The YouTube Tricorder: Tools, Skill, and the Audacity of Potential

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What types of videos do you like to watch on Youtube?

It’s wild how ingrained YouTube has become—not just in pop culture, but in our everyday lives. I think I’ve started taking it for granted. To some, it’s just an app; to me, it’s a constant resource. I watch such a variety of content that I hardly give it a second thought—if there’s something I want to know or see, I just open the app.

Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Rebuilding Rob: the podcast

Yeah, I went there. When I decided to start Season Two of my podcast earlier this year, I made the choice to create video versions of each episode. While I don’t appear on camera, I produce a slideshow to accompany the audio, consisting of actual photos and AI renderings. Never let it be said that your favorite blogger misses an opportunity for a shameless promo!

Trek Actually – Steve Shives

This is where I discovered the work of Steve Shives. Trek Actually is a monthly series where Steve answers questions or explores specific themes within the Star Trek franchise. One of my personal favorites is his deep dive on why Nog is actually a great character. Beyond Trek, he also does great reaction videos regarding the current political arena and other comedic series that I’m still exploring.

How-to videos – various creators

Maybe it’s because I’m a guy in my 50s, but instructional videos are my “must-have” YouTube category. Over the years, I’ve fixed my air conditioner, various car issues, my washer and dryer, and even the toilet—all because I found the right “how-to” guide.

Incidentally I wrote on this same topic exactly one year ago today. I didn’t even realize it until I was putting the final touches on this draft. However, I am surprised to see that I went from just a casual consumer to an actual content creator myself. Check out last year‘s post and the link below:

My YouTube viewing habits

The Tool vs. The Skill

I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, but I really wonder how we got by without this. I think about my dad a lot. He knew a good deal about cars, but what he learned, he learned out of necessity. He was providing for a family of five on a cop’s salary; back in the 70s and 80s, you did the work yourself because you had to.

If he were alive today, given how tech-savvy he became in his second career with digital photography and video editing, I think he’d be using YouTube to repair everything or build things from scratch.

But therein lies the problem—not just with YouTube, but with social media and AI in general. They are tools. They make life easier, and they make hobbies like podcasting incredibly. fun to learn. However, as a society, we’ve started replacing the actual skill of fixing a leaky faucet with the skill of searching for a video about it.

I see it at the school, too. Many kids will use AI to generate an essay rather than doing the research or flexing their creative muscles to produce something unique. YouTube is a window to the world, but we have to make sure we’re still willing to step through the window and do the work ourselves.

Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Whether I’m 900 days into a streak or reflecting on the decade of posts that led me here, the mission remains the same. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint behind the rebuild

Today’s post is inspired by the WordPress Daily Prompt. While I’ve taken the topic in my own direction for the Road to 1,000 Days, you can find more responses to today’s prompt HERE .

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AI art created with Google Gemini

The article “The YouTube Tricorder: Tools, Skill, and the Audacity of Potential” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob