Do You Prefer Learning From Videos or Articles?

[Kiya]

Hi everyone,

I was thinking about how people usually learn new things online. Some people prefer watching YouTube videos because they can see everything step by step, while others like reading articles or guides because it’s easier to go at their own pace.

Personally, I use both. If I want a quick overview, I watch a video. But when I really want to understand something properly, I usually read articles or forum discussions.

What about you? Do you learn better from videos or written content? And why does that method work better for you?

Curious to hear different opinions.

[gizmola]

When I started out as a developer there really wasn't any video learning content, so I got used to reading books and manuals, and eventually reading material online.  I've been at this a while, so many things have changed.  

I have learned things using courseware, for the most part on Udemy, but I also still read books, if they come highly recommended.  With that said, the amount of quality material available for learning PHP on sites like youtube, laracasts and symfonycasts is incredible, and you have options to subscribe or not.  

Of course the primary ingredients for me, is a combination of good and efficient note taking habits, along with practical exercises (actually coding up exercises myself,  using my own variable naming and methods) and application of what I've learned, in order to build things I want or need.  At this point I'm learning about things in order to apply them in my work. 

For people who aren't professional developers, it's important to build some projects of your own.  I built things early on, purely for my own use, or to use with hobbies I had at the time.  Without actually building something, you will never confront problems the learning material doesn't cover, or find out how to debug and work around what a book or tutorial didn't teach you.