My first video on YouTube

Today I published my first YouTube video. It is a brief introduction to quantum computing in Persian.

The reason I started doing it is mainly to practice presentation skills and telling coherent stories based on the information I possess. I also imagine that this could lead to creating a community of people interested in the same topics.

This first video took me more than 15 hours to prepare! It was mostly because I had many failed attempts. From the early stage of deciding what presentation platform to use (PowerPoint, Notion, web browser, or even writing live on iPad) to figuring out how to sew together short clips into a bigger one, each step needed a bit of experimentation. The hardest part for me, though, was convincing myself that a piece was good enough so that I could move on to making the next one.

I’m happy about this event for a few reasons. Firstly, I have been thinking about publishing videos based on the things I know and I’m interested in for quite a while. To actually sit down and get it done from 0 to 100% is very different from just planning it in my head and imagining how it could or should look. Now it finally happened, and that imagination has taken form. The fact that it took a certain form brings me to my second reason. Now the direction to continue further is a bit clearer. I wrote in an earlier post about how making decisions can be hard and how existing momentum in some direction can help make them easier. Before starting, I had all these routes in my mind about what kinds of things I could talk about. Now I have gained a certain momentum, and at least I know what I want to say and what makes sense to say in my second video.

The last reason I’m happy about this event is avoiding stagnation. Planning something, watching videos on how to do it, and imagining yourself doing it can be very pleasant and fulfilling. The problem is that this can go on for a while before you realize that nothing has actually happened. That’s why I think taking the first step forward by making something is an important milestone.

I hope that I keep on experimenting with this route and that it actually helps me feel a difference in the skills I seek to improve.