Introduction
On this article, I stroll by means of the inspiration, design, and performance behind TL;DW (Too Lengthy; Didn’t Watch) — an AI-powered studying device designed to assist college students digest long-form YouTube instructional movies shortly and effectively. Whether or not you’re getting ready for a certification examination or attempting to make sense of prolonged tutorials, this app is constructed to avoid wasting you time whereas serving to you perceive and retain key ideas.
The Story Behind TL;DW
Whereas getting ready for my AWS certification examination, I got here throughout numerous YouTube movies the place instructors walked by means of the total syllabus — however many of those assets have been between 7 to 12 hours lengthy. As a graduate pupil juggling a demanding schedule, I didn’t have the time to take a seat by means of such prolonged content material, not to mention take detailed notes or quiz myself on the fabric.
Initially, I started typing out notes manually whereas watching these movies, then looked for on-line quizzes to check myself, and used GPT to grasp the proper and incorrect solutions. This made my research course of extra time-consuming and tedious. Nevertheless, the repetitive and guide nature of it sparked an concept: What if there have been an software that would automate all of this?
That concept grew to become TL;DW — a light-weight, student-focused studying help designed to assist customers shortly perceive, retain, and take a look at data from instructional YouTube movies.
Whereas constructing the appliance, I centered on a number of key functionalities:
- Rapidly summarizing the video to seize the core message
- Producing a concise overview of the fabric mentioned
- Producing a listing of key subjects and subtopics coated within the video
- Creating interactive quizzes to bolster understanding
- Providing a strategy to discover associated content material and deepen comprehension
- Offering entry to the total transcript for simple reference or quotation
Above all, I wished the app to be easy and intuitive, in order that customers may focus completely on studying — not determining how you can use the device. TL;DW was constructed with college students in thoughts: environment friendly, centered, and optimized for energetic studying in a time-constrained world. For the needs of demonstation we’re going to be utilizing this video: Prompt engineering essentials: Getting better results from LLMs | Tutorial
Abstract
This tab is devoted to producing a transparent and concise abstract of the video content material utilizing the transcript. Behind the scenes, the appliance makes API calls to the Gemini giant language mannequin (LLM), leveraging immediate engineering strategies to information the mannequin in producing a high-quality abstract.
The prompts are rigorously crafted to make sure that the abstract not solely captures the important thing subjects mentioned within the video but additionally presents them in a conversational and accessible tone. The purpose is to ship a paragraph that’s simple to learn and perceive — no matter how advanced the unique content material could also be.
By simplifying the language and structuring the abstract for readability, this function helps customers shortly grasp the principle ideas with out having to observe the whole video. As proven within the instance above, the generated abstract is each easy and efficient in conveying the core message of the video.
Key Subjects
The Key Subjects tab offers customers with a structured breakdown of the principle subjects and subtopics mentioned within the video. Whereas the abstract presents a high-level overview of the video’s central message, this part capabilities extra like a digital be aware sheet — a concise, hierarchical define that helps customers perceive the content material stream in higher element.
This function is especially helpful for college students preferring visible group of knowledge or want a fast reference for revision. It eliminates the necessity for guide note-taking throughout the video and reduces the chance of rewatching content material solely for documentation functions.
Customers may also deal with this as a cheat sheet: a compact, screenshot-friendly reference that may be saved and reviewed later to bolster key ideas and guarantee comprehension. By surfacing the structural stream of knowledge, the Key Subjects tab enhances retention and helps extra environment friendly research periods.
Quizzes
The Quiz tab is likely one of the core options of this software, designed to assist college students reinforce their understanding of video content material by means of energetic recall and evaluation. The target is to permit learners to check themselves on the ideas offered within the video and to obtain speedy suggestions — reworking passive watching into energetic studying.
When the person clicks the Generate Quiz button, the appliance creates a set of ten multiple-choice questions derived straight from the video transcript. Every query contains 4 reply choices, and customers can choose their responses interactively. Upon submitting their solutions utilizing the Grade Quiz button, the appliance evaluates every response, highlighting right and incorrect decisions.
To help deeper studying, every query is accompanied by a short clarification, serving to college students perceive why a selected possibility was right and why the others weren’t. This eliminates the necessity to manually analysis each query and accelerates the suggestions loop for learners.
The quiz interface additionally offers a last rating, giving college students a quantifiable measure of their understanding. Customers have the pliability to reattempt the identical quiz by altering their solutions and receiving an up to date rating, or they’ll generate a completely new quiz with a contemporary set of questions for continued follow.
By gamifying the educational expertise and enabling repeated self-assessment, this function encourages college students to have interaction extra deeply with the content material and solidify their grasp of the fabric over time — all at their very own tempo.
Full Transcript
The Full Transcript function was designed to handle a standard ache level confronted by many college students and researchers: the necessity to quote or cite content material straight from a video. Previously, this usually required manually transcribing video segments or copying captions from the platform — a course of that was time-consuming and inefficient, particularly for long-form content material.
With this function, the appliance mechanically transcribes the video and presents the total textual content in a scrollable, searchable interface. Customers can conveniently use capabilities like Ctrl+F to find particular segments throughout the transcript, making it simple to repeat, reference, and cite precisely.
Past quotation, this function additionally helps various studying types. As an example, some college students profit from studying alongside whereas listening to a lecture — a technique proven to enhance retention and engagement. The transcript may also function a basis for college students to take customized notes or compile concept-based summaries for later overview.
As proven within the picture above, the transcript is displayed in a clear and accessible format, making it easy to learn, scroll by means of, and interact with alongside the video.
Associated Movies
This part was designed to assist college students shortly discover supplementary content material associated to the subject material of the unique video. Customers can merely enter one or two key phrases representing ideas they discovered unclear, and the appliance will mechanically seek for associated movies throughout the similar topical context.
Throughout my very own certification research periods, I usually discovered myself spending hours trying to find clarification on particular subjects. The method required not solely efficient search expertise but additionally endurance, as general-purpose search engines like google would ceaselessly return irrelevant outcomes. For instance, trying to find the time period transformers would possibly yield outcomes about films or electrical gadgets fairly than the machine studying mannequin.
The Associated Movies function solves this downside by utilizing giant language mannequin (LLM) capabilities to first infer the overarching topic space from the transcript, after which refine the key phrase search inside that context. This ensures that the returned outcomes are academically related and straight aligned with the person’s studying targets.
By mechanically surfacing the highest three associated YouTube movies, this function streamlines the search course of and saves helpful time — doing a lot of the contextual filtering and curation on behalf of the scholar.
TL;DW was constructed out of an actual want — the necessity to be taught quicker, smarter, and with higher flexibility in a world overflowing with long-form video content material. What started as a private resolution to streamline my AWS examination preparation has grown into a flexible studying device that may profit college students, professionals, and lifelong learners alike.
By combining the facility of huge language fashions with intuitive design, TL;DW automates and enhances the educational expertise: summarizing dense video content material, extracting key subjects, enabling interactive self-assessment, and surfacing associated supplies — all from a single YouTube hyperlink. The purpose has all the time been to cut back friction and improve focus, so learners can spend extra time partaking with content material and fewer time managing it.
Time is the scarcest useful resource, and until it’s managed, nothing else will be managed — Peter Drucker
TL;DW embodies this precept by serving to customers reclaim their time — turning hours of video into environment friendly, significant research periods. As AI continues to reshape how we work together with data, instruments like TL;DW exhibit what’s doable when cutting-edge know-how meets sensible instructional challenges. This undertaking is a step towards a future the place studying is extra accessible, environment friendly, and customized — and the place even the busiest pupil can benefit from each minute.
See the appliance working in motion with a brief demo on Youtube.
hyperlink to demo: https://youtu.be/VYV_lgn4dSI
