high quality. Your curiosity and desire to learn about things is what you do best.

Appreciated your video and the sound traveler video! I wish there were more sound traveler videos though. I'm guessing it's a real issue getting the proper microphone and video setup though. Image stabilization would be a real help too. Thank you for not compromising your voice. I've seen this topic approached by a few channels I follow and each one doesn't want to change. I get a lot of educational content through YouTube, and shorts can't really do much for that. They can be funny, but mostly end up being wastes of time.

Jonathan Bates