That’s what a forum is for.
I’d usually start with easily digestible content like YouTube videos or ChatGPT. At this point, I’m not too concerned about the correctness of the information. It mainly gives me vocabulary that I can then look up for further reading along with the perspective of one or two individuals. That might be all I care about, and if so, I’d stop there and go on with my day. If I want to dive deeper, I’ll look up textbooks and papers on the topic, or any other relevant primary sources. Basically do a light literature review.
Three used to be these buildings full of books that I could just borrow for free.
Love books and huge fan of libraries but how do you find the right book in the ocean of books?
“Don’t you know the Dewey decimal system?”
Sorry, stupid reference. In seriousness though, type in a topic into your library’s search and start browsing, check out a few that seem useful.
I’m an academic and I find my University’s library useful for finding knowledge on a new topic. If an introductory textbook exists on the subject, can be a good starting point.
For Most hobbies though, youtube is a great resource. I’ve gotten into woodworking and fishing, and youtube is a superb resource for information.
Ask the librarian nicely and they’ll probably be able to point you in the right direction. Cataloguing information is kind of their thing, and helping people get access to that information is why many of them join the profession.
Just sit at the library for a while, sit near the shelf that has the topic you’re interested in and grab a few books at a time and go through them to see if any seem like the right book
Ask a librarian.
Instructions unclear, dick stuck in card catalog. Send help, preferably a hot librarian.
Franz is here to help you, little man. Bend over and breath deeply. It will all be over in fifteen to twenty minutes.
I was taught in school how to use the library catalog. It was considered essential, for success in life, at the time.
I actually do know how to use Dewey Decimal, if I haven’t forgotten.
In these modern times, there’s generally a PC near the information desk, with the browser home page set to a library catalog search tool, specific to that library.
And as someone else mentioned, we can ask the librarian for help, when we don’t find what we need. I actually shortcut the process and ask for a quick lesson in how to use the search, if I’m feeling uncertain.
Isaac Asimov wrote books on a wide range of topics.
Start with him
I post my ignorant opinions somewhere. There’s always someone who will correct me with correct information.
The life of the shitpoaster.
But for real comment section can be very useful to learn if you are willing to do it.
There is generally somebody knkw who’s what they are talking about. Just got to figure out who.
Reddit had so much fluff and moderation as if they didn’t want you to find good info.
I post my ignorant opinions somewhere. There’s always someone who will correct me with correct information.
Not always.
(see what I did there)
Ah yes, Moore’s Law
It’s Poe’s law
I think you mean Cole’s Law
Would you say Poe is cunning, and likes ham?
Reading papers and contacting people in that field. I’ve found that university professors can especially direct you to materials in their field, and even like to chat about it sometimes. Half of my book collection was found this way.
My first stop is always Wikipedia. The rest of the internet is a minefield.
You have to set a goal of what you want to understand and why you want to understand it, then read accordingly. If your goal is to know the usual number of eggs laid by a bird because you are trying to identify one from its nest in your yard, sure just read some Wikipedia and maybe read its sources. If you need to understand a broad topic in the social sciences in order to do your job or organize politically, well sucks yo be you, you need to spend months to years getting a handle on the various schools of thought and approaching them humbly and critically, reading many books.
The same way as topics in my field of expertise, of course.
YouTube.
Follow up question: how do you find actual good and trustable channels on a specific topic?
Not the other guy but I learn a lot of high quality information of YouTube. The golden rule for me is longer-form video is generally higher quality. People that know what they’re talking about typically aren’t going to explain complex things in 30 seconds, or at least not to the depth you should understand it.
Aside from that, I look for people with actual qualifications first. Example, I love psychology so I will look for psychologists, licensed professional counselors, and so on. I’ll even listen to life coaches, but more selectively.
The lower on the “chain” they are, the more I will do “spot checks” on information and see if they know what they’re talking about (ESPECIALLY if they’re making big or new claims about something). For that I’ll look into peer-reviewed studies and such for that.
Once you get a small knowledge base it’s a little easier to continue. Talk something you have a clue about, and watch a video with that topic from another content creator.
Do all of this for a while and you’ll find what you need to.
I’m going to think about that and get back to you. I think it’s mostly intuitive, based on many years of experience, but I’m not sure at this point.
I also have to mention that I was half joking. I don’t use YT all that much for my profession. I would, but it’s just not entirely relevant.
Youtube comments can be strangely helpful here, sometimes. If there’s a lot of “akshually” comments on every video, it may be a sign the youtuber is full of it. Not always true, but anything helps. Can also look up the youtuber’s credentials as well.
You know that channels can curate which comments they have visible on their videos? Mostly this is used to silence hateful comments, but it’s just as easily abused to remove all differing points of view.
If all the comments agree, you’re probably in a curated bubble.
I forgot about that. Good catch.
I skim the Wikipedia page on whatever topic is being discussed and pretend to be an expert.
sci-hub and annas-archive
I want to be less reliant on Wikipedia and Google Scholar, but in truth I still use them a lot
Why do you want to be less reliant on Wikipedia?
Wikipedia editors are petty and incredibly biased. Start reading the talk pages, especially on controversial articles, and your opinion on Wikipedia’s objectivity will rapidly plummet.
Also, it’s a bit like reddit: you find yourself learning so much about new topics, until you start reading about things you have actual expertise on, and you realize the people writing this shit are uninformed idiots, and, when you try to fix the information, the petty nerds who control it revert your changes and ban you.
Curious about this one too
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Centralize anything and it will be ruined bubthe regime
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Wiki is already under a lot of pressure as is due to be as central as it is. There were rumors of them being under US Security service supervision so how good can it really be and where is it going to go now
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So you directly read papers on those topics? I tried doing that but I feel it requires a huge amount of background
I am not the person you are replying to.
I read a lot of papers and it is hard if you don’t have background knowledge of the subject. If it’s something I am really interested in, then I will dive deep, if it’s not I will probably let it go when I get to the point where I no longer grasp what’s being said.
Youtube u gotta get the widest set of opinions possible. Unfortunatly peertube just lacks content.
for what kind of topics?
I repeat what I said to the other commenter: how do you find actual good and trustable channels on a specific topic?
Go with people who are willing to use their real name, a lot of times it’ll be in the channel description, or sometimes in a channel trailer or intro video. Sometimes in an interview some other outlet/creator has done on the content creator. Then google that real name and check their work history and education credentials. You can usually find a LinkedIn. If they’re a proper academic, their university will usually have a brief page on them on the official university website. If they’re an alumni, they can sometimes be found in an alumni list, various class lists, or publicly accessible projects they worked on, though not always. Work history often cannot be as easily verified, but sometimes can be if you dig a little. Depends on field.
It’s not too different from what you’d do if you wanted to hire someone to work for you in a small business or something.
Once you have a significant knowledge base yourself, you can start to use the sniff test, though that’s always far from perfect. Less time consuming though.
Finding a trustworthy source is the hardest part. I generally avoid anyone speaking too loudly of the subject. Someone who’s knowledgeable and confident, most times, can present calmly with context that’s accessible to most people.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a good example. He’s a good place to start for a broad range of topics. Then if I want more details I can dig deeper on my own. A lot of times, his commentary requires digging deeper because he speaks too broadly.
I always check the source of a report or article; if there is no source, I don’t trust it. The source is usually a good place to ‘bookmark’ for further research.
Trying to learn from ‘youtubers’ seems like asking for trouble.
Lectures posted on youtube etc. are different I suppose.
I highly disagree with looking for the widest set of opinions. Some opinions are stupid and/or baseless and just muddy the conversation (that’s part of how you get screaming talking heads on cable news shows).
Personally I look for those with expertise who speak to their expertise. Just because someone has an advanced degree in one field does not mean their opinions in other fields are worth listening to. Also, I do a gut check. If is smells like BS, such as unfounded blanket statements or it seems like they’re pushing/selling something, I look into their qualifications a bit more or find someone else.
Watch and read as much youtube and article as possible, and try to join a discussion with open mind.
I’d caveat that with watch reliable well researched channels and not pop-sci or even god forbid pseudoscientific, or pseudo-intellectual channels that seem helpful but are actually BS wrapped in foil.
Any of the PBS science channels are typically good for science.
How money works, Wendover, are great for Economics stuff.
The engineering mindset, practical engineering are great for engineering related stuff.
What would you say of History of the Universe and History of the Earth?
History of the Universe,
There’s probably good stuff on SEA, Astrum, PBS Spacetime? even Cool Worlds. To a lesser extent perhaps even John Michael Godier or Isaac Arthur have lots of good information because even though they are Sci-fi channels, they do hard sci-fi, so all based on established science and astronomy.
History of the earth(geological),
PBS Eons, Sci Show, History of the Earth,
History of the earth, (anthropological) North 02
Well you see I’m a major GEN er alllllllllllll
But seriously Wikipedia, YouTube guides, enthusiast forums. Usually try to read from multiple sources
With lyrics.
A review paper from a reputable journal. The Annual Reviews series was great for this. Some of the Nature journals also used to run mini-reviews associated with research papers in the issue.
For lesser known subjects, a literature review in a dissertation works. It at least gives you a list of papers to review.
