I honestly think there's an opportunity to create a YouTube channel that literally does nothing more than explain how X makes money, whether it's a VC firm, a Subway franchise, a toothpaste manufacturer, etc.
As someone with an entrepreneurial tick but not someone who's gone all in it would be so helpful to have edu videos that just explained the basic business model of XYZ.
NPR has a podcasts that interviews founders and how they got started, how they made money (likely they didn't, at first) and how they continue to be better than everyone else. It's called How I Built This.
Do you have a strong preference versus learning this from videos versus other potential form factors, like a podcast or e.g. glossy coffee-table book or less-glossy "this essay times N" book?
It’s clear that there are lots of people that disagree with me but I have a terrible loathing for the YouTube video where someone looks at the camera and talks at you.
Are other people getting a lot out of facial expressions or something?
I don't feel quite as strongly as you, but I generally agree. I don't mind if the person is picture-in-picture-style in one of the corners, but I really would rather see something useful on the screen vs. just the person talking to me.
I feel the same way as the parent, and I would say I have a strong preference for Video. I wouldn't need crazy production value, even if you just did something Khan-Academy-style and wrote down terms and showed diagrams of how some of this works it would help me a lot. I found your article pretty interesting but also pretty overwhelming since I'm not fluent in this area.
My next preference would be something like base.cs (https://medium.com/basecs) where, similarly, you at least define terms and draw some diagrams. I find it much easier to follow this stuff when there's something to look at with relations etc.
While I love podcasts, I find learning anything like this pretty much impossible by listening to them. This is partially because it's harder for me to always follow the concepts just by listening, and partially because I'm usually only somewhat engaged (I'm exercising, or driving to work, etc.).
But, maybe I'm also not your target audience, because I have far too basic an understanding of this stuff, so take it with a grain of salt.
For those of us who don't have a strong preference - what sources would you recommend? I prefer reading but when it comes down to it, I'll take any form factor if the information is good.
There’s a similarish channel called Company Man. I treat it as purely entertainment, because I have no idea what the credentials of the dude are, but it’s fun.
As someone with an entrepreneurial tick but not someone who's gone all in it would be so helpful to have edu videos that just explained the basic business model of XYZ.