The thing about the things you and I love is that they are very specific. Like, sure, I love science fiction and pretty-but-weird girls, but simply typing “science fiction” into YouTube is not, I think, the path to getting at things you love. That type of vaguery is like going to a Starbucks and asking for “a hot drink”. Except worse (lol), because YouTube options run into the billions where there are, at most, 20-40 base options at any given coffee shop.

OK, so, without much further ado, here’s the hack:

1. Get a list of your favorite L1 or L2 books. If in doubt, look at your Amazon purchase history or Kindle Library. Or just look on your bookshelf, if you own paper books. The books you own and/or have paid money for are the most honest expression of your true interests. We don’t always put our money where our mouth is, but wherever our heart is, that’s where our money is.
   • Put another way, there is more truth in our spending habits than in our words or even our self-perception — economists call these “revealed preferences”, as opposed to declared preferences, which tend to be vague or even outright false. For example, according to Thomas Sowell, declared working hours and church attendance in the Southern United States literally do not add up to the objectively calculable totals.
   • Closer to home, I like to think I read and watch mostly serious content online but my actual Internet history is an utter intellectual embarrassment.
   • Further afield, many people who sincerely think they eat healthily actually don’t.
   • Anyway, back on topic!
2. For the L1 books, find the L2 titles. For the L2 books, just go with whatcha already got.
   • Example L1 book: [Amazon.com: The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (9780307473349): Michio Kaku: Books] amzn.to/2FzP3Tj
   • Example L2 title: “2050科幻大成真：超能力、心智控制、人造記憶、遺忘藥丸、奈米機器人，即將改變我們的世界 The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind” [博客來-2050科幻大成真：超能力、心智控制、人造記憶、遺忘藥丸、奈米機器人，即將改變我們的世界] goo.gl/n2giiC
   • Example L2 book: “全部的你：跳出局限，擁抱生命無限的可能（增訂版）” [博客來-全部的你：跳出局限，擁抱生命無限的可能（增訂版）] goo.gl/y2pt1k
3. Type said titles (or, if they’re unique enough and you’re feeling adventurous, the names of their authors) into the YouTube search box.
   • Protip: Generally speaking, you’re best off searching for a book’s title but minus its subtitle (so, the stuff after the colon, right?). My feeling is that this goes without saying, but you never know. Not everybody automatically has the same level of Google-fu ¹.
4. ???
5. Profit and enjoy!
   • BTW, this hack also works for movies. The idea isn’t necessarily that you will find dubs or rips of your favorite movies, but that, as with books, you will find review videos and related content. And that (in many ways) is even better than simply finding the raw, original content. Metacontent will teach how to discuss and explain the content you love (and, by extension, anything else you want to discuss or explain).
     • For example, I found this weird and awesome Korean AI sci-fi movie: [(22) 故事2：機器人成佛 – YouTube] by searching the Chinese title of a beloved Michio Kaku book: 2050科幻大成真 (full title: “2050科幻大成真：超能力、心智控制、人造記憶、遺忘藥丸、奈米機器人，即將改變我們的世界 The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind” [博客來-2050科幻大成真：超能力、心智控制、人造記憶、遺忘藥丸、奈米機器人，即將改變我們的世界])
       • Actually, 「機器人成佛」 is a turrible example because it was a video that resulted from a book search. A better example would be this:
       • L1 Titles: Black Panther, Blade Runner 2049
         • Unfortunately, Upstream Color doesn’t have much about it in Chinese or Japanese, which is too bad, because Shane Carruth is easily one of the top 5 greatest living filmmakers on the planet, in this and any other timeline ². I just wish the brother would make more films, but he probably just has exacting standards for himself.
       • L2 Titles (Japanese): ブラック・パンサー、ブレードランナー 2049
       • L2 Titles (Chinese): 黑豹、銀翼殺手2049
       • L2 YouTube Search Results (that were worth a darn):
         • [(24) 【銀翼殺手2049】我愛 故我在【影評|半瓶醋】 – YouTube] goo.gl/to2o4d
         • [(24) 黑豹電影 – YouTube] goo.gl/qZj5RZ
         • [(24) 【町山智浩映画時評】メチャクチャ面白くて深い映画『ブラックパンサー』 – YouTube] goo.gl/M7d9AX
         • [(24) 【宇多丸】ムービーウォッチメン『ブラックパンサー』2018年3月10日 – YouTube] goo.gl/BhgE7y
   • Also, since we mentioned food (well, Starbucks), searching the L2 names of your favorite foods and drinks (again with great specificity) will likely bring up some recipe and review vids, which are almost always awesome 😛 .