I think the problem here is that Veritasium these days now covers popular (possibly overrated) science-y topics rather than actually interesting (but not so popular) science content to stay on the radar. It’s about the covered topic, not the quality.
Knot theory, entropy and maze solving are things most people don’t know about though. If this critique is pointed at the Oppenheimer video because there was a popular movie then I would say that it’s ok to talk about something trending if most of his videos are relatively niche.
I think you hit the nail on the head. I’m fairly knowledgeable in the natural sciences, but I still used to learn a lot from watching his videos. These days, more often than not my reaction is just “well thats obvious”. It reminds me of the MythBusters episode when they shot a ball out of the back of a moving truck, and when they confirmed the ball dropped without moving, Carrie just sarcastically said “Yay we did vector addition…”
I think the problem here is that Veritasium these days now covers popular (possibly overrated) science-y topics rather than actually interesting (but not so popular) science content to stay on the radar. It’s about the covered topic, not the quality.
Knot theory, entropy and maze solving are things most people don’t know about though. If this critique is pointed at the Oppenheimer video because there was a popular movie then I would say that it’s ok to talk about something trending if most of his videos are relatively niche.
I think you hit the nail on the head. I’m fairly knowledgeable in the natural sciences, but I still used to learn a lot from watching his videos. These days, more often than not my reaction is just “well thats obvious”. It reminds me of the MythBusters episode when they shot a ball out of the back of a moving truck, and when they confirmed the ball dropped without moving, Carrie just sarcastically said “Yay we did vector addition…”