Taking notes from YouTube videos in Obsidian

Summary

This video script discusses various methods for taking notes from YouTube videos and integrating them into the Obsidian note-taking tool. It covers five different approaches: using Obsidian's native features, the Media Extended plugin, Timestamp Notes plugin, a Chrome extension called E-Note, and Readwise Reader. Each method has its pros and cons, and the script provides a detailed walkthrough of how to use them. The speaker shares personal preferences and use cases for each tool, highlighting the growing importance of YouTube as a learning platform and the need for effective knowledge management systems to capture insights from video content.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video discusses methods for taking notes from YouTube videos and integrating them into the Obsidian note-taking tool.
• 🔍 The first method involves using Obsidian and YouTube side by side, with the ability to embed YouTube videos directly into notes.
• 🎵 The second method uses the 'Media Extended' plugin for Obsidian, which allows for a more robust video player experience within the app.
• ⏱️ 'Media Extended' also enables timestamping of notes, which helps in recalling specific moments from the video.
• 📝 The 'Timestamp Notes' plugin is another tool mentioned, which provides a sidebar video player and timestamped note-taking functionality.
• 🛠️ 'Timestamp Notes' allows notes to be taken with timestamps that function as buttons, navigating to the exact moment in the video.
• 🌐 A Chrome browser extension called 'E-Note' is highlighted, which automatically pauses videos for note-taking and exports notes to Obsidian.
• 📘 'Readwise Reader' is introduced as a public beta tool that integrates with YouTube, leveraging automatic captions for note-taking and summarization.
• 🤖 'Ghostreader', part of Readwise Reader, uses AI to generate summaries, questions, and even attempt to answer queries based on video content.
• 🔄 The video emphasizes the importance of personal knowledge management by incorporating learning from YouTube into a structured system.
• 🌟 The presenter finds 'Readwise Reader' particularly compelling due to its text-based approach, making notes infinitely more searchable and accessible.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is discussing different methods to take notes from YouTube videos and integrate them into the Obsidian note-taking tool.

How can one take notes from YouTube videos without using any plugins?

One can take notes by opening Obsidian on one part of the screen and YouTube on the other, then creating a new note in Obsidian and starting to take notes while watching the video.

What is special about embedding YouTube videos in Obsidian?

In Obsidian, you can embed whole webpages, including YouTube videos. However, the embedded video is simplified to only include the video player without the entire webpage or comments.

What are the limitations of using the YouTube player in Obsidian for note-taking?

The YouTube player in Obsidian is not fully featured, making it difficult to keep track of where you left off in the video if you accidentally navigate away or if the player is not ideal for scrubbing through the video.

What is the Media Extended plugin in Obsidian and how does it help with note-taking from videos?

The Media Extended plugin in Obsidian allows users to play videos within Obsidian itself. It also enables users to take timestamped notes from the video player, which can be helpful for referencing specific moments in the video.

How does the Timestamp Notes plugin differ from the Media Extended plugin?

The Timestamp Notes plugin opens the video in a sidebar rather than a new tab and allows users to create buttons for timestamps that, when clicked, navigate to the exact moment in the video within the Obsidian sidebar.

What is Y Note and how does it assist with taking notes from YouTube videos?

Y Note is a Chrome browser extension that allows users to take notes while watching YouTube videos. It automatically pauses the video when the user starts typing, facilitating the note-taking process without missing any content.

What is the Readwise Reader and how does it integrate with YouTube for note-taking?

Readwise Reader is a tool that recently went into public beta and announced an integration with YouTube. It leverages YouTube's automatic captions to allow users to highlight and take notes from the text of the video.

How does the Ghostreader feature in Readwise Reader assist with note-taking from videos?

Ghostreader is an AI reading tool within Readwise Reader that can summarize documents, generate thought-provoking questions, and even attempt to answer specific questions based on the content of the video.

What are some of the advantages of using Readwise Reader for taking notes from YouTube videos?

Readwise Reader offers the advantage of text-based note-taking, which is more searchable and allows for integration with the Readwise official Obsidian plugin for easy syncing. It also provides additional features like summarization and question generation through its Ghostreader tool.

How does the process of exporting notes from the Y Note extension to Obsidian work?

After taking notes using the Y Note extension, users can go to the open management page, select the video they took notes on, and then choose to export their notes as Markdown, which can be saved directly into their Obsidian vault.

What are some of the disadvantages mentioned in the script regarding the use of Readwise Reader for note-taking from videos?

One of the disadvantages mentioned is that Readwise Reader is text-only, so it does not provide timestamps to the exact moment where a highlight was taken. Additionally, not every video on YouTube has usable captions, which can limit the effectiveness of the tool.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Taking Notes from YouTube Videos in Obsidian

The paragraph introduces the challenge of transferring notes from consumed media into a note-taking tool, with a focus on YouTube videos. It outlines two methods for integrating YouTube content into Obsidian notes: the first involves manually embedding a video using the share feature on YouTube, which allows for a basic playback experience within Obsidian, albeit with limited functionality. The second method leverages the 'Media Extended' plugin, which offers a more robust video player and the ability to timestamp notes directly within Obsidian. However, it also has limitations, such as incorrect timestamps and opening links in an external browser.

05:01

🕒 Timestamp Notes and Y Note for Efficient Video Annotation

This section discusses advanced note-taking techniques using the 'Timestamp Notes' plugin and the 'Y Note' Chrome extension. 'Timestamp Notes' allows for embedding YouTube links and timestamping directly in Obsidian, creating clickable buttons that jump to specific video moments within the sidebar. 'Y Note' is highlighted as a browser extension that automatically pauses videos while typing notes, facilitating a smoother note-taking process. It also enables exporting notes with timestamps to Markdown format, which can then be imported into Obsidian.

10:03

🔗 Readwise Reader for YouTube Video Notes Integration

The paragraph explores the use of Readwise Reader, a tool that integrates with YouTube to leverage automatic captions for note-taking purposes. It describes how Readwise Reader allows users to highlight text and add notes, which can then be synced with Obsidian via an official Readwise plugin. The advantages of using Readwise Reader include its metadata enrichment and the ability to quickly summarize or generate questions from the video content. However, it lacks the ability to timestamp highlights to specific video moments.

15:05

🤖 Ghostreader: AI-Powered Insights from Video Content

This section introduces Ghostreader, an AI feature within Readwise Reader that generates summaries, thought-provoking questions, and attempts to answer user queries based on video content. It demonstrates the tool's ability to provide nuanced commentary and questions, even when faced with imperfect captions. The feature is shown to be useful for quickly understanding and engaging with video content, although it may not always produce accurate Q&A pairs or understand complex concepts without clear highlights.

20:06

🌐 Personal Knowledge Management with YouTube and Obsidian

The final paragraph reflects on the importance of integrating YouTube learning into a personal knowledge management system. It discusses the evolution of YouTube content from entertainment to a primary source of education and the significance of having tools like Readwise Reader to capture and organize insights from video content. The author expresses a preference for Readwise Reader due to its text-based searchability and convenience, and anticipates it becoming the primary method for taking notes from YouTube videos in the future.

Keywords

💡Obsidian

Obsidian is a powerful knowledge management tool that allows users to create a network of interconnected notes. In the video's context, it is the primary platform where the user takes notes from various media sources, including YouTube videos. The script mentions different methods and plugins to integrate video content into Obsidian for better organization and retrieval of information.

💡YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing platform that hosts a wide variety of video content. In the script, it is identified as a significant source of media from which the user wants to take notes. The video discusses various methods to capture insights and information from YouTube videos and integrate them into the Obsidian ecosystem.

💡Embedding

Embedding, in the context of the video, refers to the process of inserting a YouTube video or webpage directly into an Obsidian note. The script describes how to embed a YouTube video by copying the embed code and pasting it into Obsidian, allowing users to have a direct link to the video within their notes.

💡Media Extended Plugin

The Media Extended Plugin is an Obsidian plugin that enhances the media viewing experience within the note-taking app. The script explains how this plugin allows users to play videos directly within Obsidian, making it easier to watch YouTube videos and take notes without switching between applications.

💡Timestamped Notes

Timestamped notes are a method of noting down specific moments or points in a video with a timestamp. The script mentions using the Media Extended Plugin and Timestamp Notes plugin to create notes that are linked to particular times in a video, which helps users to quickly revisit important sections.

💡E-Note

E-Note is a Chrome browser extension that facilitates the process of taking notes on videos. The script describes how E-Note allows pausing of the video for note-taking without manual intervention, and how it can export notes with timestamps in a format that can be imported into Obsidian.

💡Readwise Reader

Readwise Reader is a tool that integrates with web browsers to allow users to take notes and highlights from articles and videos. The script highlights its recent integration with YouTube, enabling users to highlight and annotate text from video captions directly within their browser, which can then be synced with Obsidian.

💡Ghostreader

Ghostreader is an AI-powered feature within Readwise Reader that generates summaries, thought-provoking questions, and answers based on the content of a document or video. The script demonstrates how Ghostreader can enhance the learning process by providing additional insights and questions related to the video content.

💡Knowledge Management

Knowledge management refers to the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge within an organization or an individual's workflow. The video's theme revolves around knowledge management by discussing various tools and methods to integrate learning from YouTube into a personal knowledge base using Obsidian.

💡Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS)

A Personal Knowledge Management System is a set of tools and processes an individual uses to maintain and organize their knowledge and information. The script emphasizes the importance of having a PKMS like Obsidian to extend learning from YouTube videos and incorporate insights into a searchable and retrievable format.

Highlights

Different methods to take notes from YouTube videos and integrate them into Obsidian.

Embedding YouTube videos directly into Obsidian notes.

Using the 'Media Extended' plugin for a more robust video player within Obsidian.

Timestamping notes with the 'Media Extended' plugin for easy reference.

Limitations of the 'Media Extended' plugin, such as incorrect timestamps and browser dependency.

Using the 'Timestamp Notes' plugin for a sidebar video player and in-Obsidian timestamping.

The convenience of 'Timestamp Notes' for note-taking and video scrubbing within Obsidian.

Introducing 'Y Note', a Chrome browser extension for pausing videos while typing notes.

Exporting notes from 'Y Note' to Obsidian using Markdown.

Readwise Reader's public beta and its integration with YouTube.

Readwise Reader's use of YouTube's automatic captions for note-taking.

Ghostreader, an AI tool within Readwise Reader for summarizing and generating questions.

The advantage of Readwise Reader for text-based note-taking and searchability.

Personal preference for using Readwise Reader over other methods for future note-taking.

The evolution of YouTube as a primary source of learning and the importance of integrating it into personal knowledge management.

Transcripts

- Before you can process notes

you need to find a way to reliably get your notes

or highlights on media that you consume

into your note taking tool in the first place.

I've already shown how I do this for books, Kindle books

in particular, and for things like articles on the web.

But if you're watching this video

then chances are high that you also have another source

of media that we haven't talked about yet

and that's videos on YouTube.

In this video, I'm gonna talk

about how to take notes from YouTube videos.

I know it's a little bit meta

and then have them filtered on through to Obsidian.

The first one doesn't require any plugins at all

and it is to open up Obsidian

on part of your screen and then YouTube on the other.

For example, if I want to take notes

on this video on performance testing using Playwright

I can quickly create a new note

and Obsidian for that and then I can start taking notes.

One interesting thing to note here though is

that in Obsidian you can actually embed whole webpages

on YouTube videos.

It's a little bit different

because you don't want the entire webpage

or the comments on that.

You just want the video itself.

So on YouTube you can do that by clicking on share here

and then you can click on this embed option

and you're going to need to copy this entire thing.

So I'm gonna copy that

and then when I paste it here and I hit enter,

you'll see that what was a bunch of code

is now an actual embed of this particular video on YouTube

just in Obsidian.

So if you don't want to have like half of the screen taken

up by YouTube and half of it by Obsidian

then you can do away

with this entirely and just do it with an Obsidian.

So you can start taking notes here.

The problem with this is

that the YouTube player isn't that great in Obsidian.

This is okay for playing and you can scrub through it

but you know it isn't fully featured.

So for example,

if you were halfway through watching something

and then you go back into the code accidentally,

well you've now just lost your place.

So it's not exactly the most ideal way to do things.

The second way to take notes

on videos is by using the media extended Obsidian plugin.

So I already have the media extended

plugin enabled and installed,

so I can just get started.

To do that I'm going to hit command P

or control P to go to the command pane,

and you can see that I already have

a media extended command.

This comes with a plugin and you can also optionally set

like a hot key for it, going to hit enter.

And I still have that link copied

so I'm just going to paste that in, hit open.

And it actually already does the same thing

that we were trying to do with this eye frame.

So let me get rid of the eye frame

so that I can show you what media extended is like.

And now this is playing on its own

and I didn't have to get the eye frame and such.

It's also not going to go away.

So I find it a little bit more robust than, you know

accidentally going into the code from the eye frame.

This is playing, but while it's playing

what if I want to take notes on a particular moment?

Well, in media extended,

I can also get timestamped

from player and you'll see that I already

had previously saved this to have a hot key of control T.

So I'm going to do that and you'll see

that it already linked to that particular timestamp.

So apparently this is 45 minutes in.

Yep, that looks about right.

So then I can say John says something cool here

just to show you that hot key.

I'm going to control T here.

And then you'll see that

by default the timestamp is actually pasted

after the cursor.

So you type something here and then the timestamp is there.

So while you're watching the video,

you'll end up with a bunch of notes that are timestamped.

The annoying thing with this one though is

if you click on this, it will open it up

but it opens it up not in the Obsidian browser here

it'll open it up in your browser.

I've also seen that it doesn't always

get the timestamp right.

Like this one was supposed to be 56 minutes in

but it took me right to the beginning again

so it's not always been exactly spot on.

One of the advantages of this media extended plugin is

that it can handle more than just YouTube videos.

It can handle videos and also some audio notes as well.

And I don't think I've tried it with anything else

but really I just need YouTube videos.

So for that particular workflow

I haven't been using media extended recently.

I've been using another plugin called timestamp notes.

Do you timestamp notes.

I'm also going to use the command pane.

So control command P again

and then type in timestamp notes.

You'll see that I have a few commands here

some of them I've already established hot keys for.

So the one that I actually want is open video player

but that requires the URL to already be pasted.

So with media extended,

there was like a modal and I had to paste it in there.

But for timestamp notes,

I have to paste a link to the video there

and then I can start it off with my hot key command shift Y.

And that opens it up over here.

Just make that a bit bigger so we can see it.

So same sort of idea except that this one started it

in the sidebar rather than as a different tab.

What this has actually done is it's embedded this link

within a different code block.

You don't need to know exactly how it works

is something that the plugin does.

And then after that, while you're watching the video

if you get to an interesting part

then you can open up the command pane again

and select the command for time stamping.

Or you can just use the hot key like I already have

which was Command Control Z

and now it has that timestamp there.

So let me just type something over there.

The video is still going and you can keep watching it.

So here's one here, I'll put another timestamp.

The cool thing about timestamp notes is

once you've got the timestamps there

these are actually buttons.

So if we go into them, then you'll see

that it is a special code block as well.

And when I click on it, it actually goes to that part

in the video, but it doesn't open up a new browser

it just does it in the sidebar, which is really handy.

'Cause while you're watching your notes

this is really a good way to scrub

through a video if you've already taken notes on it.

So if I want to watch a video

and take notes on it all entirely within Obsidian

then this is the plugin that I used timestamp notes.

But the fourth way it solves a problem that timestamp notes

and media extended didn't, and that's that.

If you noticed, my notes were pretty short here

and that's because while the video was playing

I didn't really have much time

I didn't wanna miss anything.

So there wasn't a way to pause it, take notes

and then keep playing again without, you know

doing a whole lot of back and forth.

So the next tool is not even an Obsidian plugin

it's actually a Chrome browser extension

and it's called Y Note.

I've actually been using E-Note for almost two years.

That's longer than I've been using Obsidian.

Here's an article I wrote

about how to use E-note with Rome research.

That's how long I've been using it.

So here I am in Chrome.

I've got the same video up

and I'm going to click on this little red icon here.

That is e-note.

This is also a free browser extension.

So the cool thing

about E-Note is if I start playing this video

let's say I'm a little further along

then I'm going to type here open MCT,

see open MCT in action.

You'll notice that when I started typing

the video automatically paused for me.

The browser extension did that.

And that's really handy

because usually when I wanna take notes on something

I want to have the time to really flesh something

out before I go back.

So I'll save that one.

Then I will take a few more notes and I'll say

this is dev tools performance panel

and I'll save that as well.

This is a recent thing that they started doing.

This is a little bit annoying.

Go back down here,

start playing it again

and I'll type K abilities.spec.js.

So I just want to take a few notes here

so that I have something to demonstrate later

what is client side performance.

Now let's say that I'm done with this video.

I've watched everything.

I've taken four notes.

They are also timestamped

so I will be able to see that later as well.

And now that I'm done,

I can go to this open management page

and you'll see all of the videos

that I've recently taken video notes on.

And this one is the one that I was just

doing performance testing using Playwright.

So then I can go into that.

And this is really cool because it presents me

with this view where I see a screenshot of the video

as it was playing and then my notes and the timestamp.

So then if I click on the timestamp

it'll take me to that moment of the video.

So if I scroll up here, I can select a circle

and then I'll say that this particular paragraph

is the one that I wanted to highlight.

So that's kind of interesting.

And I'll click save there

and then I have a bunch of options here.

I can use it to export to pdf.

But of course, since I want this to go to Obsidian

I'm going to choose the one that says Export as Markdown.

I'm going to click on that

and then I will just save it in my Obsidian vault.

You'll see that it's saved as a.md found

because I saved it right to my vault.

I'm gonna switch tabs to here

and then I'll open up that particular note.

I'll open it up side by side.

So you can compare it to the timestamp notes note.

So it looks very similar.

It has the timestamps here

and it also has my actual notes here

but clicking on it will take me

to that point in the video in the browser, not in Obsidian.

So you know, it's not exactly as handy as timestamp notes

and because I exported as markdown, not pdf

I don't get those annotations

in the screenshots in Obsidian.

So what's not so great about this browser extension is

that I still had to manually export to markdown.

Ideally, I would just click a button

or something and it would maybe go to Readwise.

I did think about forking the code myself

since it's open source and connecting it to Readwise

but then Readwise came up with a better option.

Option number five is Readwise Reader.

Reader has recently gone into public beta,

so if you were wanting to test it out before,

now's your chance.

Because you just have to go and sign up for it.

You don't have to go on a wait list

like you used to anymore.

And Reader just announced an integration with YouTube.

So let's take a look at that.

Now I've already talked quite a bit about Readwise Reader

so just check out that link

to get the full lowdown on how to use Reader.

But right now I've just got the video

up and normally if this were an article

I would just click on this yellow Reader icon

and that's the same thing that I'm gonna do.

Now, obviously there isn't anything to highlight

but it'll still say that it's saved to Reader.

Now to go to Reader itself

and there's the video from YouTube

I'm gonna go into that and you'll notice

that Reader has a very different approach from any

of the other plugins or tools that I've talked about.

Instead of trying to timestamp it to the video

it just leverages the fact

that YouTube already creates automatic captions.

And so that's what it's showing you here.

We can still play the video here

and you can then see as you're watching the video

the words that the person is saying get highlighted

which incidentally is pretty awesome

for language learning as well

although I've only tried this with English so far.

But you can also just pause that

and if you would prefer to read it

or maybe you already watched it

but then you just want to be able to highlight some things

in the text version

then you can use all the usual Reader shortcuts.

So if you wanted to highlight this entire paragraph

you can hit H and the entire thing is highlighted

but if you just wanted like a part of it

so maybe just that part, then that's fine too.

And then I can also add a note.

I've saved that.

And then I'll just add another one here as well

because it's ready in Readwise Reader

and there is already a Readwise

official Obsidian plugin that I have.

Then I just have to either wait for that plugin to sync

I think I've got it set up to do it every hour

or I can just manually sync it

and see what it looks like in Obsidian

which is what I'm gonna do right now in Obsidian.

I'm going to the Readwise official plugin settings

and then there's an initiate sync.

So see how it automatically resins every hour

but I don't wanna wait.

I wanna show you right away.

So I'm just waiting for that to sync.

All right, Readwise Inc.

Has been completed.

Now let's see what it looks like.

So performance testing using Playwright

and it's under articles.

So I'm going to open that up and I'll put it side

by side so you can compare it a little bit with the others.

So this one was you note on the left

and now on the right, this is what Readwise brought in.

So the advantage of this is that it has all

of the metadata that Readwise usually brings in

all of which is customizable.

By the way, these are things that I put

for how I like to do things.

They're still the URL here

so you can still go to the YouTube video

but the highlights here are going to be the text highlights.

So the disadvantage of this Readwise approach

is that it's text only.

So if you were hoping to like get a timestamp

to the exact moment where you took that highlight

then you're not going to be able to do that

at least not right now.

But in most cases

I find myself using Readwise Reader anyway

after I've already watched the video.

So I watched the video and then as a note

to myself to maybe investigate further,

I might share it to Reader if I'm on my mobile

or I can just click on the browser extension

like I showed you if I'm on my laptop.

Another thing that makes Readwise such a compelling choice

for taking notes on videos

is that they're pretty quick to jump

on the latest trend of cool things that have come out.

For example, they did like an experiment on bionic grading

and recently they announced

that they're jumping on the whole AI train.

That is all the craze these days

but their implementation is actually useful

and it's called Ghostreader. For example,

This is that video that's in Readwise Reader still.

I'm going to hit command K to open up their command pane.

So it's Commander Control P in Obsidian

but Commander Control K in Reader.

And I'm going to type ghost Reader

and there is a keyboard shortcut for invoking ghost Reader.

It's shift G.

So after you invoke it

then you need to decide what you want it to do.

This time I'm going to say summarize the document

and you'll see that little ghost in the corner there

and then it'll say GPT added to highlight.

Then when you go to Notebook here

you'll have your highlights

but then also there's this nice little summary.

It says, playwright is a no JS library that enables

developers to create automated tests of web applications.

This is actually pretty good.

I have no idea how it actually does it

especially since the captions weren't that great.

This is just the automated Google captions,

and yet it was able to do a pretty good job

with the summary.

So that's the summary.

Let's try something else like generate

thought-provoking questions.

Again, it'll say GPTs added to the document note.

And when we scroll up

it has some good questions to ask yourself

while you're watching a YouTube video.

Like, what are the advantages of using playwright?

What challenges do I need to be aware

of and what resources are available?

These are actually pretty legitimate questions.

This is a more technical one.

Here's another type of video.

This one is by Zsolt Viczian,

who is the developer of the Obsidian,

Excalidraw and ExcaliBrain plugins.

And this is one about his book

on a page for the Visual Thinking Workshop cohort

that I recently joined.

And I'm going to enable Ghost Reader here.

I will also ask it to summarize the document

and then maybe I'll generate Q

and a pairs based on my highlights.

Let's see what it does.

So it does come up with a summary here.

"Emergence" is a book about the power

of complexity in our lives and the world around us.

But I see that my attempt to create question

and answer pairs have resulted in this error.

Take some highlights and try this prompt again.

So let's just go down and take some highlights here.

So now I have highlights, they're here as well.

And then I'm going to do shift G

and then generate Q and A pairs again.

So it looks like, despite the highlights

I wasn't able to make the Q and A pairs work.

Let's see if I can do some of the other ones

like generate thought provoking questions.

Okay, that worked well.

What is the definition of emergence?

What are the key ideas and themes discussed in the book?

Those are pretty good.

I would also wanna try the ask the document a question.

This is going to be really difficult.

I don't know how well it's going to do

but let me try anyway.

What does it mean to be self self-organizing?

Ghost Reader is an AI reading tool that works best

when the user asks a specific targeted question.

Okay, so this is really good because instead

of just saying, "Sorry, don't know".

It actually asks a better question

that it might be able to answer.

So let's try that.

What are the three elements

of self-organization outlined in the text?

Ghost Reader says critical mass

so that it can make intelligent assessments

high number of random encounters

and identifying patterns in the science.

Okay, well, that's actually pretty good in this way.

You can use Readwise Reader

as a bit of a short form for videos.

If you don't know short form,

it's like a service that you can use to quickly screen

out books that you don't wanna read.

You get summaries, but also nuanced commentary

on books that help deepen your understanding

of even the books that you choose to read

and also help you read out the books that maybe

aren't really worth the effort to read.

So I kind of look at Readwise Reader

as a way to do the same with YouTube videos.

I mean you don't really have to watch the entire thing

to already be able to ask it to summarize things.

This doesn't necessarily even have to make it

to your Obsidian vault.

So those are five different ways that you can take notes

on YouTube videos in Obsidian,

which ones do I use?

I still kind of use three of them

depending on the circumstance.

When I'm on my laptop, I usually have an external monitor

so I'm not hurting for screen real estate.

So it doesn't matter if I have to have this side pane

And in that case, I use timestamp notes

because I can also use keyboard shortcuts

and be able to take notes while I'm watching the video.

But if I'm on my mobile or on my tablet, maybe

I usually just send it to Reader and worry about it later.

I kind of use it as a watch it later service.

No, Readwise is usually called a read it later service

but sometimes I can get really lost

in a YouTube rabbit hole if I'm not careful.

So I just use that as a way to like send it off

and then not have to watch it right then and there.

And then I also really like that I have the text there

which means that it's infinitely more searchable.

So I am finding myself gravitating towards the

Readwise Reader option.

It's only been out for I think about two weeks

and I'm thinking that that probably will be the most

commonly used option for me in the future.

But I'm imagining that there's some things that it's not

gonna get right.

Not every video on YouTube has captions,

and not every video that has captions has usable captions.

It's one of the reasons why I actually pay to

get my videos captioned so that it can be translated

into other languages.

But I'm thinking that if I come across something like that

then I might still use something like,

you know to take my notes.

It seems like it wasn't so long ago

that everything on YouTube was like

a cat video or a compilation

of golden buzzer moments or something.

I mean, there's still that corner of YouTube

but I actually find myself

on YouTube more and more to really learn.

YouTube has become one of my primary ways to learn

about science, travel, software engineering.

So having a way to extend the learning

and bring some of those insights from let's face that

otherwise mindless YouTube binges over into

my personal knowledge management system is essential for me.

If you'd like to know more about Readwise Reader

check out this video that I did just after it was launched.

More features have been added to it since then,

like for example,

being able to take notes from YouTube videos.

But the basics are the same.

Thanks for watching.

Agora Estou Em Portugal!